Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster

A chilling exposé of the international effort to minimize the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation in the wake of Chernobyl.

Drawing on a decade of archival research and on- the- ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Kate Brown unveils the full breadth of Chernobyl’s devastation, extending far beyond the “zone.” Her findings make clear the irreversible impact of man- made radioactivity on every living thing: hauntingly, they force us not only to confront the untold legacy of decades of weapons- testing and other nuclear incidents, but to consider the dispersal and long-term impact of myriad manmade toxins. Exposing the truth about the health and environmental consequences of radiation exposure, Brown points to a future for which the survival manual has yet to be written.