Chernobyl. Created and written by Craig Manzin. Directed by Johan Renck. HBO and Sky Atlantic. 2019. 5 hours, 30 minutes in five parts.
The 1986 explosion of the Number 4 unit of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, was the worst nuclear accident in history. The accident and the costs of responding to it are credited with a major role in the collapse of the Soviet Union three years later. This accident is relevant to decisions made today about the role of nuclear power in a low-carbon energy strategy. It is therefore timely that HBO has produced an excellent five-part dramatic miniseries simply titled Chernobyl. On July 16, Chernobyl received nineteen Emmy award nominations.
The HBO series does an outstanding job of presenting the technical and human issues of the accident. Only at the end of the last segment is there the sort of summary one might expect in a documentary. Instead, this production is a scripted drama, depending on the characters and events themselves to carry the message. It focuses on three individuals: academician Valery Legasov, the scientist who best understood the frightening implications of the re-actor explosion; Boris Shcherbina, deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, who led the response to the disaster; and a composite character representing the input of other scientists.