Organizations like Greenpeace place the number much higher (93,000), but their estimates are arguably elevated for political reasons. Add to that the 100,000 to 200,000 terminated pregnancies that were largely the result of fear (rather than fact), and the sensationalism in both Hollywood and the media becomes far more troubling.Turning nuclear power into a horror movie villain might terrify audiences and make for good entertainment, but it's far from the Chernobyl true story. Yet, they dug the tunnel believing it was absolutely necessary. Like in the miniseries, following the explosion of Chernobyl's Reactor Number 4, they first tried using two Soviet STR-1 lunar rovers to remove the radioactive debris from the two lower level regions of the rooftop. A Soviet scientist would not have traveled to Chernobyl uninvited or took it upon themselves to investigate the accident. Chernobylhas become one of the most talked about TV series of the year and fans are keen to know how accurate it is to the actual events and which bits were made up for television. The producers of the mini-series "don't sanitise the disaster", Fountain wrote, but in some cases have gone too far, such as with the images of injuries caused by radiation exposure. Much of the miniseries focuses on the heroic scientists, specifically Legasov and the fictional Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson), trying to discover what caused Chernobyl's Reactor Number 4 to fail. The USSR had a history of training females for STEM positions.Like Valery Legasov (and Ulana Khomyuk in the miniseries), some of the other scientists who worked on the Chernobyl problem spoke out against the Soviet Union's official account of events. The skin either looked brown like a suntan or red like a deep sunburn. Each biorobot brought to Chernobyl could shovel radioactive debris for a total of approximately two minutes before they would reach their lifetime limit for radiation exposure. Mazin and the other producers did an amazing amount of research as the prepared to make the miniseries and it shows, but of course, not everything is 100% accurate. "Tell me how a nuclear reactor works or I'll have one of these soldiers throw you out of the helicopter." His book describes how the investigation into Chernobyl began almost immediately on several fronts. But to adapt the story … He would have worked in an office at the factory. No. a plant worker asks early in the miniseries. June 3, 2019. Depending on their total exposure, some of the men chose to go out on the roof more than once. The black smoke was caused by the roof fires which were extinguished on basically the first night. There are other survivors who watched from the bridge and offer similar accounts as to what they saw. A view of Chernobyl’s unit 4 reactor from the abandoned town of Pripyat. It was named Slavutych. Citizens of Belarus and the Ukraine were "exposed to doses slightly above natural background radiation levels," states the WHO. Though there is evidence that the real Dyatlov was hoping for a promotion, he is largely a fictionalized villain. The nurses and doctors are adamant about her not seeing her husband for fear that she could be affected by the radiation. "I have watched a lot of gore and horror, but this takes it over the top. HBO's Chernobyl begins with the introduction of Valery Legasov, the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. Is HBO's Chernobyl historically accurate? A quick Chernobyl fact check reveals that in real life, Legasov wasn't present at the trial. The show's creator, Craig Mazin, says that the photo is what inspired their fictional friendship in the miniseries. He then commits suicide in his … As with any historical depiction on film, writers and creators must make changes for the sake of drama, and Chernobyl was no different. The other three reactors continued to operate after the accident. By using a character that audiences were already familiar with to explain what happened in a very basic way, it was much easier to digest the information. Russians have pointed out that the glassed-in balconies and insulated dual-pane windows visible in scenes of Pripyat would not have existed there in 1986, but that's likely more a constraint of the shooting location than a deliberate error. The official website for Chernobyl, the Emmy and Golden Globe winning miniseries on HBO. It appears that science has once again gone out the window in favor of dramatization. However, the real Legasov was assisted by dozens, if not hundreds, of scientists who worked on the problem of Chernobyl. "I'm in a full blown panic," wrote Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Sarah Todd after watching the first episode. At his desk, the apparatchik then pours himself a glass of vodka from a carafe. -RT NewsIn the miniseries, we see a biorobot stumble as he's coming in from the rooftop. That miniseries will likely never be made. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built between 1970 and and 1983, and located in the then-Soviet controlled Ukraine, 68 miles north of Kiev. This is also a smart decision, because everyone understands that this is a dramatic recreation and there is no reason to get bogged down in distracting accidents. However, it's unclear whether anyone got their foot caught or fell into a puddle. Most of the artistic liberties taken by Chernobyl’s creators were cleaned up and explained in the epilogue, but this urban legend remained. This reflects the HBO series' general failure to accurately depict the significant divisions between different socioeconomic classes in the Soviet Union. However, the lava never reached the pad. Disregarding the images that have clearly been Photoshopped, many display the effects of other diseases and conditions that people have blamed the Chernobyl disaster for. What's not shown in the miniseries is that Nikolai Fomin had a mental breakdown before the trial and he attempted to kill himself. From the production to the writing to the acting, it is unquestionably a great watch. HBO's five-part series Chernobyl is a compelling drama about one of the world's worst nuclear accidents. This has been a frustrating bone of contention for critics of the show. There was a public trial and most of the facts of that trial are correct on the show, but there is some serious dramatic license taken here too. Legasov is shown recording tapes of the true account of what happened at Chernobyl - tapes that have been used to further understand the events that followed the fire - as a way to combat the failed cover-up by the Soviet Union. Given that thyroid cancer has a very low mortality rate of just one percent means that only 50 to 160 people will likely die from thyroid cancers caused by Chernobyl (of course, this doesn't mean that we should ignore the thousands who have suffered from Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer and survived).According to the United Nations findings, the total number of long-term deaths expected from Chernobyl is approximately 4,000. They were then sent away from Chernobyl. There was a real-life meeting between the Deputy Minister of the Mining Industry and the Tula miners, which took place on May 12, 1986. An estimated 700 tons of radioactive graphite had been blown around the plant during the explosion. Illustrated | Liam Daniel/HBO, AP Photo "We live in a time where people seem to be re-embracing … The Oxford review found that research that does show an increase in birth defects fails to include "data about confounding risk factors such as maternal alcohol intake and diet." Of course, if you type "Chernobyl birth defects" into Google, you'll find plenty of troubling images and websites that display them. Nor would they have found themselves in the presence of Mikhail Gorbachev at the Kremlin not long after. She recalls the harrowing experience in Svetlana Alexievich's Nobel Prize winning book. No, and thankfully, the miniseries clarifies this in its epilogue. Before you were Deputy Secretary, you worked in a shoe factory." Built in 1970 to house the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Soviet authorities ordered the city be evacuated 36 hours after the test on Chernobyl's Reactor Number 4 went awry, causing the reactor to explode. The trial was heavily compressed for the film. Even the miniseries' writer and creator, Craig Mazin, said that there were varying accounts of how many articles of clothing actually came off, in addition to the number of miners who took off clothing. This is one of the worst stereotypes in the HBO Chernobyl miniseries (the other being the ever-present KGB). This isn't to say that Chernobyl deaths weren't tragic, not to mention the health consequences, but in reality, nuclear accidents haven't been all that deadly.The Chernobyl miniseries attempts to arouse our fears, in part by playing on the fact that nuclear disasters remind us of nuclear bombs. Legasov had been working as head of the laboratory at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. There is no strong evidence that Chernobyl led to an elevation in birth defects. This is, of course, a common thing that happens in dramatic adaptations. -The New York Times. The HBO miniseries Chernobyl, which recently wrapped up its five-episode run, has been met with widespread acclaim and praise from critics and viewers. No. Many of them were imprisoned for their outspokenness. The United Nations report attributes 31 deaths directly to the disaster. Tours into the Exclusion Zone, including to the ghost city of Pripyat and the Chernobyl plant itself, can be arranged through travel agencies. The exposure to limited amounts of elevated radiation during the tours is considered safe. What's not shown in the miniseries is that Legasov had attempted suicide prior and recovered in the hospital. Breus admits that Dyatlov was strict but says that he was "still a high-level professional." However, his specialty was inorganic chemistry, and though he was well-versed in the chemistry of radioactive materials, he was not an expert on the function of the RBMK Nuclear Reactor. -ForbesTo put things into perspective, the most severe energy disaster was the 1975 collapse of the Banqiao Hydroelectric Dam in China, which killed between 170,000 and 230,000 people. In the miniseries, Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) repeatedly warns Soviet politician Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) that the radiation will shorten his life. "He gave us 24 hours to gather our belongings," says miner Vladimir Naumov (, Lyudmilla Ignatenko did lose her husband and four-hour-old baby. A fleet of 1,200 buses carried more than 49,000 people out of Pripyat never to return. The details on the actual fatalities caused by the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident are legendarily unreliable. However, it is likely that the number is significantly less than the HBO miniseries would have us believe.In people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 20,000 have been documented as developing thyroid cancer (some due to drinking milk contaminated with radioactive iodine). This is fictional. The series was created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. After that (you can look up satellite and site photos of the accident) the burning reactor was only releasing a thin white vapor. Russian journalist Alexander Kots, who is well-informed on the disaster, says that the miners working in the buff while tunneling under the reactor is fiction.In researching the true story behind the Chernobyl miniseries, we learned that the miners' work was for nothing. Similar films like 1979's The China Syndrome helped to fuel paranoia over the safety of nuclear energy, which contributed to the halting of the construction of nuclear power plants and the burning of more fossil fuels instead.Since nuclear power is an abundant, low-carbon source of energy, studies have calculated that 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths to date have been prevented as a result of using nuclear energy. HBO's Chernobyl is great television. The Guardian interviewed former Pripyat resident Pasha Kondratiev in 2016. This intense scene is misleading in relation to the Chernobyl true story. Instead, Watson’s character is a composite of dozens of Soviet scientists who worked in Chernobyl in the aftermath of the accident. According to Midnight in Chernobyl author Adam Higginbotham, Soviet scientists "were well aware of the faults of the RBMK reactor years before the accident" and "reactor specialists came down from Moscow within 36 hours of the explosion and quickly pinpointed its probable cause." Finally, the Chernobyl Podcast features creator Craig Mazin talking about the fact vs. fiction in the show. Author Andrew Leatherbarrow, who spent five years researching the disaster for his book. It's true that a helicopter crashed, but it happened over five months later on October 2, 1986. In addition to not being at the trial, he never raised his voice at Gorbachev, nor did he openly challenge the top brass of the KGB. He is shown threatening his underlings into carrying out the test, all because he wants a promotion. After the miniseries aired, Reuters reported a 40% increase in tourism to the Exclusion Zone. Today, the stories about The Bridge of Death are widely considered to be more urban legend than fact, in part perpetuated by the odd tourist industry that has sprung up in the Exclusion Zone.What we know from a simple Chernobyl fact check is that not every single person who watched from the bridge died from radiation poisoning. Contain the spread of misinformation. They faced similar denunciation as Legasov, in addition to arrest and imprisonment. HBO’s TV version only scratches the surface, she says. No. In real life, how it affected their health would have depended on how long each resident remained outside watching and how much radioactive debris was actually reaching them during that time. Why? This creates a great deal of tension that is largely fictional. They had been assigned to dig out an area under the concrete pad so that a heat exchanger (refrigeration unit) could be installed that would cool the space above it using liquid nitrogen. It is impossible to know to what extent his death was the result of radiation, but General Nikolai Tarakanov, who was in charge of the liquidators and knew Shcherbina "very well," said that Shcherbina "exposed himself to large doses of radiation, being the head of the government commission" (RT News). Khomyuk's gender, however, is somewhat realistic. Yes. No one leaves. That's a good message to include to set the record straight for all the Chernobyl viewers. No. Copyright © 2020 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media. The 62-year-old said that on the day of the Chernobyl accident, he and his wife Natasha, along with daughters Marina, 10, and Tatiana, 12, walked to the bridge to get a better view of the plant. "Is it war? Many of those scientists, like Ulana in the show, were the first to speak out against the dangers that the reactors like the ones in Chernobyl were dangerous. They wouldn't have gone around threatening to kill everyone as they attempted to deal with the Chernobyl disaster. It is far easier for audiences to follow one character than dozens and it provides a way for writers to keep the story succinct. Author Michael Shellenberger, the president of Environmental Progress who also writes about energy and the environment for publications like The New York Times and Forbes, says that nuclear disasters like Chernobyl are fictionalized because in reality they kill a relatively small number of people when compared to other man-made disasters. That’s in one gram. No. Had Craig Mazin, the show’s creator, stuck with the exact story, the show would have been dry, complicated, and boring for most people. Our fact check confirmed that the real Valery Legasov hung himself on April 26, 1988, two years after the Chernobyl disaster (his body was found by his son on the 27th). The short answer is: not much. After it appears to slow and possibly malfunction, its blades hit a chain dangling from a crane, which sends it crashing down. They're covered in a cloud of radioactive ash and dust that is blowing their way. Chernobyl has been a critical success on HBO, we spoke to experts in the nuclear industry about how accurate the show actually was. -The New Yorker. The initial fear of birth defects became so bad that women who lived in areas that were subjected to low levels of Chernobyl radiation terminated 100,000 to 200,000 pregnancies in a panic. After the Soviet Union finally acknowledged the potentially fatal design flaws in the RBMK reactors, the remaining reactors were retrofitted to help ensure that a disaster like Chernobyl would never happen again. "I need someone to explain to me how it is at all okay to live on the east coast when this is the situation." -Chernobyl PodcastWith this perhaps being the biggest deviation from the Chernobyl true story, it's evident that Legasov wasn't the martyr figure that the miniseries makes him out to be. He responds, "Yes, I worked in a shoe factory. Soviet scientists spent several years working to raise awareness about the reactor's design flaws, which led to the Chernobyl disaster. The Chernobyl true story exposes the fact that Donald Sumpter's character, Zharkov, is fictional. Ulana Khomyuk, played by Emily Watson in Chernobyl, is not based on one real person, unlike most of the other main players in the story. Luckily, the show is not and the dramatic license is used tastefully and respectfully. He would have been calling home to his wife and family while he was at Chernobyl, but they're entirely omitted from the story.From various aspects of the clothing, such as the rivets in the firefighters uniforms, to the vehicles and their license plates, the miniseries is meticulous in its historical accuracy with regard to such details, minus a few. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chernobyl is a 2019 historical drama television miniseries that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed. We knew it was something terrifying." The Soviet press simply said that he passed away after "a serious illness" (Express.co.uk). In the miniseries, Pripyat residents gather on the bridge, which is roughly a kilometer away from the plant, to watch the clouds of smoke and rays of blue ionizing light beaming into the sky. Most notably, Jared Harris’ character, Valery Legasov, was not actually at the trial and did not present the damning evidence that convicted the men responsible for the failed test that caused the explosion and meltdown. His big moment in court in the miniseries is fiction. No. The first time audiences see this aspect is when Lyudmilla goes to the hospital to see her very sick husband, Pripyat firefighter Vasily Ignatenko, who is dying from severe radiation sickness. Some of the people living at higher elevations, who are exposed to the most bullets, like residents of Colorado, actually live longer. It's been praised for its production, it's writing and the performances by the cast. Rather than worry about the actors using accents that could be poorly done or hard to understand, they decided to just use the natural accents of the actors, for the most part. We're told at the end that Boris Shcherbina died at age 70 on August 22, 1990, four years and four months after he arrived at Chernobyl. "Nuclear power plants emit no carbon dioxide and have been statistically safer than every competing energy industry, including wind turbines," notes Adam Higginbotham, author of Midnight in Chernobyl. Eventually, Soviet officials were left with little choice but to acknowledge the risks posed by the RBMK nuclear reactor. -Forbes. -BBCTo a large degree, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was the result of a rotting political system composed of mostly pliant men and women, who ignored precautions and blew up a reactor because they were more concerned about adhering to a system based on lies and deceit, than they were about protecting the people. Yes. Henry Fountain, a science writer on the Climate desk of The New York Times, toured the Chernobyl plant and the exclusion zone around it in 2014. None of the men served a complete sentence, in part due to health reasons. But as with all drama based on a true story, how much the Chernobyl is historically accurate? A short time later, they watch as a helicopter assigned to drop a mixture of sand, clay and boron heads over the reactor. Yes. The idea that a Soviet citizen would have spoken out against the state in that manner in a Soviet court is entirely far-fetched.At the IAEA Chernobyl post-accident review meeting in Vienna in August 1986, Legasov did present a somewhat candid and detailed assessment of the circumstances and consequences of the accident, but he failed to reveal his complete findings and placed most of the blame on human error coupled with poorly designed reactors. It made for great drama in Episode 1, but should have been cleared up at the end. However, in exploring the truth about Chernobyl, we learned that radiation doesn't do that. 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