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Chernobyl : A Russian Journalist's Eyewitness Account
Chernobyl A Russian Journalist's Eyewitness Account Author:Andrey Illesh Within 24 hours of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, Andrey Illesh and three photographers were rushed to the stricken power plant. Their dramatic interviews and photographs of the survivors brings us up close to the Chernobyl workers-some of whom were already dying of heavy doses of radiation. — You are actually there as young... more » firemen, still in their twenties, tell in their own words of the frightening sirens that spell out a nuclear accident. Knowing they are facing death, these heroic young men climb onto the exploding roof three minutes later. They begin hosing down the uncontrollable fire, trying to prevent it from spreading to the other three reactors. Some remained on the roof until overcome with radiation sickness and nausea.
Accompany the author on a helicopter as it drops sand onto the doomed reactor. Finally, you see the long, dangerous process- including tunneling under the reactor to seal the leakage from the bottom-as the dying reactor is entombed in concrete. Then we see the evacuation of citizens from the region, and the crash effort to construct emergency housing.
Like the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the British nuclear accident, the Chernobyl accident terrified the world. The last chapter of this book deals with constructive suggestions for an international approach to the safer operation of nuclear power plants.« less