An in depth look at the stories of firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who worked to extinguish the nuclear inferno of Chernobyl identifies the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry. 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. Plokhy tells 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, and in doing so traces the disaster to the authoritarian character of Communist party rule, the regime's control of scientific information, and its emphasis on economic development over all else. (Publisher)
...MoreReview Kate Brown (2019) Review of "Chernobyl: the history of a nuclear catastrophe". American Historical Review (pp. 1027-1029).
Review Inna Sukhenko (2018) Review of "Chernobyl: the history of a nuclear catastrophe". Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (pp. 229-232).
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