Chernobyl: Abyss | Image

For a more historical and scientific look at the disaster, you can explore the World Nuclear Association's technical summary or view The Atlantic's archival photo essay of the actual cleanup efforts.

Following the initial explosion, molten fuel threatened to melt through the floor into a reservoir of water below. If this occurred, it would trigger a massive steam explosion, potentially rendering much of Europe uninhabitable. Chernobyl: Abyss image

The film portrays the "bio-robots"—liquidators who had to clear radioactive graphite from the roof by hand because electronic robots failed due to the extreme radiation. For a more historical and scientific look at

Real-life photographer Igor Kostin captured the first image of the wreckage 14 hours after the blast. The photo is famous for being incredibly grainy—not due to the camera, but because the intense radiation began destroying the film as it was exposed. The film portrays the "bio-robots"—liquidators who had to

The film centers on , a firefighter who becomes a "liquidator"—one of the 600,000 personnel drafted to manage the radioactive waste and contain the damage. The core of the "abyss" story involves a perilous mission:

Alexey, along with an engineer and a military diver, must navigate flooded, pitch-black corridors beneath the reactor to manually drain the water.

The water in these "abyssal" depths was heating rapidly as the molten core seeped closer, and the radiation levels were lethal. The Informative Context