As nuclear workers in Japan struggle to contain radiation from
the Fukushima reactor, world attention is turning back to
Chernobyl, Ukraine. There, people prepare to mark the 25th
anniversary of the explosion that blew the roof off Reactor
Number 4. Soviet planners designed Chernobyl in the 1960s to
become the largest nuclear power station in Europe. Instead,
Chernobyl is remembered today as the site of the largest nuclear
disaster in the world. Late on the night of April 25, 1986, Yuri
Andreyev left his shift as an engineer at Nuclear Reactor No. 4.
Ninety minutes later, a safety experiment went awry. The fuel
rods melted down, an explosion blew the roof off, and a
raspberry-colored light spewed into the night sky. When Andreyev
returned to work, he saw a scene of devastation. After stepping
over the discarded boots, jacket and helmets of fire fighters,
he stood in the ruined computer control room and looking up saw
blue sky. Twenty-five years later, Andreyev runs Chernobyl
Forum, a political lobby for Ukrai