Includes Index

Foreword by Andrei Sakharov. Author's Preface. 1. Before Chernobyl. The Myth of Safety. The Accident at Three Mile Island. Precursors of the Disaster. Silence and Incompetence in High Places. Nuclear Power in East and West. 2. The Elements of the Tragedy. Flying Over the Ukraine. A Test Program Bypassing the Safety Rules. The Decision Makers. The Events of 25 April 1986. Violations of Nuclear Safety Rules. The Choice of Reactor. 3. 26 April 1986. The Last Seventeen Minutes and Fourteen Seconds. The Last Twenty Seconds. The Explosions. Eyewitnesses. In the Control Room. Rescue Work. Radioactivity. The Myth of the Intact Reactor. Fighting the Fires. First Alarms. The Experts Consult. At the Pripyat Medical Center. First Official Actions. 4. 27 April 1986. Evacuation. Trying to Seal Off the Reactor. 5. Reviewing the Damage: 28 April-8 May 1986. The Government Commission: 4-7 May 1986. Visiting the Scene of the Disaster: 8 May 1986. 6. The Lessons of Chernobyl. The Patients at No. 6 Clinic in Moscow. The Lessons of Chernobyl. Mitino Cemetery. A New Culture for the Nuclear Age.

Recounts the panic and paralysis which overwhelmed the men and administrative bodies that were responsible for the Chernobyl plant. Also describes the refusal by the authorities to admit to the scale of the disaster and the needless genetic damage that this refusal inflicted.