Chernobyl: The Fall of Atomgrad

Harrowing and graphic re-telling of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster from the creator of George Orwell’s 1984. On 26 April 1986, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union, suffered a massive meltdown after a flawed reactor design was identified and the subsequent safety tests went disastrously wrong. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven-the maximum severity-on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The initial emergency response, together with later decontamination of the environment, involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion roubles-roughly US$68 billion. The meltdown and resulting explosions ruptured the reactor core and destroyed the reactor building, immediately followed by an open-air reactor core fire which lasted until 4 May 1986, during which airborne radioactive contaminants were released and deposited onto other parts of the USSR and Europe. In all, approx. 300,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. Following the reactor explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two more, a massive emergency operation to put out the fire, stabilise the reactor, and clean up the ejected radioactive material began. During the immediate emergency response, 237 workers were hospitalised, of which 134 exhibited symptoms of acute radiation syndrome. Among those hospitalised, 28 died within the following three months. In this harrowing graphic novel, Matya Namai, bestselling creator of George Orwell’s 1984, tells the story of how this horrific disaster unfolded and the brave men and women who struggled to contain the disaster, many losing their lives, and the terrible cost to those who survived. AUTHOR: Matya Namai studied graphic design at the High School of Advertising in Prague. He now works as a freelance artist and is mainly involved in illustrations, comics and occasional storyboards. He is the author of the bestselling George Orwell’s 1984, also published by Palazzo. SELLING POINTS: . From the creator of the bestselling graphic novel George Orwell’s 1984 . A powerful re-imagining of the world’s largest nuclear disaster

Format: Paperback
Imprint: Affirm Press AUS
Publication date: 04/04/2024