Notes
Episode 1
- The good radiation measurement device is in the safe.. so they underestimate how bad things are cuz all the other ones max out at a certain level.
- Leaders quick to mention who was where when and who was responsible (without always directly saying it). “I was running the Chief Engineer’s test as he approved.” “Well naturally deputy so and so was in charge at the time.”
- “The reactor is gone!” “This man is delusional, just like the last guy.”
- “Our faith in Soviet socialism will always be rewarded.” The state says things are not dangerous, so have faith comrades!
- When people ask questions that are not in their best interest, they should simply be told to keep their minds on their labor and leave matters of the state to the state.
Good lines:
What is the cost of lies?
Not looking for heroes, but looking for someone to blame
Side note: watching this same time as reading department of truth and coming across degrasse tyson’s video about objective truth.. all things in conversation with each other about objective/subjective truth and storytelling and narratives.
Episode 2
- “Our power comes from the perception of our power.”
- The fact we were this close to a much more massive disaster, if they weren’t aware of the water tank being full problem and causing a thermonuclear explosion that renders entire cities like Kiev and minsk uninhabitable for a century, and people all the way to germany impacted etc. Millions and millions and millions doomed and many more affected.
- The fact that, while this was all happening, the other 3 reactors were still in operation???!!!
Episode 3
- Bad-ass miners
- KGB
Episode 4
- Can’t send robots or remote-controlled machinery to push graphite off roof pieces back into reactor and cover it.. too much radiation that burns/melts all the circuits. It’s called the most dangerous place on earth… 12,000 rontgens that you could survive for about two minutes and then you lose half your life.
- They actually get a robot from West Germany that’s supposed to be able to handle all the radiation, but it dies immediately. Why? Because the Soviet Union told them the radiation was 2,000, not 12,000. They were saving face and trying not to be humiliated.
- So, what’s the answer?
- “Bio-robots… men.” Absolutely nuts.
- 90-second sequence on the roof just to move one or two pieces and that’s it.. you’re done.
- Pushing the reactor to its limits + a flaw in the shutdown process if the rods are completely out and then put back in = increase in reactivity and explosion.
- It’s a known flaw from ten years ago but was deemed a state secret because the might of the soviet atomic/nuclear industry was beyond reproach.
- “you have to expose them and force them to fix the ten other reactors we have like this.”
- “You want him to humiliate a nation that’s obsessed with not being humiliated? No, we make a deal with the KGB.”
- “We live in a country where children have to die to save their mothers.” (referring to fireman’s wife who gave birth to a baby that died four hours later. The radiation would’ve killed the mother originally if not for the baby which absorbed it all).
- Tell the truth or hide it? This will happen again, but will anything change by your bravery? Phyrric victory because they absolutely will deny you and will not fix anything.. And you will be shot or imprisoned as well as all your loved ones.
Episode 5
- Human problem
- certifying the plant early (in order to win accolades) when there was a safety test not done, and in fact, failed each time they ran it afterwards. The test required the plant to be at a certain power level. The plant itself and having graphite-tipped control rods instead of regular ones all choices made because it was the cheaper option… USSR doing nuclear power cheaply instead of safely basically.
- delay in doing a safety test meant a shift that had no clue what to do
- delay also meant there was a buildup of xenon that didn’t burn away as it normally would have had the plant been running at full power… this causes an imbalance. And the power drops far lower than expected.
- With xenon poisoning, and with an immediate order to bring the plant power up from the low low amount it is, they remove all the other checks that were in place.
- Then they run the test anyways, with no checks, with power too low for the test
- ”… they mistakenly sent the one good man. For god’s sake boris, you were the one that mattered the most.”
- Science in Soviet Union.. no religion in the USSR, so science took its place? And scientists embraced that and some became very egotistical and powerful/power-seeking.
- Divers still alive, the woman had a baby after all that
- Why did his death actually spur things on and no the trial? Why was his memoirs in combination with his death the catalyst that gave everyone the courage to start speaking up?
- The suicide of a mostly true-soviet-believer was not something that happened and couldn’t be repressed? I guess in part because he was the face of soviet science at vienna and around chernobyl stuff.
Gorbachev has been quoted as saying that the real reason the soviet union collapsed was because of Chernobyl.
- it cost so much to fix things and they didn’t expected it (obviously) and didn’t have the money.
- it exposed the worst kind of soviet lie to the world.