Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy

Allen Lane, UK, 2018. Reprint. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. Hardcover. 404 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Allen Lane, UK, 2018. Reprint. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in near fine condition and comes in very good dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Edges of dust jacket have light bumping. Dust jacket is unclipped. Pages are lightly tanned. Minor marks on dust jacket. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: On the morning of 26 April 1986 Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine. The outburst put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. In the end, less than five percent of the reactor's fuel escaped, but that was enough to contaminate over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy recreates these events in all of their drama, telling the stories of the firefighters, scientists, engineers, workers, soldiers, and policemen who found themselves caught in a nuclear Armageddon and succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible: extinguishing the nuclear inferno and putting the reactor to sleep. While it is clear that the immediate cause of the accident was a turbine test gone wrong, Plokhy shows how the deeper roots of Chernobyl lay in the nature of the Soviet political system and the flaws of its nuclear industry. A little more than five years later, the Soviet Union would fall apart, destroyed from within by its unsustainable communist ideology and the dysfunctional managerial and economic systems laid bare in the wake of the disaster. A poignant, fast paced account of the drama of heroes, perpetrators, and victims, Chernobyl is the definitive history of the world's worst nuclear disaster. Show less *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: History; ISBN/EAN: 9780241349021. Inventory No: 24030078.. 9780241349021