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

by Adam Higginbotham

The chief of the radiation scouts overseeing the cleanup operation above Unit Three spoke first. Yuri Samoilenko, a thickset Ukrainian with a shaggy mop of dark hair and a brooding gaze, looked haggard. His eyes were dark and pouchy. He chain-smoked constantly. Using a sketch plan of the rooftops, annotated densely with numbered radiation readings and marked with red flags and stars to indicate the most acute hazards, he explained the situation they faced. All technical and automated means to clear the debris field had failed. Radiation levels were enormous. But the roofs had to be cleared before the Sarcophagus was sealed and the sole repository chosen for the most contaminated pieces of reactor debris was thus closed forever. Every other option had been exhausted. It was time, he said, to send in men to do the job by hand. There was a heavy silence. The campaign of the bio-roboty—the bio-robots—had begun. Tarakanov’s soldiers launched their operation three days later, on the afternoon of September 19.