Amazing history of one of the most terrible nuclear disaster as told by Adam Higgibotham. I bought a book called The Legacy of Chernobyl but wasn't able to finish it due to some life circumstances. But with this new book available at my local library, I felt I had to put an end to my gaps in understanding of Chernobyl disaster. This book takes you through not only what happened at the reactor that went haywire but also provides the historical context sort of a lens to see this disaster through. How USSR's hunger for economic development via increase in production of electricity lead to making some irresponsible decision by the higher ups and how USSR's top government decided to hide the accident rather than come clean and let the world know so that it can prepare for the nuclear fall out. It it was common in USSR only few people got punished while others who were derelict in their duty of letting the operators know of the potential risks involved were let loose. The book is more of a story than a documentary as most books on Chernobyl are. The story if unfortunately interesting and is a page turner all the way. Salute and respect to those who risked their lives to contain the fire and nuclear leak by working too close to immensely high radiation levels at the site of the nuclear reactor. It is as much a story of them as it is of USSR's misadventure. The world should learn from the past mistakes. Companion book to this book is The Legacy of Chernobyl by Zhores Medvedev.
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