Chernobyl: Minute by Minute | Full Film

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In the heart of the Soviet Union, amidst Cold War isolation and political tension, a routine test gone awry would have irreversible consequences. The explosion of Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Power plant in Ukraine would go down in history as the worst nuclear disaster... ever. The aftermath was a scene of chaos and destruct

Chernobyl: Minute by Minute | Full Film (DocuReal) examines the catastrophic events surrounding the April 26, 1986, explosion of reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.

Timeline of Events (April 1986)

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| TIMELINE OVERVIEW |

+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+

| April 25, 10:06 AM | Operators begin reducing power to prepare for a safety test.|

| April 25, 02:00 PM | Emergency core cooling

system turned off; test delayed. |

| April 26, 12:28 AM | Power drops unexpectedly to 500 thermal megawatts. |

| April 26, 01:23 AM | Test preparations complete; emergency stop valves closed. |

| April 26, 01:24 AM | Steam explosion destroys reactor 4 and blows off roof. |

| April 28, 09:00 AM | Forsmark plant in Sweden detects high radiation levels. |

| May 01, 10:00 AM | Traditional Mayday parades proceed in Kyiv and Minsk. |

+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+

April 25, 1986 (10:06 AM): Operators initiate power reduction at reactor n

umber four to test if the plant could maintain sufficient energy and cooling capabilities during a total power loss.

April 25, 1986 (2:00 PM): The emergency core cooling system is disabled. The electricity grid controller in Kyiv requests a delay due to high energy demand, postponing the test to the night shift.

April 26, 1986 (12:28 AM): Night shift workers take over. Due to operational error or a system malfunction, power levels plummet to 30 thermal megawatts before stabilizing at 200 thermal megawatts.

April 26, 1986 (1:23 AM): Testing begins. When a sudden power surge erupts, operators attempt an emerge

ncy shutdown by inserting control rods, but the rods jam.

April 26, 1986 (1:24 AM): A massive steam explosion destroys the building, ripping off the 1,000-ton roof and igniting the graphite core. Engineer Valery Khodemchuk is killed instantly, becoming the first direct fatality.

April 26, 1986 (1:28 AM): The first unprotected firefighters arrive, unaware of the extreme radiation.

April 27, 1986 (2:00 PM): After initial silence, the evacuation of the nearby city of Pripyat (population 50,000) begins, relocating approximately 115,000 people.

April 28, 1986 (9:00 AM): Air monitors at the Forsmark nuclear power

plant in Sweden detect high radiation levels, breaking the Soviet cover-up.

May 1, 1986: Traditional Mayday parades proceed in Kyiv and Minsk as authorities attempt to project normalcy while radioactive clouds pass overhead.

May 6, 1986: Pravda publishes the first extensive report, 11 days after the disaster.

Key Contributing Factors & Systemic Issues

Reactor Design: The Soviet Union favored the RBMK reactor design, which prioritized economic value and rapid local construction over safety mechanisms.

Safety Protocol Violations: During the test preparation, operators reduced the number of inserted control rod

s far below the mandatory safety threshold.

Cover-up and Censorship: State media initially ignored or minimized the accident. Information was withheld from local residents, international bodies, and neighboring countries until foreign detection forced official acknowledgment.

Human and Environmental Impact

Immediate Casualties: Initial radiation doses on the first day caused 28 deaths, including firefighters suffering from acute radiation sickness.

Liquidators: Over 650,000 to 1 million personnel ("liquidators") participated in cleanup operations under dangerous conditions, resulting in thousands of subseque

nt illnesses and fatalities.

Health & Long-Term Effects: Survivors and children in contaminated regions faced elevated risks of cancer, genetic mutations, and lifelong medical struggles.

The Exclusion Zone: Millions of acres of forest and farmland were contaminated. While uninhabitable for humans due to radioactive hazards expected to last for at least 24,000 years, the abandoned zone has evolved into an unexpected wildlife sanctuary where various animal species thrive in the absence of human interference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMaunecj84w

Chernobyl: Minute by Minute | Full Film

DocuReal · 564K view

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Viewer Discussion & Comments

@RealJesusChrist1

The State: by the year 2000 we want to increase energy production by 500%.

@jugglingbeast

After 40 years, this is still heartbreaking.

@miroz79

24,000 years.. let that sink in a minute

@banderdash2702

For those who want the translation at 22:55 here it is:

@dral9971

This disaster is a good illustration of how totalitarian states value human life. In Sweden, all daycare centers and schools were informed of the risks, long before the Soviet citizens were told what had happened. Children in the densely populated, wealthy areas north of Stockholm were not allowed to go outdoors after scientists tested sandboxes and soccer fields and found them contaminated. My wife was pregnant, and had to stay indoors for a month to avoid risking birth defects. And this was more than 1,200 kilometers from Kiev. Considering how many millions of Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles faced significantly worse risks but were not told anything because of the arrogance and ignorance of the paranoid Kremlin, it says a lot about how ruthless these totalitarian states are.

@raf-the-menace

I was in Kiev when Chernobyl happened, I did fly from Borispol (Kiev airport) to Moscow on Saturday the 28th and from Moscow to Kastrup (Copenhagen) and then on to Brussels (home). When I arrived in Kastrup somebody asked me where I came from and when I told him he wondered what the Russians said about the elevated radioactivity. I told him that I did not know anything, in other words, nobody in the USSR knew about Chernobyl, the explosion of a nuclear reactor. I am 81 years old now so I guess I survived the radioactivity. I di go to my doctor who gave me iodide tablets which probably saved my life.

@monikatoth5697

Who is watching it on the 40th anniversary of Chernobyl on 26 April?

@LoneTiger

"When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we cannot even remember it's there, but it is still there."

@fabiocampagnoli

So today it has been 40 years. I remember I was a kid standing in the vegetable garden with my mom when my dad came out of the house and said something about it. For some reason we took it very seriously. So a few months passed. My mom and dad loved planting vegetables and were very successful . Being in a small town in Northern Italy, I guess the cloud made it all the way here. Well....that year NOTHING grew ,,,and I mean NOTHING! Not a carrot not an eggplant. Weird.

@christhom745

Subtitles would be nice in portions of video

@maxm2639

I especially liked the lengthy Russian language announcement (radio?) at around minute 24 which had no translation to English and was accompanied by a graphic of a squiggly green line. Way to go, documentarians.

@Tater4200

Radiation is TERRIFYING!!!... you just feel HEAT..like "wow that thing is warm! Kinna feels good". Yet your being TORN APART AT A MOLECULAR LEVEL!!!....jesus

@GoodbyewhatHelpme

My grandma actually was one of the "survivors", basically after the explosion, After the pripyat evacuation day they started bringing people from the tragedy, and they brought them in like hospitals with no one else, the rules were that you needed to for every 1-4 hours diagnose a patient, and write what they have in their body down, now my grandma's friends went there, they said they served good food and red wine there (It regenerates blood) my grandma wanted to go there, but grandpa did not let her go, after tons if arguing the news there that everyone died there (the patients, grandma's friends and workers at the hospital) and there was also the manager (or someone else) who worked there an Entire year (everyone died there after an year and more) he died too, because radiation had spread everywhere thats how strong it was

@Rwethereyet351

Only 23,960 years now. Book your travel plans soon to avoid the rush.

@kmstronski4742

The control rods did not get stuck, they went in but because the tips were covered with graphite tips which caused the power to go even more higher and caused the explosion