Chernobyl: Inside The Meltdown

Season 1

The Chernobyl disaster is the worst nuclear accident in history, releasing 400 times more radiation into the atmosphere than the Hiroshima bomb.

Inferno
E1
InfernoSurvivors recount the terrifying first 24-hours of the worst nuclear accident in history. After a reactor explodes during a safety test at a power plant in Ukraine, firefighters rush to the scene, unaware of the lethal levels of radiation. Soviet authorities try to cover up the disaster as a cloud of radiation begins to circle the world.
Cover up
E2
Cover upThe day after the incident, helicopter crews brave deadly radioactive smoke to extinguish the fire raging in the reactor core. As 50,000 locals evacuate, Soviet authorities try to conceal the scale and human cost of the accident.
Sacrifice
E3
SacrificeWorkers begin to clean-up the deadly radioactive fallout from the explosion. After troops establish an exclusion zone, Gorbachev orders the construction of a vast concrete sarcophagus to cover the destroyed nuclear reactor. In Vienna the world finally hears the Soviet explanation of what went wrong - but are they telling the truth?
Truth
E4
Truth14 months after the disaster, plant operators face a Soviet show trial. At the reactor, scientists hunt for the deadly remains of the radioactive fuel. As the USSR crumbles, an independent investigation reveals the true cause of the accident, and the full scale of the cover up. 40 years later, the nuclear exclusion zone turns into a war zone.