Chernobyl 01:23:40 cover art

Chernobyl 01:23:40

The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster

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About this listen

At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.

This book, the result of five years of research, presents an accessible but comprehensive account of what really happened - from the desperate fight to prevent a burning reactor core from irradiating eastern Europe, to the self-sacrifice of the heroic men who entered fields of radiation so strong that machines wouldn't work, to the surprising truth about the legendary "Chernobyl diver", all the way through to the USSR's final show-trial. The historical narrative is interwoven with a story of the author's own spontaneous journey to Ukraine's still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.

©2016 Andrew Leatherbarrow (P)2016 Tantor Russia Soviet Union Suspenseful Imperial Japan Nuclear Disaster
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Certainly an interesting informative book. really hard researched and clearly a labour of love.

The chapters about Chernobyl on the night and about the actual players in the disaster are captivating, however I found myself less interested in the authors personal trip to the plant, and personal story of his trip.

The narrator is decent enough. but I did find him a little bland. Flat. I sometimes couldn't tell he had started quoting, and he had a kind of "elderly relative tells you a story" style about him.

All all though. I killed this in two evenings. And couldn't stop listening until the end. And I definitely learnt a lot.

Fascinating Info

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Not dramatised and padded out with drivel you get the sense the author has done their research and is passionate about the topic.

Informative and enjoyable.

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The world is still suffering and when the truth emerges and is accepted the legacy of the soviet Union will never be forgotten or forgiven

A tragic story which must be read

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The book is a mix of relatively high level into about what happened and the experience of the author in the zone
The narration let's it down a little further at it's very dry

It's ok but more a mixed bag of fact and experienc

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Amazing book-every engineer should read it - especially if working in AI. It highlights both the technical and human causes of the disaster. It also presents the history factually with many different, often contradicting, sources.

Amazing book-every engineer should read it.

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