went to lunch in the restaurant downstairs. Afterward, he ambled out onto the sunny hotel terrace and saw Director Brukhanov crossing the plaza toward him. “What’s the problem with the unit?” Prushinsky asked. Although the shell-shocked director would later continue to give his superiors contradictory information—and for several more hours tell others that Reactor Number Four remained intact—at this moment, Brukhanov acknowledged the truth. “There is no unit anymore,” he said. Prushinsky was dumbfounded. He knew this man was no nuclear expert. But what he was suggesting was simply
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