At 1.24am on April 26th, 1986, a power surge in reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, led to a series of huge explosions. The force of the blasts blew the reinforced steel and concrete lid off the reactor and exposed its deadly contents to the world.
A huge radioactive cloud was released into the atmosphere and blew across north and western Europe, even reaching as far as the United States. The accident remains the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster, and unlike the earthquake-induced meltdown at Fukushima in Japan, Chernobyl was caused by human error.
The deadly blast killed between 34 and 51 people that night, either from the original explosion or acute radiation syndrome (ARS). However, the long term effects are far more insidious, with estimates ranging between 4,000 and 734,000 lives lost as a result of radiation exposure from the plant. Efforts are still ongoing to contain the site, with the original concrete ‘sarcophagus’ built over the exposed reactor beginning to deteriorate, meaning a new solution will have to be found.
The event is firmly back in public consciousness with the release of HBO’s critically acclaimed mini-series Chernobyl, which gives a dramatized but fairly accurate interpretation of the explosion and its aftermath. In this list, we compare the cast of the show with their real-life counterparts, and as you can see, they really did a great job! Scroll down to check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Jared Harris as Valery Legasov, scientist
Image credits: HBO
Stellan Skarsgard as Boris Shcherbina, Deputy Prime Minister
Image credits: HBO
Biorobots
Image credits: HBO
Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov, Supervisor
Image credits: HBO
Sam Troughton as Aleksandr Akimov, shift supervisor of the night crew
Image credits: HBO
Michael Colgan as Mikhail Shchadov, Coal Minister
Image credits: HBO
Ralph Ineson as General Nikolai Tarakanov, commander of the Chernobyl liquidators
Image credits: HBO
David Dencik as Mikhail Gorbachev
Image credits: HBO
Jared Harris as Valery Legasov, scientist
Image credits: HBO
Con O’Neill as Viktor Bryukhanov, Plant director
Image credits: HBO
Adrian Rawlins as Nikolai Fomin, Chief Engineer
Image credits: HBO
The trial
Image credits: HBO
Adam Nagaitis as Vasily Ignatenko, a Pripyat firefighter
Image credits: HBO
Jessie Buckley as Lyudmila Ignatenko, Vasily’s wife
Image credits: HBO
Valeri Bezpalov, Alexi Ananeko and Boris Baranov
Image credits: HBO
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