The nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 had a heavy impact on life, health, and the environment. It caused agony to people in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and anxiety far away from these countries. The economic losses and social dislocation were severe in a region already under strain. It is now possible to make more accurate assessments of these effects than it was in the first few years following the catastrophe.

An internationally known author, speaker, and medical physicist, Dr. Mould visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in December 1987 and in June 1998. Chernobyl Record: The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe begins with a brief description of why the accident occurred and of eye witness accounts. The book then examines the early medical response and follow up of patients with acute radiation syndrome, including power plant workers and liquidators, the evacuation and resettlement, the current and future status of the sarcophagus, dose measurement and estimation methods, population doses, the contamination of the environment, psychological illness in adults and thyroid cancer in children, and the predicted cancer incidence in the 21st century, including leukemia and solid cancers.

Highly illustrated, the book includes color photographs of the early and late effects on the skin of firemen who fought the blaze, the control room where operators survived, the damage inside the sarcophagus, and the remaining radioactive fuel masses within the sarcophagus, such as the so-called "Elephant's Foot" mass for which samples were chipped off using Kalashnikov rifles. Authored by a member of the UK Government Delegation that attended the first post-accident conference in August 1986 at the IAEA in Vienna, the book also covers the accidents at Three Mile Island, Kyshtym, and Tokaimura; the effects of the Hiroshoma and Nagasaki atomic bombs; and information concerning the semi-palatinsk nuclear weapons test site in the former USSR.