Chernobyl and Three Mile Island: The History and Legacy of the World's Most Notorious Nuclear Accidents

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Dennis E. Morris

Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Uranium is best known for the destructive power of the atom bombs, which ushered in the nuclear era at the end of World War II, but given the effectiveness of nuclear power, plants like those at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania were constructed to generate energy for Americans during the second half of the 20th century. While nuclear power plants were previously not an option and thus opened the door to new, more efficient, and more affordable forms of energy for domestic consumption, the use of nuclear energy understandably unnerved people living during the Cold War and amidst ongoing nuclear detonations. After all, the damage wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made clear to everyone what nuclear energy was capable of inflicting, and the health problems encountered by people exposed to the radiation also demonstrated the horrific side effects that could come with the use of nuclear weapons or the inability to harness the technology properly.

Thus, it seemed that everyone's worst fears were realized on March 28, 1979 when the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island suffered a partial meltdown. As bad as it was, Three Mile Island paled in comparison to Chernobyl, which to this day remains the most notorious nuclear accident in history. Located in the Ukraine, the Chernobyl power plant was undergoing experiments in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986 when it suffered a series of explosions in one of its nuclear reactors, killing over 30 people at the plant and spread radioactive fallout across a wide swath of the Soviet Union.

Chernobyl and Three Mile Island chronicles the worst nuclear accident in history and the aftermath of the accident.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Basic primer on these two nuclear disasters

This book is a good introduction to these two well-known nuclear accidents. It does not offer much new info for someone familiar with the nuclear power plants. The book's strength is in its focus on the people impacted by the respective accidents.

A very interesting listen

Plenty of facts I didn't know about Three Mile island, plus the interspersed personal detail brings it home.

Good information

The information contained is quite good. Living through both events, it was interesting to hear the details. My only issue with this book is the narrator’s pronunciation of some of the Soviet names. It probably wouldn’t have bothered me had I not listened to Midnight in Chernobyl before listening to this book.

You get what you pay for

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. It was really hard to stay focused on this. It jumps from one meeting of bureaucrats to a few minutes of eye-witness testimony and back to the meeting of bureaucrats.

Any additional comments?

This seems like it was hurriedly put together out of transcripts and other books/reporting on the topic. Not much time was taken in developing a narrative for either of these accidents.

Uncontextualized Propaganda

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who just wants to read anti-nuclear propaganda and doesn't care about a complete lack of context, or basic errors about reactor construction.

The book is 90% transcripts of eyewitness interviews and meetings of officials in the immediate aftermath of the accidents. It does a good job of conveying the fear and confusion of the times, but does nothing to contextualize the threats or create a coherent timeline.

Issues:
- "Did you read the Wikipedia?"-level errors about the construction of power plants.
- Lack of context for the personal interviews. When were they conducted? Who conducted them?
- Claims made in the interviews (Stuff like an impenetrable blue fog miles from Three Mile Island and mass dieoff of animals) are either uncorroborated or impossible.
- Lack of a coherent timeline.

Would you ever listen to anything by Charles River Editors again?

Nope.

This might have provided some decent background for a more complete study of the events, but for that, you'd want a text copy.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator made a small change of voice when moving into interview transcripts, but seemed to forget about it halfway through, meaning that it was impossible to tell when they switched back.

Plus, mispronunciation of some very common words.

What character would you cut from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island: The History and Legacy of the World's Most Notorious Nuclear Accidents?

All of them.

Any additional comments?

Complete waste of a credit. Nothing but blatant propaganda.

Questionable accuracy

Not an unbiased examination as I'd hoped. Includes accounts by people who got "sunburned" from Three Mile Island or their cat started acting strange.