ZDF - Chernobyl Utopia in Flames (2023) Part 3 Lies

The Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986 is considered the worst nuclear accident in mankind's history – both in terms of casualties and costs. It has impacted the world forever. Many have seen the fictional account. But the true story is even more complex, more human and more shocking than we could ever have imagined. It starts in 1970 in an area of forest and marshland in Northern Ukraine, very close to a little village that the Ukrainian locals call Chornobyl, in Russian Chernobyl. There a utopia was made real the largest nuclear power plant in the world alongside a model town of Soviet communism, Prypjat – they were the embodiment of the achievements of the New Human. The people who moved to Pripyat were chosen for their skills, their determination, and their willingness to believe in the future. They would all start as construction workers, and later become shop keepers, nurses, policemen, plumbers – everything needed to keep their city going. They lived a dream that most of us today can hardly fathom. But this dream was torn asunder on April 26, 1986 – and today, it is only this ending that most people know about Chernobyl and Pripyat. Now, we uncover the whole, true story through new footage from the nuclear exclusion zone as well as a collection of largely unpublished archive material from the Soviet era, elaborately animating key technical concepts, revealing personal stories of witnesses who lived in that utopia and survived the disaster. With our contemporary witnesses, we immerse ourselves in the Atomic Age of the Soviet Empire, which is initially shaped by a belief in technology and progress but is soon being pushed through with lies, secrecy and manipulation. These witnesses include nuclear engineer Nikolai Steinberg, who was involved in the construction of Chernobyl and devoted his later life to searching for the real reasons for the disaster; Maria Protsenko, the chief architect of the nuclear city, Prypjat; Oleksiy Breus and Boris Stolyarchuk, who were young workers in the power plant at the time and who survived the reactor meltdown. The narrative weaves together their stories into one gripping story arc. Statements from international experts along with detailed animation provide insightful facts and figures that help grasp the scope of the events starting with the construction of the nuclear power plant in the early 1970s through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 up to the harbingers of the current Ukrainian/Russian tragedy.

Part 3 Lies

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev receives secret information about an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. How will the bearer of hope react to the catastrophe? Even after the discovery of a radioactive cloud over Sweden, Moscow remains silent. Specialists on site do not dare to decide to evacuate Pripyat. The contaminated city is not evacuated until 36 hours after the catastrophe. The force of the explosion completely destroyed the Soviet RBMK super reactor. The reactor base plate, weighing 2000 tons, has torn from its anchorage now more than 200 tons of uranium fuel and over 1800 tons of white-hot graphite are exposed. Radioactive particles rise high into the sky due to heat and contaminate large parts of Europe. The world's first open nuclear reactor is a danger to humanity - and a danger to the entire political system. When the Soviet Union celebrates May 1st with huge parades, its citizens have no idea what has happened in Chernobyl in Ukraine. On site, the power plant staff are battling the consequences of the disaster. Despite the destruction and the danger of death, no one leaves their post. On the morning of April 26, 1986, helicopter pilot Sergei Volodin is the first to fly over the exploded reactor. He measures lethal doses of radiation. But this must remain secret. Nuclear engineer Oleksij Breus tries to cool the damaged reactor at the scene of the accident. Boris Stolyarchuk is taken to a special clinic for radiation victims in Moscow, where the first men to die on the night of the disaster - including reactor operator Leonid Toptunov. He was operating the reactor on the night of the accident.

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