Higginbotham holds our attention with his focus on the human side of the tragedy at Chernobyl. We learn about those working at the plant that fateful night, their backgrounds, their daily lives, their families and friends. Thus as Higginbotham describes the unfolding of the disaster in a blow by blow account, we can feel their dismay as their lives and their world come apart. In addition to a riveting account of the night of the disaster and the chaotic days following, Higginbotham explains the

Higginbotham holds our attention with his focus on the human side of the tragedy at Chernobyl. We learn about those working at the plant that fateful night, their backgrounds, their daily lives, their families and friends. Thus as Higginbotham describes the unfolding of the disaster in a blow by blow account, we can feel their dismay as their lives and their world come apart. In addition to a riveting account of the night of the disaster and the chaotic days following, Higginbotham explains the reasons for the nuclear reactor’s failure and the wider impact on Soviet society. We get a glimpse of what it was like to live in the 1980s Soviet Union under a dysfunctional authoritarian government.



The tragedy is explored at three levels: First there is the human toll, the suffering and death, and the displacement of over one hundred thousand people. Then there is the technical failure of the reactor and the failure of the scientists and administrators that culminated in the disaster. Lastly there is the deeper underlying issue of autocratic and expedient Soviet governance that led to all the suffering and failures and made them worse with an ill prepared inept response.



The town of Pripyat was built near the Chernobyl atomic power station to provide places to live for the men and women who constructed, maintained and operated the plant. Fifty thousand people were living there including many families with children on April, 26 1986 when reactor number four exploded spewing huge amounts of radioactive particles high into the air. The scientists and technicians working at the plant at first denied the seriousness of the accident. They did not believe it possible for the reactor to explode. Many of them would succumb to radiation poisoning.



For the first 36 hours, the people of the town were misled by the authorities who told them everything was under control. Soviet leaders did not want to create panic and did not want negative press. But the core of the reactor had destroyed itself creating a radioactive fire that could not be extinguished by conventional means. Microscopic radioactive particles kept falling on the town as people unaware went about their everyday Saturday and Sunday activities, many of them outside on an otherwise pleasant spring day. Suddenly they were told that they would have to evacuate. Over a thousand buses were lined up. The townspeople were told to just take what they needed for two or three days. The buses deposited them one by one with rural and small town families in the countryside who were told to take them in.



Pripyat would never be reopened. Lied to by the authorities, it slowly dawned on its former citizens they would never return. They would be permanently resettled as would thousands more in nearby areas as the extent of the contamination was uncovered. Radioactive particles were dispersed far and near following the whims of the winds and rain. Kiev, over 100 kilometers away, closed its schools in mid-May and evacuated hundreds of thousands of children, their mothers and expectant mothers. They were scattered around Ukraine, many to summer camps and some even to Crimean resorts.



Staff and first responders at the plant that night showing signs of acute radiation sickness were sent without notifying their families to a hospital in Moscow. Many would never see their loved ones again. Thirty of them would die from radiation sickness. The descriptions of their deaths are horrifying as visible injuries heal and the patient appears to get better only to succumb to the relentless radiation from particles inside the body destroying vital organs and tissues. Thousands of others from Pripyat and other contaminated areas would die early deaths as radiation weakened immune systems and induced cancers.



What caused the accident? Primarily it was poor design. Higginbotham gets into the technical details which I’ll skip. Basically to operate safely, the reactor required constant attention by the operators. The faulty design was the product of an insular scientific establishment led by a bureaucracy enamored with its own creations. They were also under great pressure to get the reactors built fast and cheap, thus many design steps were skipped and readily available technology adopted even if not the best. The designers recognized some of the inherent weaknesses of their reactors, but felt conscientious operation would prevent any problems. They wrote reams of instructions and procedures, but were careful not to expose the underlying design faults that required them. The Soviet leadership always wanted to present a face to the world of technical superiority. Covering up faults was common practice.



A secondary problem was the training and rules governing the operators. While Higginbotham presents all of them as capable and well intentioned, they weren’t always prepared for the job at hand. The accident occurred while running a test, one they hadn’t run before or practiced. Mistakes were made. The reactor became unstable for reasons the operators never could have anticipated or understood because the relevant information was hidden from them by the designers. They all were sure that under no circumstances could the reactor explode. It took many hours after the explosion for the operators and their management to believe that it actually did. Also, reactor operators were not always in the best condition to perform critical tasks. A key mistake was made during the test by an operator who had not slept for thirty-six hours. Higginbotham notes some operators would drink before coming to work. Higginbotham portrays heavy drinking as common in the community.



Higginbotham spends much of the book on the response to the reactor explosion and the radioactive contamination. It begins with first responders trying to put out the fire and determine the extent of the damage. Apparently unaware of how dangerously radioactive the area was, many would suffer from acute radiation sickness. Radioactive debris was spread all around the reactor. There was no way to get close to it and live. Everyone was afraid of another explosion or the China Syndrome. If the remains of the core sunk into the earth, it could contaminate the water supply for the heavily populated Kiev. Team after team of government officials and workman would engage in cleanup effort after cleanup effort taking years as one approach after another failed to achieve results. Over 600,000 people were engaged in the cleanup effort, many conscripted for the work and many ruining their health. A major impediment to the cleanup was the Soviet leadership’s refusal to admit the true causes of the disaster and the enormity of the damage and contamination. Government leaders and their scientific functionaries remained insular and did not seek help from other countries. All remediation plans were homegrown often decided by those with power but little expertise.



The Chernobyl disaster cost the Soviet Union an amount equal to its entire 1989 defense budget. As the public realized it was continually being lied to and word spread about the true extent of the devastation and the fumbling attempts to deal with it, people lost faith in their government. Gorbachev said Chernobyl was a primary reason for the Soviet Union falling apart. In 2016, exactly thirty years later, the Ukrainian president gave a speech dedicating a huge new structure being built to further contain the remnants of the still highly radioactive reactor. He too noted that the Chernobyl disaster was an important factor in the breakup of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence. He recognized the 115,000 people who would never return to Pripyat and the Exclusion Zone. He acknowledged that 2,500,000 people were living on contaminated land and that the state was still making payments to hundreds of thousands of people disabled by the accident.



The Exclusion Zone extends 30 kilometers from Chernobyl covering 1,000 square miles. While not safe for permanent habitation, there are tours offered. Everyone’s radiation level is monitored and there are signs warning of hot spots. Nature has been resurgent in the zone. Fears of three headed cows did not come true although genetic changes have been detected in plants and animals. Wildlife has prospered in the absence of humans with wolves, bears, elk, lynx and other native species forming a vibrant ecosystem.



Higginbotham has done a masterful job of research. He provides extensive notes. He interviewed people that were there, members of their families, people involved in the Soviet nuclear program at the time and people involved in the containment effort. He was able to access files only recently available. Perhaps most important he made this remarkable book one we want to read by putting the human story first. Today when nuclear power plants are still being built and seen as a way to help stem climate change, his book is highly relevant. Taken together with the Fukushima disaster and the partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island, it makes one pause to consider whether the risk is worth it. I am convinced it isn’t.

