this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s was well done but deeply disingenuous about the effects of radiation in places. I loved the show, but for anybody else watching, it’s worth realising that it’s very exaggerated in places.

[–] colonial 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Off the top of my head, for those that are curious:

  • The show depicts radiation as similar to a contagion. In real life, once you strip and wash someone exposed to radioactive contaminants, they pose no danger to others.
  • The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions. A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can't turn into a bomb.

However, the utter incompetence of the USSR is very accurate.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions. A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can’t turn into a bomb.

The danger wasn't that it would cause a nuclear explosion, it was that it would melt its way into a large reservoir of water underneath the reactor, instantly turning it all into steam, causing a massive explosion that would fling radioactive material over a much wider area

I don't know if there was a risk of that happening in reality, but that's how it was portrayed and explained in the show