
I still remember hearing about the unbelievable scenes after the Chernobyl disaster. It wasn’t some made-up story, though – it was what people actually witnessed. Just over three months after Reactor Four exploded, I heard about a man named Belyakov, a chemistry lecturer like myself, who was called up to help with the cleanup. He was from Dnipropetrovsk, about 390 miles away, and like thousands of others, he was drafted in to deal with the dangerous radioactive waste. It was a crucial step, because they needed to clear everything before they could safely cover the reactor with concrete and stop the radiation from spreading further.