Committee Summary:

Chernobyl: The First Hours places delegates in the chaotic, smoke-filled night of April 26, 1986, as Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has just exploded. Participants will step into the roles of Soviet officials, plant engineers, medical responders, scientists, and military officers, all grappling with the unfolding disaster, and the political machine working to hide it. The committee will confront urgent questions: how to contain the reactor fire, protect nearby populations, and manage a rising tide of radiation sickness, all while navigating Moscow’s directives to control the narrative and suppress the truth. Delegates will face the tension between loyalty to the state and the moral imperative to save lives, while crisis updates introduce fresh complications, from reactor instability and mass evacuations to international suspicion and media leaks. The choices made in this room could shape whether the disaster is remembered as a contained tragedy or the first domino in a global crisis.