Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

Crusty Jocks

Jesus, my nephew who is 14 has watched the first two episodes and thought it was great, had good chats with him about it. He was really looking forward to the third one. Watched last nights episode 3 and it fairly knocked the wind out of me and I wouldn't be particularly squeamish about much. Not sure any of those images should be in any 14 year olds head no matter how hardy they are. Having a word with his folks about it is not something I want to do either.

Dial Hard

Crusty Jocks wrote:

Jesus, my nephew who is 14 has watched the first two episodes and thought it was great, had good chats with him about it. He was really looking forward to the third one. Watched last nights episode 3 and it fairly knocked the wind out of me and I wouldn't be particularly squeamish about much. Not sure any of those images should be in any 14 year olds head no matter how hardy they are. Having a word with his folks about it is not something I want to do either.

I think 14 is a perfectly fine age to watch this. It happened, it's part of history, the programme isn't glorifying anything. I'd have a bigger problem with him watching gratuitous fictionalised violence, tbh.

Gimme A Pound

Crusty Jocks wrote: »

Jesus, my nephew who is 14 has watched the first two episodes and thought it was great, had good chats with him about it. He was really looking forward to the third one. Watched last nights episode 3 and it fairly knocked the wind out of me and I wouldn't be particularly squeamish about much. Not sure any of those images should be in any 14 year olds head no matter how hardy they are. Having a word with his folks about it is not something I want to do either.

Warn him maybe? Yeah I can't stop thinking about those poor guys.

GrumPy

Crusty Jocks wrote: »

Jesus, my nephew who is 14 has watched the first two episodes and thought it was great, had good chats with him about it. He was really looking forward to the third one. Watched last nights episode 3 and it fairly knocked the wind out of me and I wouldn't be particularly squeamish about much. Not sure any of those images should be in any 14 year olds head no matter how hardy they are. Having a word with his folks about it is not something I want to do either.

He's 14... He's seen ALOT worse than acute radiation sickness burns, trust me. :pac: (former 14 year old)

2smiggy

Crusty Jocks wrote: »

Jesus, my nephew who is 14 has watched the first two episodes and thought it was great, had good chats with him about it. He was really looking forward to the third one. Watched last nights episode 3 and it fairly knocked the wind out of me and I wouldn't be particularly squeamish about much. Not sure any of those images should be in any 14 year olds head no matter how hardy they are. Having a word with his folks about it is not something I want to do either.

they are a few seconds away from a lot worse on their mobile phones !!

Crusty Jocks

Thought it has been excellent by the way and agree with not sugar coating history but it's so well made it's all the more disturbing. Affected me so I'm just trying to think of it from a 14 year olds perspective.

Gimme A Pound

GrumPy wrote: »

He's 14... He's seen ALOT worse than acute radiation sickness burns, trust me. :pac: (former 14 year old)

I shudder to think what could be a lot worse than the depiction of a man literally decomposing (more to it than burns).

And you don't know what that lad has seen. Think you should speak only for yourself if you watched worse stuff than that. :eek:

I'd say he'll be grand though, Crusty. 14 is old enough for such reality. The age when people start to learn about how harsh life can be for many.

ASOT

valoren wrote: »

Favourite part was the miners passing by the Minister of Coal and dusting up his pristine suit. His reactions going from "Ah here...ah stop....oh well....I asked for it....carry on...."

"Now you look like the minister for coal"

Loving it so far.

sc86

the damage this must have done to the earth

when you see tds crying about co2 emissions from cars now and global warming , youd wonder where this ranks

GavRedKing

Disappointed its such a short run because what they've served up so far has been fantastic.

Its so tense and gripping and the ambient noise and sound track make it so deep and ominous.

In the 2nd episode, even though I knew about the divers and the history of it, it felt like you were only waiting for a jump scare, like in a horror movie, they've really built this up very well and havent really pulled any punches.

I've the 3rd episode to get to later but after seeing some of the visuals of the episode and the survivors in the Moscow hospital, it looks grim, I cant wait.

PhilOssophy

sc86 wrote: »

the damage this must have done to the earth

when you see tds crying about co2 emissions from cars now and global warming , youd wonder where this ranks

TD's crying crocodile tears you mean.....

PhilOssophy

The big mistake they made was not having an intro episode portraying their lives, the lead up to the test, etc. They could have set the scene better.

errlloyd

PhilOssophy wrote: »

The big mistake they made was not having an intro episode portraying their lives, the lead up to the test, etc. They could have set the scene better.

Based on the podcast interviews episode 5 may give a background on some of the characters. I think it'll be more a look at the pressures the men at the top were under and the background to the test etc.

He fully justifies not giving background too. He wanted to start with the suicide because he figured people were gonna google it anyway, and then start with the explosion because there was no point making people sit around and wait for what they knew was coming.

Gimme A Pound

Yeah my personal opinion is there wasn't a need for character development - it's not that kind of show. It's about the effect on society, humanity, the bigger picture rather than individuals.

Anteayer

It's remarkable how much times have changed. The advent of global communications have made it impossible for that level of control of information.

Modern Russia certainly couldn't achieve that level of control and I would doubt that even China could, unless they completely shut down the telecommunications network in a whole region and even then it might get out by satellite phone.

Low Earth Orbit Satellite will go a step further on that again

Fourier

PhilOssophy wrote: »

I'm not a nuclear physicist, but I did study physics in college, and read a book on the disaster a few years ago.

My understanding is as below, and I am 100% open to contradiction!

......

I hope this is something of an explanation!

Nothing to contradict just expanding a bit.

The type of reactor in Chernobyl is an old Soviet design that uses graphite to moderate it and water to cool it. "Moderate" in the context of Nuclear reactors means slow neutrons down enough to let them split the nucleus of the uranium atoms. Fast moving neutrons essentially fly through Uranium without splitting it. So "moderating" is needed to keep the reaction going. Just mentioning this as the word "moderate" sounds like it slows the reaction, where as really the Graphite moderator is part of keeping it going.

The water as mentioned cools the reactor core, it also poisons the reaction. Poison means it absorbs neutrons so they can't be used to split Uranium, thus slowing down the reaction. So just bear in mind that the water is both cooling the reactor core and controlling the pace of the reactions.
If you need to really slow down the reaction there are control rods made of a material very good at absorbing neutrons. They are suspended above the core and are inserted by automatic systems if temperatures get too high.

They were trying to test what would happen if there was a power cut (or failure). The pumps which were providing water to the reactor core would cut out in the event of a power cut. They were trying to test if the turbine could continue to provide power to the pumps (thus keeping the reactor core cool) while the backup generators were started up.

So the reactor was slowly de-powered as the time of the test approached. Unfortunately midway through the depowering they got a call to not reduce any further due to a smaller power station in the Kiev region failing. The grid needed Chernobyl to pick up the load to compensate and this meant the test could not proceed until nightfall.

The night-shift team were then ordered to rapidly decrease power production in order to complete the test. The test would not be possible for another year at least if not completed by the morning. The rapid decrease and human errors while carrying it out caused a build up of Xenon in the reactor. Xenon is an extreme reactor poison and rapidly slowed down the reaction so that power dropped to minimal levels.

In response to this the control rods were completely removed to allow the reaction to speed up. However the xenon build up meant even with this done the power levels were minimal.

This is when things really went wrong. You have a hot reactor being cooled by lots of water that boils into steam and rushes out of the core. At high power this boiling is very fast and the cycle of steam and water runs through the reactor quickly. At low power the less violent boiling means the flow of water is much slower. This means that any steam bubbles hang around inside the core for longer.

This is where we get the "Positive Void Coefficient" you mentioned. "Void" is just an absence of the cooling material. If your coolant is water the voids are steam bubbles. However remember this reactor is not only using water to cool it, but also using it to slow the reaction. Steam doesn't absorb neutrons as well as water, so any steam bubbles/voids means more neutrons survive to continue the reaction. Steam bubbles cause an increase in power, this is what is meant by "Positive Void Coefficient".

So now that they were at low power these steam bubbles started hanging around in the core. Suddenly thanks to the bubbles the reaction started getting faster and power increased. Of course this meant that the steam bubbles should start to move out of the core quicker but the power increase happened very fast before the water could really get moving.

Suddenly the reactor begins to climb enormously in power. Normally the control rods would stop this, but they had been removed earlier to get the power up again in response to the Xenon poisoning. In the time it took the rods to descend from the ceiling the core had begun to melt and actually distorted into a shape that blocked the rods.

At that point the reaction went so out of control the temperature was enough to evaporate all the water in the core causing a steam explosion. Now there was no water, just steam. So the reaction got more powerful until it caused the core to explode. This second explosion is the one that released all the radioactive material by blasting some of it into the air and the rest caught fire giving off radioactive smoke.

Crusty Jocks

Fourier wrote: »

Nothing to contradict just expanding a bit.

The type of reactor in Chernobyl is an old Soviet design that uses graphite to moderate it and water to cool it. "Moderate" in the context of Nuclear reactors means slow neutrons down enough to let them split the nucleus of the uranium atoms. Fast moving neutrons essentially fly through Uranium without splitting it. So "moderating" is needed to keep the reaction going. Just mentioning this as the word "moderate" sounds like it slows the reaction, where as really the Graphite moderator is part of keeping it going.

The water as mentioned cools the reactor core, it also poisons the reaction. Poison means it absorbs neutrons so they can't be used to split Uranium, thus slowing down the reaction. So just bear in mind that the water is both cooling the reactor core and controlling the pace of the reactions.
If you need to really slow down the reaction there are control rods made of a material very good at absorbing neutrons. They are suspended above the core and are inserted by automatic systems if temperatures get too high.


So the reactor was slowly de-powered as the time of the test approached. Unfortunately midway through the depowering they got a call to not reduce any further due to a smaller power station in the Kiev region failing. The grid needed Chernobyl to pick up the load to compensate and this meant the test could not proceed until nightfall.

The night-shift team were then ordered to rapidly decrease power production in order to complete the test. The test would not be possible for another year at least if not completed by the morning. The rapid decrease and human errors while carrying it out caused a build up of Xenon in the reactor. Xenon is an extreme reactor poison and rapidly slowed down the reaction so that power dropped to minimal levels.

In response to this the control rods were completely removed to allow the reaction to speed up. However the xenon build up meant even with this done the power levels were minimal.

This is when things really went wrong. You have a hot reactor being cooled by lots of water that boils into steam and rushes out of the core. At high power this boiling is very fast and the cycle of steam and water runs through the reactor quickly. At low power the less violent boiling means the flow of water is much slower. This means that any steam bubbles hang around inside the core for longer.

This is where we get the "Positive Void Coefficient" you mentioned. "Void" is just an absence of the cooling material. If your coolant is water the voids are steam bubbles. However remember this reactor is not only using water to cool it, but also using it to slow the reaction. Steam doesn't absorb neutrons as well as water, so any steam bubbles/voids means more neutrons survive to continue the reaction. Steam bubbles cause an increase in power, this is what is meant by "Positive Void Coefficient".

So now that they were at low power these steam bubbles started hanging around in the core. Suddenly thanks to the bubbles the reaction started getting faster and power increased. Of course this meant that the steam bubbles should start to move out of the core quicker but the power increased happened very fast before the water could really get moving.

Suddenly the reactor begins to climb enormously in power. Normally the control rods would stop this, but they had been removed earlier to get the power up again in response to the Xenon poisoning. In the time it took the rods to descend from the ceiling the core had begun to melt and actually distorted into a shape that blocked the rods.

At that point the reaction went so out of control the temperature was enough to evaporate all the water in the core causing a steam explosion. Now there was no water, just steam. So the reaction got more powerful until it caused the core to explode. This second explosion is the one that released all the radioactive material by blasting some of it into the air and the rest caught fire giving off radioactive smoke.

Fascinating, if you don't teach I hope you do at some level sometime because you have a talent at explaining very complicated things in very understandable language which i suppose is what a very gifted teacher does. Thanks again...

gmisk

I have seen 2 episodes.
This show is utterly fantastic, so gripping the acting is also superb.

PhilOssophy

errlloyd wrote: »

He wanted to start with the suicide because he figured people were gonna google it anyway, and then start with the explosion because there was no point making people sit around and wait for what they knew was coming.

I clearly didn't get the memo, considering I thought it was Dyatalov who commit suicide

Great explanation by Fourier above, with a username like that he's surely a maths teacher!

cozar

Zaniyah Gigantic Caricature wrote: »

Yeah my personal opinion is there wasn't a need for character development - it's not that kind of show. It's about the effect on society, humanity, the bigger picture rather than individuals.

agree with that, its that aftermath that's important in the storytelling and this is being told really well.!

heebusjeebus

Zaniyah Gigantic Caricature wrote: »

Jesus Christ I felt sick.

And when they didn't show the last guy and Emily Watson's character couldn't hold in her upset... When she told Jared Harris later that the poor man's face was gone, it makes me think she must have been looking at a talking skull.

Shuddering...

Was that the engineer who stared into the exposed reactor? Jesus, that's a terrible way to go.

yermandan

Jesus Christ, I'm not the better for watching that 3rd episode. Don't think I'll ever be able to eat a lasagne again

Sittingpretty

yermandan wrote: »

Jesus Christ, I'm not the better for watching that 3rd episode. Don't think I'll ever be able to eat a lasagne again

:eek:

The Specialist

yermandan wrote: »

Jesus Christ, I'm not the better for watching that 3rd episode. Don't think I'll ever be able to eat a lasagne again

The wife referred to him as the "margherita pizza man".....and I liked pizza

2smiggy

yermandan wrote: »

Jesus Christ, I'm not the better for watching that 3rd episode. Don't think I'll ever be able to eat a lasagne again

wish i did not read that, i used to love lasagne

Hector Savage

Hector Savage wrote: »

No, HBO made her character up to implement 2019 PC nonsense on the show.

Such a shame, factual dramas should stick to the facts, even if they are uncomfortable to our 50/50 equality of outcome utopian society.

And I'm out of this thread until its over.... sometimes its better to take in a piece of work rather discussing minute details as its ongoing

illdoit2morrow

Just an FYI and i don't have Sky Atlantic, therefore, i can't confirm if this is how they broadcast the show.

On the stream i watch, there are two small segments after the credits roll where the producers give an insight into the episode in a little more detail.

someone asked about the Emily Watson character in an earlier post, in one of the post segment shows, they discuss that she was not an actual character but a representation of scientists dealing the the diaster at the time. The same segment after the last episode discusses the Russian coal miners and their power at the time.

Melodeon

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

On the stream i watch, there are two small segments after the credits roll where the producers give an insight into the episode in a little more detail.

There are full 45-50 minutes podcasts released after each episode, which are very interesting too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeHPCYtWYQ

pedatron

Melodeon wrote: »

There are full 45-50 minutes podcasts released after each episode, which are very interesting too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeHPCYtWYQ

The podcast discussion after each episode makes the experince even better for me. Normally clears up any bit I may not have understood or misunderstood. I would almost say it's essentual listening for the show.

gauralordon

Chernobyl currently the best rated show on IMDb. 9.6 rating. Currently at #1 on top 250 TV.