S34E453 - Chernobyl: Anatomy of a Catastrophe

40 years ago at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, a routine safety test inside Reactor Four at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant spiralled into the worst nuclear disaster in history.

This episode traces the catastrophe from the control room, where exhausted operators struggled with an unstable reactor they did not fully understand, to the streets of Pripyat, where thousands of residents woke the next morning unaware that radioactive contamination had already settled around them.

Through a dramatic, chronological account, I examine the fatal combination of human pressure, flawed reactor design, secrecy, and delayed decision-making...