Tonight, with Rose Scholars, I continued the “Chernobyl” HBO mini series. As I’ve written in previous blog posts, the film does a great job at capturing the deceitfulness of the USSR and how the government worked to downplay this among other human rights issues. However, in this post, I would like to focus on things the film did not do so well. One glaring dramatization, even falsehood, was how the film portrayed radiation in victims. It was looked at as a contagious disease, passable to visitors and medical professionals. I was confused by this, as I have never known radiation to be infectious. After looking at additional resources such as the World Health Organization and United Nations’ posts regarding the Chernobyl incident, I can confirm radiation is not a disease. Harm occurs in individuals who have been exposed, but once those individuals have bathed and changed clothes, the only damage is internal. No radiation can be passed from one person to another. The film’s narrative regarding radiation definitely added to the drama and deadliness of the accident’s portrayal, but also creates a false narrative that invokes even more fear into viewers. Typically, documentaries detailing accidents and mishandling make matters seem more severe than they are, or at least focus repeatedly on those severe effects. I see this as particularly problematic as nuclear power will only become more widespread as the earth starts to transition away from fossil fuels and misguided fears on top of rational ones won’t help the public’s enthusiasm to embrace the change. Chernobyl was a terrible and deadly accident, but I feel the cause was not solely nuclear energy or radiation. The root problem was in fact the corrupt system of government that took shortcuts in all of its proceedings, needlessly exposing citizens to dangers of all kinds.

In the first portion of the Chernobyl series, leaders were dismissing any concept of a threat regarding Chernobyl’s core and its integrity. In the second episode, much has changed. The government is listening to top scientists, albeit them forcing their way through barriers, and is trying to take control of the situation. However, the problem keeps becoming more and more complex, and at this point it seems like there will not be a solution found in time. I am excited for the next episode to see how the plot continues to develop.

I really enjoyed this section of the film series because of a strong female character not presented in the past episode. She is a leading physics  scholar, and comes in to the area to urgently tell the men what is really going on and what they have been missing. They dismiss her at first, but then after telling them her information, she is pictured in the meeting room presenting her conclusions to the most important people in the Soviet Union. Seeing a woman display her intelligence and bravery in both a repressive country and time period for women, especially in stem careers, was especially satisfying to watch.