Chernobyl - Critical Hours: The Six hours that Changed Nuclear History
About
At 1:23 a.m. on 26 April 1986, a routine safety test inside Reactor Number Four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant went catastrophically wrong.
Thirty-six seconds later, the reactor exploded.
What followed would become the worst nuclear accident in human history.
In this gripping instalment of the Critical Hours series, author Bill Stewart reconstructs the six crucial hours that transformed a Soviet showcase power station into a global disaster.
From the delayed safety test and the fatal decisions inside the control room to the desperate actions of firefighters racing towards an invisible enemy, this is the story of how a chain of small mistakes became a catastrophe that changed the world forever.
Inside you’ll discover:
• The safety test that should never have happened
• The hidden flaws within the RBMK reactor design
• The final seconds before Reactor Number Four exploded
• The heroic firefighters who battled the flames
• The confusion, denial, and disbelief that followed
• The first victims of radiation exposure
• The race to understand the scale of the disaster
• The critical decisions that shaped the aftermath
Written in Bill Stewart’s trademark cinematic documentary style, Critical Hours: Chernobyl places you inside the control room, beside the firefighters, and among the residents of Pripyat as history unfolds minute by minute.
Some disasters happen in an instant.
Others continue for generations.
This was both.