''The Truth About Chernobyl'' is a 1991 book by Grigori Medvedev. Medvedev served as deputy chief engineer at the No. 1 reactor unit of the
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
Nuclear Power Plant while the plant was under construction. At the time of the
Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Medvedev was deputy director of the main industrial department in the Soviet Ministry of Energy dealing with the construction of nuclear power stations. Since Medvedev knew the Chernobyl plant well, he was sent back as a special investigator immediately after the 1986 catastrophe.
In his book, Medvedev provides extensive first-hand testimony, based on many interviews, describing minute by minute precisely what was and was not done both before and after the explosion. It has been described as a tragic tale of pervasive, institutionalized, bureaucratic incompetence leading up to the accident; and heroic, heartbreaking sacrifice among those who had to deal with the emergency afterwards.
The book is written not in a documentary style but in a very personal style, often speaking in the first person. While it includes extensive direct quotes from some of those who survived the disaster, it does not include references beyond a bare seven footnotes.
In 1991, it was awarded the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ...
, Science and technology.
See also
*
List of books about nuclear issues
This is a list of books about nuclear issues. They are non-fiction books which relate to uranium mining, nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power.
*''The Algebra of Infinite Justice'' (2001)
*'' American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J ...
*
List of Chernobyl-related articles
This is a list of Chernobyl-related articles.
Disaster and effects
* Comparison of Chernobyl and other radioactivity releases
** Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents
* Chernobyl disaster
* Effects of the Chernobyl di ...
*''
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment''
References
External links
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