Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

Having worked around nuclear power plants in my Navy days, I had a pretty good understanding of what had happened that night. But this book brought in so many details about crass decisions, stupid actions, and unbelievable foolishness! Having lived within a 100' of a reactor on a submarine, I can say without thought that we would have handled this in a completely opposite manner. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn about the wrong way to handle a disaster, and how our two very different forms of government behave.

solid read

listened twice. great job

A good 5 hour story crammed into 13+ hours. Narrator will put you to sleep.

A fascinating look into the eye of a terrible and perfect storm of human audacity. Midnight In Chernobyl recreates minute by minute the a tragedy decades in the making providing some of the most stunning insight and context. I was engrossed until the very end.

Enjoyed this book a lot. I was about 39 yrs old when this occurred and have always wondered about the story of what actually happened and what the initial and long lasting results were. Higginbotham’s research into the individuals involved from plant workers and supervisors to government officials brought the story to life with how it impacted those involved. One takeaway for me was that the bureacracy in the USSR may not have been too much different from the USA today. As an engineer (but not nuclear) I appreciated his handling of what technical details were necessary to tell the story which I was able to understand but were laid out in a way that a non-technical background person would also grasp. Good follow-up also on residual effects on the land, population and those involved in the plant operation and subsequent liquidation (cleanup) operations. Excellent narration as well.

Great book! Super interesting! Not a light read tho more like a text book but it can hold your attention

Detailed information and descriptions; a compelling exposition of deceit, Xian’s cover up as well as bravery and sacrifice. Reminiscent of the attempts to market thalidomide, and the campaigns to discredit scientific research about the damage caused by second hand smoke, CFL damage to the ozone layer and similar denial of climate change and its relationship to fossil fuels. In the USSR the currency was saving face for the party; in the other aforementioned it is money.

I teach science and love reading about real life events and while some of the logistics of the Chernobyl reactors were extremely detailed with lots of chemical jargon and specific information that overwhelmed the senses, I found the book extremely enlightening. The possibilities of what could have been, how the government tried to detailed the truth from not only the world, but their own people suggest that although we have come a long way in intellect and trust, countries behave just like people when the truth is something you'd rather hide.

Started out slow and very technical with how the reactors/plant was built. Had already watched the HBO serious and work in the radiation field so I persisted. The story finally got into the human aspect of what transpired and it was quite interesting. If you aren't technical and can stick with it until the story unfolds, it was worth the time to list to it. Crazy and sad to know this truly happened.

Interesting book

What a great companion to the HBO Series. I was able to understand the science, but was surprised by the strong human characters.

Excellent look into the beaurocracy that was - is? - the Russian empire

Interesting book. Well worth listening too.