Judges’ comment: “Serhii Plokhy’s account of the tragedy of Chernobyl describes how Cold War political pressures, a flawed nuclear industry, and human error combined to produce a nuclear disaster that affected the lives of millions and hastened the Soviet Union’s demise, but which could have been so much worse. Written in clear, precise prose, the book’s message is still urgent today: we must learn from what happened in Ukraine on April 26th, 1986.”