Draws on twenty years of research, recently declassified files, and interviews with survivors in an account of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster that also reveals how propaganda and secrets have created additional dangers.

On March 28, 1978 a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility began to overheat. The lives of half a million people soon hung in the balance as human error and mechanical failure combined to create the worst nuclear accident in American history.

"On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person....

"Early readers will learn about the science behind the Chernobyl disaster through carefully leveled text and photo illustrations. Includes glossary and index."--