part of the reason the people were reacting the way they did is they fully believed the reactor literally couldnt explode, that it was impossible. . everything they knew said it couldnt happen. . Its like living your whole life knowing the 2+2=4 only to come to find out 2+2=40. . you just wouldnt be able to accept that. . it wouldnt compute for you. . thats kinda whats going on in the moments after the explosion. . eventually it did settle in but too little too late

In regards to them constantly sending people up to the roof and such to confirm the explosion makes more sense when you realize that theoretically it shouldn't be possible for the reactor core to explode like it did. There is nothing combustive inside the reactor to cause it to explode the way it did. You could make arguments that it was a steam explosion from built up pressure inside the core but even then there shouldn't have been fire like there was. So they quite literally at this time have no idea that a RBMK reactor could explode so they didn't believe any of the people sent to look. On top of the fact that these people are a lot lower on the totem pole than people like Dyatlov so there is also the factor that people just straight don't believe them over him, especially since it shouldn't be physically possible for it to explode. It also leads credence to Dyatlovs theory that it was a hydrogen explosion since hydrogen could ignite, though Dyatlov was in hard denial because he himself saw the graphite on the ground when he left the control room after the explosion.

"A bird? And that's the door to the reactor core?" No, it was a door to a catwalk looking down on the pump room. Viktor Degtyarenko, the guy who was found lying on the floor with his face fscked up, was one of the pump operators. His facial injuries came mostly from horrific burns from escaping steam. His co-worker on the pumps, Valery Khodemchuk, was on the floor of the pump room -- so he's underneath all that stuff. When the core exoded, debris went up into the air and came down on that pump room, crushing its contents and opening that doorway to the outside because the space it had opened into was flattened.

People really fail to understand the psychological trauma of the USSR. FROM 1917, TO 1987, SEVENTY YEARS, TWO WORLD WARS, AND THE HALODOMOR. These people are prisoners, and grew up with that, for almost a century.

"It's not like this could get any worse" Oh yes it can! An open reactor core doesn't just stop spreading radiation once it's open. It keeps spreading more and more until everything's dead. Literally. Anyways, i'm glad you guys are reacting to this show. As someone who's from Europe (Switzerland) i was taught about chernobyl in school. My dad told me when it happened, certain dairy products were temporarly taken off shelves due to the radiation that cows were absorbing and kids were advised not to play outside for certain time. I think they did a very good job with this show and i can't wait to see your reactions to the next episodes. And don't wory, they will explain everything that happened in the next episodes. You need to remember this is a real story and many of those characters you see in the show are actually real people which, btw, they will show clips of at the very end of the last episode.

The guy on the left was sleeping the hole episode

it's not like your average soviet citizen knew much about the dangers of radiation

Sorry, Kyle. You need someone/character to suck you into the story to make you care? Is the event not story enough for you?! Yeesh!!

the woman who said about the iodine pill was not a nurse but a doctor. 75% of soviet doctors are women

The phone call to the fire station was the recoding of the original call.

Oh Angus, I will love you forever. So nice to see you enjoying so many laps on this couch. You will be missed.

A lot of "smart" people ruining the whole reaction with spoilering... clap.

there are 4 types of radiation - Alpha, which is a Helium nucleus with no electrons; Beta, which is an electron; Neutron, which is a neutron (!); and Gamma, which are photons like light. Alpha and Beta have a charge (+2 and -1) and mass which makes them pretty easy to stop. Alpha won't go though paper and Beta won't go though clothing. Neutrons have no charge so won't stop unless they hit the nucleus of another atom. Gamma radiation will go though about anything but can ionize what they do come in contact with. All these are emitted from unstable ("radioactive") elements, depending on what the element is and what kind of Isotope it is. Isotopes are unstable when they have more or less neutrons in the nucleus than occurs naturally. When they decay they emit a kind of radiation, and the isotope changes to either another isotope of the same element or into a different element. depending on the type of decay. How long this takes to occur is called the half life - how long it takes half of the isotope to decay. After 1 half life you have 50% left, after 2 you have 25%, and so on. It takes heavy shielding to protect you from Gamma and Neutron radiation, and is usually made of things like Lead, Steel, or Water. It takes a lot to stop it - for example it takes 2 inches of lead to stop 90% of gamma. 4 inches would stop 99%. 6 inches would stop 99.9%, etc. Nothing you wear will protect you from them. Protective clothing is intended to protect you from breathing in contamination and getting it on your skin and it getting into stuff like your pores. The big issue with Chernobyl was the spread of this radioactive "Contamination". the Graphite burned and became ash and dust. these small particles were radioactive after having been exposed to the Neutron Flux in the core after a long period of time. Ash and dust contamination will travel long distances and cover every surface, and in the worst case, you can breath it in. Contamination can be cleaned (which really just moves the dust to your garbage dump of choice) with effort but over such a large area there's really nowhere for it to go but wait for it all to decay. So that's why you seem them take the actions they do in later episodes.

the soviet behaviour in denying the catastrophe isn't that different to climate change denial or the wishful thinking during the pandemic

13:33...mate you thinking that people in authority should admit their mistakes just means you have no idea just how the apparatus of the Soviet Union worked 🤔

Gorbachev said it was this, and the subsequent cleanup is the key factor to the USSR breaking apart.

I can't see this situation being magically impossible to unfold just like this in a capitalist system. People being in denial about the seriousness of a disaster (and then that denial itself making things worse) isn't unique to the Soviet Union.

"Our strength is the illusion of strength." Premier Gorbachev Chernobyl

the guy whose hand was severely burned after touching something. It's not that he touched something that was likely hot, the something he touched was graphite & it had been deep within the reactore. Graphite tips are on the ends of the control rods. Raising & lowering the control rods are one way that the control room can moderate what is happening in the reactor. So the thing he touched had been exposed to a LOT of radiation! On his hand were radiation burns, not burns from temperature.

It's actually really good to have someone who has already watched it cos the audience who has also already watched it get a voice through them

This happened when I was in high school. I remember it like yesterday. It was a defining event of my era.

u dont need to care about these people, this isnt about a story created for ur entertainment at its core (pun intended), this is about showing something that HAPPENED and how these people dealed with it. the dude on the far left came looking for game of thrones. smh

This a really good series...one of the best ever made...but the producers did get some things wrong. Some things were changed intentionally for the purposes of storytelling, and the makers of the series put in a series of notes at the end of the last episode of the series explaining some of them. However, I do recommend you guys check out the History vs Hollywood article on Chernobyl when you are done watching the whole series, so you can find out about the other things that the producers got wrong that they do not admit to. One thing about radiation that I feel must be mentioned, it does not spread around the way you seem to think it does. Radiation has a very short range of effect, but it can spread around in the air and other ways in the form of radiated dust particles. This airborne fallout can actually be kept out of a given area by sealing that area of from the spread of the radioactive dust, so even simple measures such as taping up your windows or making a makeshift fallout shelter can really help a lot in reducing your radiation dosage. So yes...once a particular area is heavily contaminated, it makes little sense to try and prevent more fallout from getting in to that area. But if an area is clean or only slightly contaminated, trying to seal it off or create a sealed off space inside the area can still be very useful in keeping the amount of radiation a person absorbs over time.

Is it fun? You laugh alot

guy on left putting bad vibes all over this reaction. disappointing

22:52 "It's not like this could get any worse than it already is." 😳 Uhhh......right. I'm afraid I got some bad news for you.

Jeez guys! I know the purpose of this video is for you to provide a reaction but considering what this series is about does it have to entail you making half-arsed asinine comments while trying to look clever? 🙄

Radiation of the Alpha type (Equivalent to a helium atom in compound), Beta type (Equivalent to an electron in compound) and Gamma type (The highest energy waves on the electromagnetic wave spectrum) are all completely invisible. Alpha particles have a hard time penetrating materials, just like a gas like Helium, your skin will stop it but you can inhale it or eat something contaminated to get it inside. Beta particles are less energetic than Alpha particles but can go through more material and thus travel further. Gamma radiation is what is so energetic that it can destroy your DNA and or cause it to mutate, a lot similar to how you can get skin cancer from the suns UV radiation, only that Gamma is a step above UV light. You do not want to get full of Alpha particles as it will destroy your surrounding cells when the Helium particle full of energy flies into it. It is easier to get Beta particles into you, as it can penetrate your skin. It is thought that the firefighters got a ton of Beta radiation from being next to the reactor. Gamma radiation is what can give you cancer in the long term, and you need lead shielding or thick material like concrete to limit the dose. It is why x-rays are done with the personal behind a lead door.

If I have been sent up on that roof, I would have brought back a chunk of graphite in a piece of a fuel rod to prove I wasn't lying As for the guard, he would probably cooperate with me because just by getting that close to the roof he received the lethal dose of radiation

Great reaction guys. Lots of comments; all very interesting. All I'll add is the end scene with the little kids on their way to school and the bird falling out the sky; dying. - My unterstanding of radiation is that it effects smaller creatures* before (or more greatly) than larger creatures (hence the birds dying). Children are relatively small creatures...😱 *incidentally, this also applies to poisons and venom

The most interesting item was the cat trying to find a good lap to lay in. Oh, the program is good and your reactions were very good. The one guy who has seen it before, I don't remember his name, came real close to giving out information that will come out in the future.

A good video out there which I just saw recently is: Chernobyl Doctor Fact Checks the HBO Series. Ukrainian medical responder and radiation expert Alla Shapiro reviews the validity of the HBO series "Chernobyl." Alla shares some real-life on-site experiences to explain whether clips from the series are true to what actually happened on April 26th, 1986 and the days that followed. Dr. Shapiro received a Medical degree and a PhD degree in Kiev, Ukraine where she was trained in pediatric hematology. After Chernobyl she was one of the first medical responders sent to the most radiation contaminated areas, and headed the field team surveying the medical effects on children in the Chernobyl vicinity. In 1989, Dr. Shapiro and her family became stateless refugees, spending 6 months in refugee camps in Italy, before immigrating to the U.S. She completed a residency in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital and a fellowship in pediatric oncology at the National Institute of Health. Shortly after 9/11, she became a Medical Officer at the Counter-Terrorism and Emergency Coordination Staff at the US Food and Drug Administration and evaluated drugs that treat people who have been exposed to harmful levels of radiation. Dr. Shapiro is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Extraordinary Journey of the Stateless: From the Shadows of Chernobyl to the Lights of Washington.

I've always been interested in Chernobyl reactions, but there was something very off-putting about you guys laughing through the entire episode. I get humour as a defense mechanism, I've watched reactions where people have made silly comments and laughed in some moments, and I get that this is edited, but it seemed like you were laughing continuously and maybe stopped once?

No body knew much about nuclear reactors in those days in Russia,the general public living in Pripyat certainly knew nothing about what really is nuclear fission.They were not informed because of secrecy linked to the Communist way of governing there people.

Well... actually... ;) Regarding the animals. Turns out, in a twisted way - it was kind of a good thing. Since the area has been left pretty much untouched since, nature is thriving. UN has called it "an unexpected haven for wildlife".

In my humble opinion this is the best slice of TV drama that I've seen in decades (and I'm bloody old lol). After watching this is sat with me for weeks afterwards. But If you can continue to laugh and joke through this, well then imo A) You will learn nothing and B)you'll miss how beautifully this series was crafted as well as coming across as a caricature of the typical ignorant 'smug American'. Sorry (edit) I watched through to the end of this and Jesus, with that attitude maybe this show is NOT for you....

Let's just say it's impossible for a dam to collapse. but it happened and everyone denied it and during that time the water would wipe out the entire city that was beneath it

I had to pause the video after Sean’s reactor meltdown joke. Had me cackling.

The people on the bridge all died.

if i had been one of the guys sent to look at the core i would have found the first guy with a gun and borrowed it it a short while.

8:55 it's not uranium it's graphite

Cool group, great reaction. Can't remember when or why I subscribed to this channel (seems like it was because of the Scream reaction) but I'm glad I did.

Great reaction to great show, thanks.

KITTY!

EXCUSE ME BUT YOU DID NOT INTRODUCE THE CAT. Rude.

Unwatchable reaction. Just react like normal human beings. The terrible jokes and constant laughing is just super disrespectful

maybe i can help u with chernobyl and the chernobyl episodes back in april 26 1986 the real chernobyl exploded and all of the radiation spread all over europe everywhere including ireland and scotland and england the radiation still hasnt gone away and i was a teenager at the time and it was all over the news saying that 31 people died but the numbers were wrong some of answers were right but some of them were wrong like the guy who touched the rock like substance is called graphite it helps with the nuclear energy and it helps cools down the rods to make sure it doesnt explode and the elephants foot is still there and if u want to go please dont get close to it it will kill u and keep watching the episodes

Screen is too small

if you want to produce great reactions, remove everyone who has already seen it, and don't read comments

Worst reaction i ever seen!Laugh,laugh...all the time!Yeah....🙁🙁😠

No offense to you guys ... but I find it scary how your generation seems to understand nothing of what the Soviet Union was nor how communist countries operate. This is why we have people in politics now who are actually pushing heavy socialism to the tune in reality of communism. And yet they blame the OTHER side for that very thing. I suppose this comment will be deleted ... and that is a true shame. I am afraid we are going to eventually have to learn these lessons yet again ....