There's been quite a lot of power plant fuckups in truth, but Chernobyl being the first one made it an exemple to avoid, especially considering how worse it could have gone. It also shed a light on the dangers to the public and how any government can fuck up and lie about it, not just communists ones, even if it surely made perfect anti-USSR propaganda.

In my (capitalist) country we've even had a saying ever since the disaster : «The radiations can't get past our borders», wich is said to express distrust in our own government to act accordingly to any disaster... Because when Chernobyl happend of course that what they said, even when people got sick. I'm sure all of Europe has similar sayings and distrust ever since.

Having said that, it'd sure be great to have other shows about other nuclear distasters/contaminations, it'd spread a wider awerness of them, and even if some were less impactfull than others it'd still be enough to make great stories.