To chronicle the catastrophe, the author interviewed the engineers and operators on duty at the time, talked to the director, now serving a ten year sentence for negligence, visited the previously top-secret Kurchatov Institute, Moscow's Hospital No. 6, and the once-closed city of Obninsk. The author also gained access to the transcripts of the trail of the reactor operators, the protocol of the previously secret Medical Commission, and other confidential reports. Includes 16 pages of bandw photos. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR