Chernobyl 01:23:40

In the early hours of April 26th, 1986, a nuclear reactor in the Ukraine exploded. A few days later, its core melted down. The event forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The disaster spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories. This book, the result of five years of research, presents an accessible but comprehensive account of what really happened. From the desperate fight to prevent a burning reactor core from irradiating eastern Europe to the self-sacrifice of the heroic men who entered fields of radiation so strong that machines wouldn’t work to the surprising truth about the legendary ‘Chernobyl divers’—all the way through to the USSR’s final show-trial—the historical narrative is interwoven with a story of author Simon Redfern’s own spontaneous journey to Ukraine’s still-abandoned city of Pripyat and its surrounding areas; areas which have remained virtually unchanged since 1986.