On December 4, 1987, after more than eighteen months of decontamination, repairs, and modifications, the last of the three surviving reactors of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station once again began providing electricity to the Soviet grid. Unit Three, although now separated from its entombed twin by a wall of concrete and lead, remained so radioactive that reluctant engineers were rotated in from other reactors—to prevent them being overexposed during the course of their shifts. Despite the sacrifices of General Tarakanov and his bio-robots, uranium fuel pellets were still scattered on the
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