Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown

Overview
Survivors share their stories for the first time in candid interviews, while rare details from CIA and Soviet archives reveal a tangled web of secrecy and deadly missteps. Stunning new footage from inside the nuclear exclusion zone shows this scarred landscape under fresh assault, as war creeps closer to one of the most perilous places on Earth—a stark reminder of the human toll behind the catastrophe.
Episodes
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1

Inferno
Firefighters race to a Ukrainian power plant after a reactor explodes during a routine safety test, unaware they're walking into a lethal cloud of rad...
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2

Cover-Up
Forty-eight hours after the blast, the planet confronts a nightmare unfolding across borders. Helicopter crews battle towering flames inside the react...
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3

Sacrifice
Cleanup crews move in to clear the deadly radioactive debris left by the explosion. Troops set up an exclusion zone, and Gorbachev demands the constru...
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4

Truth
A year and two months after the catastrophe, the plant’s operators are put on a staged Soviet trial. Meanwhile, at the reactor, experts desperately ...