[Rockslide]

How is showing the catastrophic consequences of nuclear power fear-mongering? I mean the stuff which is depicted in the series literally happened, and a lot of it / most of it actually exactly as depicted. How is that fear-mongering? It's the reality.

But whenever the topic of nuclear comes up here on HN, and there is only the slightest mention of the risks, there is always someone shouting about fear-mongering...

[jimrandomh]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/09...

"In the first episode of “Chernobyl” the nuclear reactor explodes, blows the top off the building, and catches on fire. The plant workers vomit, their faces turn red, and several appear to die.

We see a plant worker in his twenties hold open a door to the reactor hall and various parts of his body start to bleed. He rescues a comrade with a red, blistered, and bloody face, and appears to leave him for dead in a hall. Later we see the man slumped over and smoking what appears to be his last cigarette.

Later, the plant manager who was in denial about the accident becomes violently ill after he learns the true scale of the disaster. As he leaves for the hospital, we see a fireman who is carrying a body on a stretcher collapse and drop the body.

I was left thinking that dozens of workers and firefighters were immediately killed, but according to the official United Nations report (p. 66) on the accident, just two workers, not dozens, or hundreds, were killed within a few hours of the explosion."

[IfOnlyYouKnew]

> "I was left thinking that dozens of workers and firefighters were immediately killed"

That's the main problem with this argument: they were "left with an impression" that just isn't supported by the actual episode. The episode actually undersells it: even though there were 2 (official) deaths, none are actually shown.

> [..] appears to leave him for dead in a hall. Later we see the man slumped over and smoking what appears to be his last cigarette.

So they notice they wrongly considered someone to be "left for dead", then immediately make the same mistake again?

> we see a fireman who is carrying a body on a stretcher collapse and drop the body.

Injured people just happen to be often carried on stretchers without being dead. Dropping off a stretcher is less common, but also not fatal.

Everything that was shown quite plausibly happened. Here's a list that's more current than the 1988 UN report: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_di...

Dozens of people suffered severe radiation burns, which would appear exactly as gruesome as despicted: "from 115 patients treated in Moscow, 30% had burns covering 10–50% of body surface, 11% were affected on 50–100% of skin"[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_burn#Nuclear_acciden...]

[atombender]

Not sure this refutes anything, since the episode doesn't show anyone immediately dying from radiation sickness. They all died in the weeks following the explosion. Wikipedia has a list [1]. At least 10 plant workers who were present at the time of the explosion died in the first two weeks of May, 1986.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_di...

[henryfjordan]

Even in the show most don't die immediately. Many of the workers are shown being interviewed about what happened before they die in a hospital very far from the reactor. Days/Weeks passed.

[Rockslide]

That, and besides, the number of deaths related to Chernobyl (or even the magnitude) is highly controversial. But even the "official" Soviet number of direct, short-term fatalities is not 2, but 31. And I would take that number with a big grain of salt, for the very same reasons depicted in the series.

[effie]

I like the series, but it is somewhat dramatized and technically incorrect in places; some people may understand the focus on drama as a statement against nuclear energy, which would be regrettable. I think the show says close to nothing new about the technology and its risks, the bad effects of radioactivity and bad design of RBMK are well known to people who study nuclear physics and medicine. The accident was terrible, but in terms of lives nothing like a big tsunami or largest chemical disasters. But it shows how bad our governments are; the show rightly exposes how the totalitarian political system was instrumental in the disaster and botched reaction to it: and things such as "state can admit no error or wrongdoing", "appearance of state success is more important than people lives" and "vital technological information should be classified as top secret even if it can save lives", all sound too familiar even today.

[arethuza]

As the writer of the series had said:

".... The lesson of Chernobyl isn't that modern nuclear power is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance and suppression of criticism is dangerous. The flaws that led to Chernobyl are the same flaws shown by climate change deniers today."