Description

Book Synopsis

At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl’s fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands and crippled the Soviet Union. The event 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 the author’s own spontaneous journey to Ukraine’s still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.

Complete with over 45 pages of photographs of modern-day Pripyat and technical diagrams of the power station,Chernobyl 01:23:40 is a fascinating new account of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

Chernobyl 01

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    A Hardback by Andrew Leatherbarrow, Petrey Elizabeth

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      Book details

      Publisher Andrew Leatherbarrow
      Published 4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9780993597534
      978-0993597534
      ISBN-10 099359753X
      Also in:
      History of other geographical groupings Science & Nature History of science Travel & Transport Travel and holiday

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl’s fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands and crippled the Soviet Union. The event 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 the author’s own spontaneous journey to Ukraine’s still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.

      Complete with over 45 pages of photographs of modern-day Pripyat and technical diagrams of the power station,Chernobyl 01:23:40 is a fascinating new account of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

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