A former engineer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has given his verdict on the HBO/Sky miniseries about the 1986 disaster, praising its depiction of the human cost but accusing the show of distorting the characters of key plant officials.
Oleksiy Breus, who worked at the plant from 1982 and entered the control room of reactor No. 4 hours after the explosion, said the series powerfully captured the global scale of the catastrophe and the mood of the time. However, he criticised the portrayal of plant director Viktor Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai Fomin and deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov as 'not a fiction, but a blatant lie'.
'Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. They were nothing like that,' Mr Breus said. He acknowledged that Dyatlov was feared by staff but insisted he was a 'high-level professional'. Series creator Craig Mazin has defended the portrayal, describing Dyatlov as a 'real bully' who made statements that were not credible.
Mr Breus praised the show's depiction of radiation effects on the human body. He recalled seeing colleagues who had been exposed to high doses: 'Their skin had a bright red colour. They later died in hospital in Moscow.' He added that his own skin turned brown after his shift, as if he had a 'proper suntan'.
The miniseries has received the highest ever IMDB score for a TV show and has been well received in Russia and Ukraine. However, Mr Breus noted some technological inaccuracies, calling them 'fiction' rather than lies. The series dramatises the events of 26 April 1986, when reactor No. 4 exploded, killing dozens and spreading radiation across Europe.
