Chernobyl

Episode 1

1:23:45

Mon, May 6, 201958 mins

While nuclear physics professor Valery Legasov hides evidence of what really happened, expecting to die soon and as scapegoat for the world's worst nuclear disaster that contributed to the demise of Soviet Union, he recalls the 1986 Chernobyl power plant disaster. The under-qualified night shift in the Ukrainian reactor control room is incapable of grasping, let alone controlling the nuclear reactions getting completely out of control. No timely warnings are given until the uranium rods escalate an unstoppable meltdown. Party officials pigheadedly keep pretending it's just a building fire, so time is wasted and people are contaminated before the horrible radiation symptoms became impossible to ignore and Moscow has to learn the truth. The KGB vice director is assigned by Gorbachov to handle it with outspoken expert Legasov as imposed counsel, whim he would prefer to dispose of but finds crucially, albeit inconveniently, knowledgeable. The rest of the world is kept ignorant, but alarming readings start raising questions.