chernobyl

"Valery Legasov took his own life at the age of 51 on April 26, 1988, exactly two years after the explosion at Chernobyl. The audio tapes of Legasov's memoirs were circulated among the Soviet scientific community. His suicide made it impossible for them to be ignored. In the aftermath of his death, Soviet officials finally acknowledged the design flaws of the RBMK nuclear reactors. Those reactors were immediately retrofitted to prevent an accident like Chernobyl from happening again."

"Legasov was aided by dozens of scientists who worked tirelessly alongside him at Chernobyl. Some spoke out against the official account of events and were subject to denunciation, arrest and imprisonment. The character of Ulana Khomyuk was created to represent them all and to honor their dedication and service to truth and humanity."

"Boris Shcherbina died on August 22, 1990, four years and four months after he was sent to Chernobyl."

"For their roles in the Chernobyl disaster, Viktor Bryukhanov, Anatoly Dyatlov and Nikolai Fomin were sentenced to ten years hard labor. After his release, Nikolai Fomin returned to work...at a nuclear power plant in Kalinin, Russia. Anatoly Dyatlov died from radiation-related illness in 1995. He was 64."

"Valery Khodemchuk's body was never recovered. He is permanently entombed under Reactor 4. The firefighters' clothing still remains in the basement of Pripyat Hospital. It is dangerously radioactive to this day."

"Following the death of her husband and daughter, Lyudmilla Ignatenko suffered multiple strokes. Doctors told her she would never be able to bear a child. They were wrong. She lives with her son in Kiev."

"Of the people who watched from the railway bridge, it has been reported that none survived. It is now known as "The Bridge of Death"."

"400 miners worked around the clock for one month to prevent a total nuclear meltdown. It is estimated that at least 100 of them died before the age of 40."

"It has been widely reported that the three divers who drained the bubbler tanks died as a result of their heroic actions. In fact, all three survived after hospitalization. Two are still alive today."

"Over 600,000 people were conscripted to serve in the Exclusion Zone. Despite widespread accounts of sickness and death as a result of radiation, the Soviet government kept no official records of their fate."

"The contaminated region of Ukraine and Belarus, known as the Exclusion Zone, ultimately encompassed 2,600 square kilometers. Approximately 300,000 people were displaced from their homes. They were told this was temporary. It is still forbidden to return."

"Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. In 2006, he wrote, "The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl... was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.""

"In 2017, work was completed on the New Safe Confinement at Chernobyl at a cost of nearly two billion dollars. It is designed to last 100 years."

"Following the explosion, there was a dramatic spike in cancer rates across Ukraine and Belarus. The highest increase was among children."

"We will never know the actual human cost of Chernobyl. Most estimates range from 4,000 to 93,000 deaths. The official Soviet death toll, unchanged since 1987...is 31."

"Jared Harris -"

"Stellan Skarsgård -"

"Emily Watson - Ulana Khomyuk"

"Paul Ritter -"

"Con O'Neill -"

"Adrian Rawlins -"

"David Dencik - Mikhail Gorbachev"

"Alex Ferns - Andrei Glukhov"

"Ralph Ineson - General"