The rest of his passage explains why no one knew what was really happening: the government didn't want to cause panic. Not to mention, no one really knew how bad the situation was in Chernobyl. There was a complete lack of information and science available. Only this passage within the larger whole of the third part sums up the situation. In fact, information was available, even if very small; there were steps the government could take 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 were not aware of these facts. Most of them didn't even know what radiation was. By removing these facts and placing them at the novel's conclusion, we see the events of Chernobyl unfold the same way they did in real life. Indeed, it now became clear that Alexeivich was creating a form suited to the function of the