Seconds from Disaster - Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 1986

At precisely 01:23:48 on a spring morning of April 26th 1986, the world changed forever. In Pripyat, Ukraine in the Soviet Union the largest nuclear reactor of its kind exploded at the Chernobyl Power Station. Disaster at Chernobyl uses previously undisclosed facts and eyewitness reports to reconstruct the events of the last fateful hour.

This documentary dramatizes the hour leading up to some of the most memorable historical events as they unfold minute by minute. This dynamic original series dramatizes the final hour leading up to several pivotal historical events. Here we experience history just before it became history.Using a real-time clock and a split-screen to follow key players, the series reveals the chilling lead-up to events that changed the world including the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, 9/11 and the Columbine shooting.


The explosion at Chernobyl was ten times worse than that at Hiroshima and was due to a combination of human error and imperfect technology. Using a real-time split-screen format reminiscent of the hit series, 24, this programme examines the 60 critical minutes leading up to the explosion at the power station on 26th April 1986.

Each minute unfolds narrating the events from the perspectives of key characters involved including Chernobyl's deputy chief engineer and his staff in the control room as well as innocent bystanders, the wife of one of Chernobyl's workers and two fishermen working in Chernobyl's warm waste waters.

With an extraordinary combination of drama and state of the art CGI graphics, Disaster at Chernobyl climaxes with the reconstructon of the final seconds leading to the disaster, the explosion itself and its terrifying aftermath.