Chernobyl Record

The nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 had a heavy impact on life, health, and the environment. It caused agony to people in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and anxiety far away from these countries. The economic losses and social dislocation were severe in a region already under strain. It is now possible to make more accurate assess

The nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 had a heavy impact on life, health, and the environment. It caused agony to people in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and anxiety far away from these countries. The economic losses and social dislocation were severe in a region already under strain. It is now possible to make more accurate assessments of these effects than it was in the first few years following the catastrophe. An internationally known author, speaker, and medical physicist, Dr. Mould visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in December 1987 and in June 1998. Chernobyl Record: The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe begins with a brief description of why the accident occurred and of eye witness accounts. The book then examines the early medical response and follow up of patients with acute radiation syndrome, including power plant workers and liquidators, the evacuation and resettlement, the current and future status of the sarcophagus, dose measurement and estimation methods, population doses, the contamination of the environment, psychological illness in adults and thyroid cancer in children, and the predicted cancer incidence in the 21st century, including leukemia and solid cancers. Highly illustrated, the book includes color photographs of the early and late effects on the skin of firemen who fought the blaze, the control room where operators survived, the damage inside the sarcophagus, and the remaining radioactive fuel masses within the sarcophagus, such as the so-called "Elephant's Foot" mass for which samples were chipped off using Kalashnikov rifles. Authored by a member of the UK Government Delegation that attended the first post-accident conference in August 1986 at the IAEA in Vienna, the book also covers the accidents at Three Mile Island, Kyshtym, and Tokaimura; the effects of the Hiroshoma and Nagasaki atomic bombs; and information concerning the semi-palatinsk nuclear weapons test site in the former USSR.

A New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner From journalist Adam Higginbotham, the New York Times bestselling “account that reads almost like the script for a movie” (The Wall Street Journal)—a powerful investigation into Chernobyl and how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the history’s worst nuclear disasters. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a “riveting, deeply reported reconstruction” (Los Angeles Times) and a definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. “The most complete and compelling history yet” (The Christian Science Monitor), Higginbotham’s “superb, enthralling, and necessarily terrifying...extraordinary” (The New York Times) book is an indelible portrait of the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.

The world's worst nuclear power accident occurred on April 26, 1986, and had lasting repercussions in all areas of human life.

Long before the tragedy of the 2011 nuclear disasters in Japan, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl experienced an explosion, meltdown, fire, and massive release of radioactivity. Twenty-five years later, we still know very little about the event and its aftermath. Few of the professional papers describing the aftereffects of the disaster have been translated from Russian into English or distributed in the West. This is now remedied, with the publication of this definitive volume, based on original sources, and originally published in Russian. Alla A. Yaroshinskaya describes the human side of the disaster, with firsthand accounts by those who lived through the world's worst public health crisis. Chernobyl: Crime without Punishment is a unique account of events by a reporter who defied the Soviet bureaucracy. The author presents an accurate historical record, with quotations from all the major players in the Chernobyl drama. It also provides unique insight into the final stages of Soviet communism. Yaroshinskaya describes actions after the disaster: how authorities built a new city for Chernobyl residents but placed it in a highly polluted area. She also details the actions of the nuclear lobby inside and outside the former Soviet Union. Bringing the book into the twenty-first century, the author reviews the latest medical data on Chernobyl people's health from the affected countries and from independent investigations; and states why there has been no trial of top officials who covered up Chernobyl and its disastrous consequences.

A Chernobyl survivor and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe "mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system" in this "vividly empathetic" account of the worst nuclear accident in history (Wall Street Journal). 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.

Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction Grand Master Frederik Pohl presents a fictional account of the worst nuclear disaster in human history. Chernobyl: The very name conjures the catastrophe that the world feared could happen someday at a nuclear power plant. On April 26, 1986, a power surge caused the core of one of the reactors to explode, spewing a cloud of radioactive steam into the Ukrainian air. More than four thousand people died, as many as a half-million suffered potentially cancer-causing exposure, and the city around the plant became a toxic wasteland in which nothing could live. Before the disaster at the Chernobyl plant, nuclear catastrophe had been only a fear, a threat. But when the Chernobyl plant was destroyed, all those fears were suddenly all too real. Frederik Pohl's novel of this disaster was written months after the tragic events. He had the cooperation of many people inside the U.S.S.R. with access to technical information and first-person accounts of what is still the most tragic nuclear event in human history and only one of two level 7 nuclear accidents, along with the Fukushima disaster of 2011. This is fiction, but it is the most riveting, realistic account of what happened that has ever been written. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.