The less you think about it, the longer you’ll live. —— Alexander Yuvchenko

全书通过多个视角——核反应堆项目负责人、核反应堆操作员、Pripyat镇公务员、消防队员等——详细回顾了切尔诺贝利事故的始末：核反应堆和Pripyat小镇的建造、爆炸的当天，灭火、清理污染物的过程、建造隔离辐射的防护结构，直至对事故的审判。这么复杂的事件，起因、经过、结果讲的明明白白还非常生动也是本事。但必须吐槽一句：一句话有7行，您是卡夫卡再世？对我来说作者语言有些不必要的晦涩，用复杂的句子结构把事情复杂化而不是简单化... 让我怀疑他抱着“太容易让读者读懂就没有merit"的部分学者心态。适合搭配《切尔诺贝利的祭祷》和HBO切尔诺贝利剧集食用。前者是对普罗大众中个体的采访，可以清晰直观地感受这样一个人祸对普通人的影响；后者基本就是本书的影视版。

整本书看下来只能说有的人在看故事，有的人在照镜子，引用豆友短评来讲便是：

灾难悟得住之前的官僚主义和捂不住之后的英雄主义(p302 "Yet some heroes would prove more equal than others.")很眼熟了。

整个悲剧就是官僚主义导致的人祸。上层给下级立的KPI要赶着完成，从源设计层面就出现的错误在执行时一直没被纠正。项目总负责人为了及时交差，居然批准通过核反应堆的屋顶使用建材是可燃材料… 一环接一环、自上而下的错误堆积在一起造成了最后的灾难。而在苏联这么一个以科学为大、科学家为尊、从某种程度上可以称为集体信仰科学的国家里，承认科学家犯错的影响是毁灭性的，等同于推到了苏联人的精神支柱：

Revealing to the world the true roots of the disaster—the design of the reactor itself; the systematic, long-term failures and the culture of secrecy and denial of the Soviet nuclear program; and the arrogance of the senior scientists overseeing its implementation—was unthinkable. If the report acknowledged the design flaws of the RBMK reactor, responsibility for the accident could be traced all the way up to the chief designer and the chairman of the Academy of Sciences. In a society where the cult of science had supplanted religion, the nuclear chiefs were among its most sanctified icons—pillars of the Soviet state. To permit them to be pulled down would undermine the integrity of the entire system on which the USSR was built. They could not be found guilty.

所以苏联方不能公开造成灾难的根本原因，开始给切尔诺贝利找替罪羊：

Steinberg recognized that the origins of the accident lay with those who had designed the reactor and the secret, incestuous bureaucracy that had allowed it to go into operation. But he concluded that it was no longer constructive to allocate blame — whether with “those who hang a rifle on the wall, aware that it is loaded, or those who inadvertently pull the trigger.”

就算事故的源头是反应堆设计师，就算注定会出事的项目(doomed project)是在不透明、相互勾结的官僚机构的放纵下才进入了实施阶段，苏联上层认为无论是责怪“那些把枪挂在墙上、还意识到它上了膛的人”，还是责怪“无意中按了扳机的人“，此时“分锅”没有丝毫建设性。第一要务还得是稳定局面、稳住民心，在西方面前维护住大国尊严（为此还拒绝了欧美的第一时间援助）。而第四核反应堆的主管理人Brukhanov也坦然承担主要罪责（当然他在事故发生没多久后就早早地被expelled from the Party）：

At the trial, he had admitted his culpability as a manager for what had happened simply because that was his job. 他说：“The director has primary responsibility for everything that’s happening at the plant and with the staff. So I had to./负责人对发生于反应堆和员工身上的一切都负主要责任。所以我必须[认罪]。”

看到这里时他让我联想到那些誓与沉船共存亡的船长…

我学到最让自己唏嘘的便是单词Sarcophagus：它原本指古希腊/埃及用来存放达官显贵的棺木的最外层石棺，往往还雕有复杂华丽的装饰纹样。在切尔诺贝利事件后，这个词指苏联科学家/建筑师在苏联解体前最后的群力群策中，为爆炸后的核反应堆建的用于隔离辐射的大型混凝土结构。这么崇尚科学的国家最后几个项目之一是给自己建“石棺”，仿佛像给自己挑好墓地的大象… 也是令人感慨。

只能说最大的lesson learned就是碰到注定要沉的船快逃…