Author Description

Significant historical events sometimes take place over long periods of time; sometimes they can occur in a single day. This high-drama book looks at how, in 24 hours, the explosion in a nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union would have an impact on subsequent world history. On 26 April,1986, a huge explosion tore apart the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. As staff and firefighters struggled heroically to bring the blaze at the plant under control, the Soviet government issued public statements that tragically understated the scale of the disaster. How and why did this terrible accident occur? Why did the Soviet Union want to conceal what really happened? Who were the people involved and what became of them? What was the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the environment and on global attitudes towards nuclear power? How did it contribute to the breakdown of the Soviet Union itself?