Those who lived through it recall the harrowing first day of what would become the worst nuclear accident ever recorded. Following an explosion in a reactor during a safety procedure at a Ukrainian power plant, firefighters raced toward the…

Two days passed after the explosion, and then the world awoke to a devastating global crisis. At the power plant, helicopter crews fought desperately against a fire raging within the reactor core, battling thick clouds of intensely radioact…

The daunting task of clearing away the deadly radioactive fallout began. Following the establishment of a military exclusion zone, Gorbachev authorized the construction of a massive concrete sarcophagus intended to contain the ruined nuclea…

Fourteen months had passed since the disaster when plant operators were brought before a Soviet tribunal. At the reactor itself, scientists searched for the lingering traces of the radioactive fuel. As the Soviet Union began to dissolve, an…