Watch To Watch And Read After Finishing HBO's 'Chernobyl'
HBO limited series "Chernobyl" dramatizes the cataclysmic explosion of a nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1986. The accident released radioactive material as far as Scandinavia and western Europe, left unknown masses dead and indelibly altered global geopolitics and man's relationship to nature and technology.
With a 9.7 stars rating, the mini-series is now the top-rated TV show on IMDb, having drawn widespread acclaim for its historical analysis, unflinching realism and "remarkable cumulative power." While there is a wealth of articles and videos about the accident at Chernobyl, we've curated a list of the best items out there to help you understand the true magnitude of the event.
Life In Chernobyl Before The Accident
These photographs showcase what life was like for a normal Ukranian community before catastrophe changed everything:
Maxim Dondyuk, who was born three years before the nuclear reactor exploded, found decaying pictures in the abandoned homes and buildings that encapsulated the previous era. He wants to ensure it isn't forgotten.
Separating 'Chernobyl' Fact From Fiction
In interviews around the release of HBO's "Chernobyl," screenwriter and show creator Mazin insisted that his mini-series would stick to the facts. "I defer to the less dramatic version of things," Mazin said, adding, "you don't want to cross a line into the sensational."
In truth, "Chernobyl" runs across the line into sensational in the first episode and never looks back.
In a Forbes article, writer Michael Shellenberger details what the HBO show gets wrong about the accident, including how radiation is portrayed like a virus:
The most egregious of "Chernobyl" sensationalism is the depiction of radiation as contagious, like a virus. The scientist-hero played by Emily Watson physically drags away the pregnant wife of a Chernobyl firefighter dying from Acute Radiation Syndrome.
As long as the irradiated individual has been washed, radiation isn't "contagious" from person-to-person. (If exposed to nuclear radiation, the US federal government recommends that you take a shower as soon as possible, and use shampoo but not conditioner.)
Oh, and that helicopter crash? Yeah, it never happened — or at least not the way it is depicted in the show.
The fate of the people on Pripyat's "Bridge of Death" the night of the Chernobyl accident also remains unknown.
[Forbes]
Immediately After The Disaster — A Powerful Photo Series
Workers and emergency responders were not the only ones to risk their lives—a handful of photographers went to the scene as well, managing to capture images of some of the chaos and acts of heroism that took place in the weeks and months that followed.
Side-By-Sides Of 'Chernobyl' Actors And The Real-Life People They Play
The casting department on this one totally nailed it.
[BuzzFeed]
How A Radioactive Cloud Spread Through Europe After Chernobyl
Why Iodine Pills?
Iodine doesn't ward off free-flying neutrons or remove radioactive dust from drinking water. It does however change how your body behaves, in ways that can reduce the risk radioactive materials pose. Here's how…
Chernobyl's 'Elephant Foot' Is Still Deadly
After just 30 seconds of exposure, dizziness and fatigue will find you a week later. Two minutes of exposure and your cells will soon begin to hemorrhage; four minutes: vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. 300 seconds and you have two days to live.
[Nautilus]
Interview With A Liquidator
Liquidators received many, many benefits for their incomprehensibly dangerous work. Here is a very cruel, very Soviet description of one of those benefits explained by a liquidator at the site in 1986.
[Jalopnik]
'Where Are Chernobyl's Children?'
National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig has spent almost three decades trying to honor the victims of Chernobyl — and watching the world minimize them. He's getting ready to make another trip.
Did Chernobyl Cause the Soviet Union To Explode?
Fewer than six years elapsed between the meltdown at Chernobyl and the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union — six years marked by suspicion of government, dissatisfaction with public safety and demands for greater transparency. Could Chernobyl have caused the first, most fundamental crack in the Soviet state and led to its collapse?
[Slate]
'Why Can People Live In Hiroshima And Nagasaki Now, But Not Chernobyl?'
The difference is attributable to three factors: (1) the Chernobyl reactor had a lot more nuclear fuel; (2) that was much more efficiently used in reactions; and (3) the whole mess exploded at ground level.
The Curious Ecology Within The Exclusion Zone
This five-minute documentary from the New York Times follows a team of scientists surveying plants and animals within the zone. They find lower rates of biodiversity, higher rates of animal abnormalities and preliminary evidence that some animals are adapting to the radiation. Even the spider webs are different in Chernobyl.
Where Dead Trees Do Not Rot
Pine trees in the "Red Forest" directly surrounding the power plant — which turned an orange-brown color after the incident and died soon after — do not seem to be decaying.
Organisms such as microbes, fungi and some types of insects that drive the process of decay—have also suffered from the contamination. These creatures are responsible for an essential component of any ecosystem: recycling organic matter back into the soil. Issues with such a basic-level process, the authors of the study think, could have compounding effects for the entire ecosystem.
Moving Dangerously Close To The Zone, On Purpose
People are actively moving close to the exclusion zone, despite the risks.
Today it is still illegal to live inside the exclusion zone. Despite this, about 130 to 150 people do. Many are women, still farming their ancestral land in their 70s and 80s.
And just outside of the exclusion zone, there are a number of new arrivals.
[BBC]
A similar photo series of Chernobyl's "babushkas" can be found here.
Making Friends Where Nearly Everyone Is Gone
In this video from March, YouTuber "Bald and Bankrupt" meets and befriends a 92-year-old woman living alone with her son in the Belarus exclusion zone.
"Bald and Bankrupt" returns to the zone several times to meet more of its inhabitants.
[More on his YouTube channel.]
An In-Depth Tour Of Chernobyl Today
Drew Scanlon went on a two-day trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This video highlights the eerie feeling of seeing a real apocalypse after spending so much time in virtual replicas.
As we'd rather you not travel to the exclusion zone, watch this video below from the comfort of your (safe, non-irradiated) home.
If you're looking to see more footage of present-day Chernobyl, here's a drone tour.
Update: Digg reader and Twitter user "Atomic Memories" suggested this 2016 video touring the reactor hall of Unit 2 inside of the power plant.
Even Darker Tourism
Existing in the shadows of the highly commodified tourism industry is the secretive subculture of the "stalkers": mostly young Ukrainian men who sneak into the Zone illegally to explore the vast wilderness on their own terms.
Here's another article that performed well on Digg about the "stalkers" that you can read here.
How 'Bout Them Irradiated Apples?
For the past couple of years, a young woman known only as "Bionerd23" has been making strange, dangerous videos in and around one of the most infamous nuclear zones on Earth—the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Nothing is too radioactive or risky for her. She has shown herself getting injected with the radionuclide technetium, eating radioactive apples from a tree in Chernobyl, being chased by a possibly rabid fox and picking up fragments of the nuclear plant's reactor fuel with her bare hands.
'The Daring Laborers Who Sandblast Chernobyl's Radioactive Metal'
Prospectors started pillaging the region for valuables, and by some estimates, they've retrieved at least one million tons of metal. The Ukrainian government eventually granted licenses to recycling companies, which decontaminate the scrap and sell it throughout Europe.
[WIRED]
What We Need To Do To Prepare For Another Nuclear Event
It may seem like the threat from nuclear weapons has receded. But it hasn't; the threat is actually increasing steadily. This is difficult to face for many people, and this denial also means that we are not very well-prepared for nuclear and radiological events.
[Digg]
