num_pages: 404
description: On the morning of April 26 1986 Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning fallout contaminated half the continent and thousands fell ill.In Chernobyl Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters scientists and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry tracing the disaster to the authoritarian character of the Communist party rule the regime's control over scientific information and its emphasis on economic development over all else.Today the risk of another Chernobyl looms in the mismanagement of nuclear power in the developing world. A moving and definitive account Chernobyl is also an urgent call to action.
language: English
title: Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
publisher: Basic Books