What You Need to Know About Chernobyl Before HBO’s Finale

Over the past few week’s HBO’s Chernobyl has given American and UK audiences an insightful look into one of the most devastating disasters in modern history. As we’ve covered before, almost every detail of this miniseries is based on fact. But as we head into Chernobyl‘s fifth and final episode, it’s worth taking a step back to look at the full scope of this tragedy. Exactly what happened during that early morning in the Soviet Union, and how could it have been prevented?

Created by Craig Mazin, the five-part Chernobyl is about as bleak as a miniseries can get. Each episode follows government officials, nurses, and civilians as they try to navigate one of the worst man-made disasters of all time. As the HBO series glumly reminds viewers, everyone on screen is destined to die either directly from the radiation or later from illnesses caused by radiation poisoning. It’s a necessarily bleak series that’s only saving grace is that thanks to the brave men and women who risked their lives, the whole world didn’t die.

Chernobyl the series does a marvelous job unfurling the complicated, depressing narratives that made this explosion so horrific. Before Chernobyl Episode 5, here’s what you need to know about this disaster.

When Will Chernobyl Stop Being Radioactive?

The number people like to throw around is 20,000 years, but the real answer is a lot more complicated than that. The actual site of the reactor remains, also known as the Elephant’s Foot, is largely what that 20,000 number is describing.

The radioactivity of the surrounding areas depends on how close they were to the reactor explosion. Obviously land that was closer to the reactor is more likely to be radioactive. Another difficult factor in this particular disaster has to do with the Chernobyl reactor’s debris. Radioactive pieces of the reactor are still embedded in the surrounding soil where they continue to infect their environment. Scientists have estimated that the surrounding areas will remain contaminated from anywhere from 20 to hundreds more years. However, this apparent danger hasn’t stopped people from living around Chernobyl. Roughly 100 people live in Ukraine’s exclusion zone at the moment.

When Did The Chernobyl Meltdown Happen?

Early in the morning on April 26, 1986 is when the Ukraine changed forever. The explosion happened in the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Evacuation wasn’t ordered until the following day, but by then two people had already died from the accident and 52 had been hospitalized. Fires from the explosion weren’t contained until roughy nine days after the initial explosion.

Why Did The Chernobyl Core Explode? What Caused The Chernobyl Reactor to Explode?

The Chernobyl disaster could have only happened due to a combination of haphazard workmanship, inadequate safety procedures, and bad luck. According to some sources, the Chernobyl nuclear reactors became unstable because they used a combination of graphite and water coolant instead of just water. Though this method saved energy for the Soviet Union, it made the reactors unstable while starting up and shutting down.

The entire plant’s unstable power usage may have contributed to the power surge that led to the explosion. The surge’s sudden increase in heat ruptured pressure tubes containing fuel for Chernobyl 4, and that fuel reacted with the water to cause a steam explosion. Chernobyl 4’s actual explosion was terrible, but what made it grave was the lack of safety precautions around the facility. The nuclear plant site didn’t have a fortified containment structure designed to stop the spread of radioactive material in case the worst happened. Add in the fact that the Soviet Union was notoriously tight-lipped when it came to admitting governmental mistakes to the public, and thousands of people who should have been evacuated immediately were allowed to stay. What could have been a surprising disaster turned into a grave national tragedy.

How Many People Died in the Chernobyl Accident?

It’s difficult to estimate just how many people died from Chernobyl. Officially 31 people died from the explosion.

However Chernobyl’s radiation has been linked to causing cancer and other deadly diseases, and as the HBO series shows, any person who spent a considerable amount of time exposed to the reactor’s radiation was at risk for death. When the people who became ill are accounted for, it’s been estimated that the toll of Chernobyl is in the thousands or even the tens of thousands. This doesn’t account for the number of people who have committed suicide in response to the horrors they witnessed from this disaster.

New episodes of Chernobyl premiere on HBO Mondays at 9/8c.

Watch Chernobyl on HBO Go and HBO NOW