Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

by Adam Higginbotham

Director Brukhanov and the chief engineer of the plant initially insisted that whatever had happened had caused no radioactive releases, and local KGB officers took measures “to prevent the spread of panic-mongering, provocative rumors, and other negative manifestations.” In fact, radioactive contamination, carried on the wind and brought down by rain showers, had reached Pripyat and spread as far as fourteen kilometers from the plant. It included iodine 131, fragments of uranium dioxide fuel, and hot particles containing zinc 65 and zirconium-niobium 95 consistent with partial destruction of the reactor core. Levels of radiation in the village of Chistogalovka, five kilometers from the station, were hundreds of times higher than normal. But a team from Soyuzatomenergo—the USSR’s atomic energy authority—contested these findings. Contaminated areas immediately around the plant were simply sluiced with water and covered with soil and leaves. In Pripyat, decontamination trucks dispensed foam on the streets, and Lenina Prospekt was discreetly spread with a fresh layer of asphalt.