Early on the morning of April 26, 1986 a terrible accident took place in the Ukraine at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station. A routine test that had been long delayed was finally taking place. Mistakes were made by the inexperienced operators. The result; Reactor Number Four blew up and a cloud of lethal radiation began spewing into the atmosphere.
In his book "Midnight in Chernobyl-the Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster" Adam Higginbotham describes how the disaster unfolded and what was done to try to stop the meltdown. The people in charge refused to believe what was happening and tried to conceal the ongoing crisis that was taking place. Meanwhile the wind was dispersing radioactive clouds across hundreds of miles of territory. The radiation was drifting over Russia and Belarus and Lithuania and Sweden.
Even the leader of the USSR was kept in the dark about what was really happening in the Ukraine. This is an incredible story of cowardice and heroism. A cautionary tale to be sure.
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