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

by Adam Higginbotham

The plant’s civil defense chief, Serafim Vorobyev, arrived in the bunker shortly after two in the morning. The first thing he did was remove a powerful DP-5 military radiometer from storage and turn it on. A bulky Bakelite box with a steel detecting wand at the end of a long cable, the DP-5 was designed for use after a nuclear attack, and, unlike the sensitive Geiger counters used by the power station’s dosimetrists to monitor workplace safety, it could detect intense gamma radiation fields of up to 200 roentgen per hour. Obliged by regulations to report to the local authorities any accident that resulted in a release of radiation beyond the boundaries of the power station, Vorobyev went up to ground level to take measurements. He’d reached only as far as the bus stop outside the front doors when he took a reading of 150 milliroentgen per hour—more than a hundred times higher than normal. He rushed back to tell Brukhanov to warn the plant staff and the population of Pripyat. “Viktor Petrovich,” he said, “we need to make an announcement.” But the director told him to wait. He wanted more time to think.