The story of the operators, firefighters, evacuees, and survivors caught in the world’s worst nuclear disaster The dosimeters went off scale. A huge plume of smoke from the explosion shot a kilometer into the sky, and tons of nuclear fuel and graphite were scattered around the nuclear power plant. The shocked operators of the Chernobyl NPP could only watch in horror as the worst radiation disaster in history unfolded. Yet just a couple of hours earlier, no one could have imagined such a catastrophe.  A nuclear fairy tale  The Soviet Union was a pioneer in nuclear energy. In 1954, the world’s first nuclear power plant became operational in Obninsk. Enthusiasm soared as new plants were rapidly built across the country. By the late 1970s, as part of an extensive construction program, yet another NPP was built on the banks of Pripyat River near the city of Chernobyl. A city named after the river quickly sprang up around the plant. Pripyat was a clean, well-kept city surrounded by nature.…