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Questioning the Chernobyl disaster death count

We fact check the recent TV drama Chernobyl and try and explain why it so hard to say how many people will die because of the Chernobyl disaster.

The recent TV miniseries ‘Chernobyl’ has stirred up debate online about the accuracy of its portrayal of the explosion at a nuclear power plant in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. We fact-check the programme and try and explain why it so hard to say how many people will die because of the Chernobyl disaster.

Image: Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster.
Credit: Getty Images

Available now

9 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Mon 1 Jul 2019 12:50GMT
  • Tue 2 Jul 2019 01:50GMT

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