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Chernobyl

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Whew... powerful stuff. Just watched the 5th (and final) episode of the HBO mini-series "Chernobyl." Shocking, depressing, and gripping. Beautifully done; wonderfully written; great acting. More to the story than I knew (and I thought I knew a lot). Worth watching. "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt will be repaid."
Animal-lovers will not want to watch Episode 4.
 

NutmegCT

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Thanks for the recommendation. I've wanted to see that for many moons, but so far not available on Netflix.

There are probably many other stories that tell what we never knew ... check out: Schlosser, Eric. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. New York: Penguin, 2013.

A friend of mine is a former missile site officer (1970s). Oh the stories he can tell ...
 
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From the submarine side....stories are epic.
Begins with "USSR had no care about human life".
K-19 was one. The Russkies got our reactor design via espionage, but the SHIELDING was not woth the effort to get. We got "hazardous duty pay", they got "sterility pay".

Earlier boats (cold war) no mess decks, small (big as your bathroom) galley, tray of food, find a place to eat.
Showers? We don't need no stinkin' showers.

Reactors? Dump 'em off Vladivostok and wonder why there are NO fish any more.

Refuel a nuke boat in drydock, no procedures, nobody in charge, remove the top of the containment vessel via crane without step-by-step securing the rods DOWN....rods come up, ooops...super critical, no way to fix it.
Filled the drydock with concrete, MAYBE in 200 years they can finish the job.
 

DrEntropy

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The Russians have played fast-n-loose with nuclear fission since Claus Fuchs gave away the farm. Same old question: "Who would give a six-year-old a loaded firearm?"
 

waltesefalcon

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I watched that when it came out, riveting stuff and very well done.
 
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The Russians, particularly in the soviet era, just could admit they'd done something wrong, much less be open about it and fix their mistakes. For all our other problems western style societies tend to be open in finding, discussing and attempting to fix most problems that occur from poor planning and procedures. Maybe not as fast and open as some would like, but not like the silence and denials that have come from others in the past.
 

NutmegCT

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Reminds me of a Soviet -era joke.

Factory worker explains: "We have a simple and efficient system. We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."
 
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The Russians, particularly in the soviet era, just could admit they'd done something wrong, much less be open about it and fix their mistakes. For all our other problems western style societies tend to be open in finding, discussing and attempting to fix most problems that occur from poor planning and procedures. Maybe not as fast and open as some would like, but not like the silence and denials that have come from others in the past.

The bureaucracy in the Soviet era was thick, deep and dreadful. This series certainly captures it (as well as the KGB being everywhere).

Supposedly, Gorbachev said that Chernobyl marked the end of the Soviet era (but that it took another 3 years for the wall to come down in Germany).
 
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Just found the official trailer (it's also good):

 
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Excellent (Tom). Thanks.

This is the real deal... documentary. Fascinating to see the REAL footage of those guys on the roof shoveling highly radioactive graphite (to dump over the side); this was well-portrayed in the mini-series.
 
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Fascinating story of the Babushkas of Chernobyl - mostly women who refused to leave or illegally returned. The power of place and home.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/29/babushkas-of-chernobyl-film-nuclear-exclusion-zone

Nice (sad) story. They do cover this in the mini-series, but imply that nobody could stay. There's even a gruesome scene about it in the show.
It certainly makes sense to stay if one was elderly... but there would be no infra-structure, so they'd have to be totally self-sufficient.
 

glemon

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I just finished watching, that is the best bit of television I have seen in a long time. As I get older I enjoy reality based shows and movies more, even if they embellish a bit. The efforts and sacrifice made to contain after the disaster is amazing.
 
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I just finished watching, that is the best bit of television I have seen in a long time. As I get older I enjoy reality based shows and movies more, even if they embellish a bit. The efforts and sacrifice made to contain after the disaster is amazing.

I immediately went on-line to see if there were opinions about accuracies, and the places that were inaccurate were:
a) mentioned in the credits (like the woman physicist being intended to represent many concerned scientists)
b) were picky things that didn't detract... a few for dramatic affect.
All in all, most felt they did an extraordinary job.

Gads, can you imagine what would have happened if nobody objected to the initial government positions?!
 
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