The rest of his passage explains why no one knew what was really happening: the government did not want to cause panic. Not to mention, no one really knew how bad the situation at Chernobyl was. There was a complete lack of information and scientific data available. This passage alone, within most of Part III, sums up the situation. There was in fact information available, although it was in very small quantities; the government could take steps to prevent more people from being exposed to radiation. However, they did nothing to help. These facts and figures were all missing from the first two sections of the novel, and for good reason. The people interviewed did not know these facts. The majority of them didn't even know what radiation was. By removing these facts and placing them at the end of the novel, we see the events of Chernobyl unfold in the same way they did in real life. Indeed, it is now clear that Alexeïvitch created a form adapted to the function of the