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

by Adam Higginbotham

Shortly before 5:00 p.m., Senior Lieutenant Alexander Logachev of the Kiev region civil defense unit ran into the White House with the results of his ground radiation survey of the plant. His armored personnel carrier had come down Lenina Prospekt at one hundred kilometers per hour—so fast that the seven-tonne vehicle became airborne as it crested the railway bridge, and then drove right up the steps and across the pedestrian plaza to the main entrance. The map the breathless Logachev presented to Malomuzh showed the radiation reading just beside the plant cafeteria, scribbled hastily in pencil: 2,080 roentgen an hour. “You mean milliroentgen, son,” the Party chief said. “Roentgen,” Logachev said. Logachev’s commander studied the map. He finished one cigarette and then lit another. “We need to evacuate the city,” he said.