Chernobyl: Inside The Meltdown

Sunday 19 April 9pm

Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown microsite - Trailer

00:30

Next transmissions on tv

  1. Sunday 19 April 9pm

    Inferno

  2. Sunday 19 April 10pm

    Cover-Up

  3. Monday 20 April 9pm

    Sacrifice

Synopsis

On April 26th, 1986, a safety test at unit number four of the Chernobyl power station triggered the worst nuclear accident in history. The massive explosion and resulting fire released more than 400 times more radiation into the atmosphere than the Hiroshima bomb. It was a global catastrophe – a radioactive cloud spread across Europe and eventually circled the world. This landmark series on the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster tells the full story from the meltdown to the KGB cover-up, right up to the present-day war in Ukraine, revealing how a nuclear exclusion zone became a war zone. With powerful interviews from survivors who have never spoken in public before, and unique insights into the Western and Soviet response, this series provides a new perspective on a story riddled with intrigue, deception and tragedy.

Episodes

Season 1
  • Inferno

    +

    Survivors recount the terrifying first 24-hours of the worst nuclear accident in history. After a reactor explodes during a safety test at a power plant in Ukraine, firefighters rush to the scene, unaware of the lethal levels of radiation. Soviet authorities try to cover up the disaster as a cloud of radiation begins to circle the world.

    Next Showing
    Sunday 19 April 9pm
    On National Geographic
    Next Showing
    Tuesday 21 April 3pm
    On National Geographic
  • Cover-Up

    +

    Two days after the explosion, the world wakes up to a terrifying global disaster. At the power plant, helicopter pilots try to put out a fire in the reactor core, braving plumes of highly radioactive smoke. Soviet authorities eventually begin to evacuate 50,000 people from the local area, while still trying to conceal the scale of the accident.

    Next Showing
    Sunday 19 April 10pm
    On National Geographic
    Next Showing
    Wednesday 22 April 3pm
    On National Geographic
  • Sacrifice

    +

    Workers begin to clean-up the deadly radioactive fallout from the explosion. After troops establish an exclusion zone, Gorbachev orders the construction of a vast concrete sarcophagus to cover the destroyed nuclear reactor. In Vienna the world finally hears the Soviet explanation of what went wrong - but are they telling the truth?

    Next Showing
    Monday 20 April 9pm
    On National Geographic
    Next Showing
    Thursday 23 April 3pm
    On National Geographic
  • Truth

    +

    14 months after the disaster, plant operators face a Soviet show trial. At the reactor, scientists hunt for the deadly remains of the radioactive fuel. As the USSR crumbles, an independent investigation reveals the true cause of the accident, and the full scale of the cover up. 40 years later, the nuclear exclusion zone turns into a war zone.

    Next Showing
    Monday 20 April 10pm
    On National Geographic
    Next Showing
    Friday 24 April 3pm
    On National Geographic

Specials