Chernobyl (2019, created by Craig Mazin, directed by Johan Renck) is a remarkable mini-series relating the 1986 nuclear catastrophe most of us can certainly remember. It is a hard series to watch because the atmosphere built up is oppressing, and because it is hard not to remember what I was doing, thinking, or fearing at the time. Although the French authorities and media claimed that the radioactive cloud stopped at the border, I had family leaving closer in Hungary… Assuming the series is accurate (I have no reason to doubt), we dodged the bullet. And, we owe a lot to all the volunteers – or designated as such – who sacrificed their lives to minimize the catastrophe impact.
The cast, among which we can quote Among Jared Harris (Valery Legasov), Stellan Skarsgård (Boris Shcherbina), or Emily Watson (Ulana Khomyuk), does a tremendous job. Hats off to the production team, as it feels like USSR in the ‘80s. When the physicists Ulana Khomyuk and Leonid Toptunov (played by Robert Emms), seven hours after the explosion, detect radiations in their office, we can spot a desktop computer (S1:E2, Please Remain Calm). Although I have a pretty good knowledge of Soviet pocket computers and calculators, I don’t know much about professional/desktop systems. I guess that we can see a ДВК computer (model 3 maybe?). This assuming that the production team sourced a system that was plausibly used in the research center at the time. To our Russian reader, please enlighten us if you can.
After discussing several possible sources of the radiations, Ulana and Leonid quickly hone onto Chernobyl. Although Ulana says that it is unlikely as it would mean that the power plant is cracked open – a beautiful exemplification of the scientific thinking –, she calls the plant, but no-one is answering…
