The consequences of the Chernobyl accident are accurately described in Svetlana Alexievich’s book “Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster”

In 1997, Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich published "Voices from Chernobyl," based on interviews with hundreds of people affected by the Chernobyl accident. Although it presents some proven facts, the mixture of fact and speculation paints a picture that falls far from the scientific truth.

The book “Voices from Chernobyl” was published in 1997 by Belarusian journalist and essayist Svetlana Alexievich and based on interviews between 1994 and 1996 with various people affected by the Chernobyl accident. Although some consequences are accurately represented, the author mixes personal experiences and rumors, painting a picture that falls far from the scientific truth.

This book reflects the social, political, moral, and above all, personal tragedy caused by the accident at the power plant on April 26th, 1986. Its publication was a great success.

Many stories are true, such as the effects of acute radiation suffered by a firefighter extinguishing the reactor fire in the presence of highly radioactive particles, or the pits dug to bury irradiated animals and heavily contaminated equipment and soil. It is also true that the Soviet authorities lied to say that the situation was under control or that evacuees would return home in a few days.

But when the book turns to speculation - including rumors that may or may not be true - we leave the realm of reality.

Some of these rumors have been countered by studies conducted since the accident in contaminated territories:

• no mass graves containing thousands of human corpses have ever been unearthed in the area;
• animals living in the contaminated territories, apart from those in the forest near the plant who died in the first months after the accident, were able to resume their lives and thrive despite the higher radiation;
• an increase in congenital malformations was not revealed by any studies submitted to international peer review, or conducted by international teams;
• evacuees were not deported to Siberia for internment, but rather transported to new communities built for them, far from the contaminated territories.

There are still rumors that are impossible to disprove: who’s to say whether or not there was an alien ship above the plant the day before the accident?

To distinguish fact from fiction concerning the consequences of the accident, we recommend consulting the reports of UNSCEAR [1], the United Nations Scientific Committee for Research on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, as well as the more succinct reports of the Canadian [2] and French [3] nuclear regulatory authorities.