Title: Misinformation
Product review: This is the same "documentary" book Medvedev publushed in Russian in 1989. Quite entertaining, but also quite confusing and often misinforming where it touches on the causes of the disaster. It follows the official line of putting all the blame on the station personnel ("thankfully", most of the shift personnel died soon after the catastrophe from radiation sickness). It almost completely sidetracks the real cause: the faulty reactor design which made it uncontrollable under the circumstances.If you feel confused when reading about "operational reactivity reserve" -- don't be. The author is either confused himself, or is trying (not very successfully) to cover the inadequacies of the official analysis. Too bad the Anatoly Dyatlov's book (the deputy chief engineer, one of the few first-hand participants who lived long enough to write about the disaster) wasn't ever translated from Russian.
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