Summary

In The Prologue, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Logachev of the Civil Defense force and his men approach the Chernobyl nuclear site expecting to do routine reconnaissance, only to flee in terror at levels of radiations they previously believed impossible.

Chapter One, “The Soviet Prometheus,” focuses mainly on Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station plant director Victor Brukhanov. Brukhanov was put in charge of building and running the Chernobyl power plant and the city, Pripyat, built to house its workers. Brukhanov and his deputy at the plant, Nikolai Fomin, were electrical engineers with little experience with nuclear power who were appointed because of their status within the Communist Party. Pripyat was built along a river in the dense woods of Eastern Ukraine, and featured luxuries rarely seen in the Soviet Union, like fully stocked grocery stores, foreign home goods and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Most...