Topic Summary

The time is 01:23:58 in Ukrainian SSR, and a seismic blast just woke the 50,000 inhabitants of Pripyat. Up above, in the sky, a bright fireball hurls into the starry night. An explosion has just occurred at the 4th nuclear reactor unit in the Chernobyl power plant and the dust has yet to settle. In the control room the technicians are in a state of panic.

By 01:28 emergency vehicles arrive at the plant. Inside, the flames are burning as hard as ever despite the efforts of the fire brigade, some of whom have already been called away due to mysterious injuries. The chaos and uncertainty of the situation is settling in.

It’s 04:00 and the Pripyat communist party executive committee has been assembled. The news of the explosion has been relayed back to Moscow. The air is thick with anticipation. No one knows what to do.

The reputation of the Soviet Union’s nuclear integrity is at stake and response to the disaster lies in the hands of soviet officials, who must find a way to mitigate the damage while maintaining the image of the Soviet Union. But will the USSR be able to hide the truth from the rest of the world? As neighboring countries and world superpowers discover more about the situation, who will remain in control, and who will be held accountable?

Director’s Letter

Welcome Comrades,

It is my honour and pleasure to welcome you all to HNMUN 2026 in Boston. I will be serving as one of your Directors in this upcoming conference and cannot wait to see what all of you will bring to this year’s conference. Your problem solving skills, teamwork, and rhetoric will all be tested as you make and break blocs, backstab, and work every angle possible to come out of your committees victorious. There are friends to make and ideas to discover, I’m excited to meet you all.

My name is Henry Aronofsky, and I am a rising sophomore at Harvard University in Dunster House. Though I have yet to declare my major, I am planning on studying mechanical engineering. I have been involved in MUN throughout middleschool, highschool, and now college. It has truly been one of the most foundational and fulfilling extracurriculars I have undertaken. I’m from New York City and went to school in Brooklyn where, along with my school’s MUN team, I travelled the country and had the opportunity to engage in debate with people from all over America. Later on, near graduation, I had the privilege of running a couple committees and advising on my school’s MUN board. When I got to college I knew I had to continue pursuing my passion and became a part of IRC, The International Relations Council, which will be overseeing this program, as quickly as I could.

On top of my MUN obligations, I have become deeply involved in the theater community on campus and am an avid muscicion. I enjoy playing jazz bass and pit guitar for the various ensembles and productions that happen over the academic year.

I can’t wait to meet all of you and hear the solutions you propose to this year's roster of sophisticated problems. HNMUN 2026 is going to be great, see you soon.

Sincerely,

Henry Aronofsky

Director, Meltdown of Chernobyl 1986

Director’s LetteR

Esteemed Delegates,

Welcome to HNMUN Boston 2026! The coming days of the conference will be busy: you and your fellow delegates will be doing diligent research, engaging in tense negotiations, forming multinational diplomatic blocs, and ultimately drafting a pivotal body of policy to be implemented by the entire United Nations. But you will also be having a great time, I promise: among other things, you will make dozens of new friends and accumulate enough memories to last you a lifetime. In my view, this is the most valuable part of HNMUN, and it's the main reason why I’m so proud to be serving as your co-Director for this conference.

My name is Nicholas Hall, and I am a Junior at Harvard College, where I’m studying Applied Mathematics and Economics. My parents are from the United States, but they are diplomats (like you) and as a consequence I’ve grown up in many places around the world, including Canada, Italy, Belgium, Austria, and Indonesia. This international exposure has cultivated in me an appreciation for the richness of our world’s different cultures, as well as a passion for ensuring that we are able to cooperate as a global community, to bring about a positive future for all nations and peoples. For this reason, when I was your age – many years ago – I had a great time participating in Model United Nations conferences myself. Indeed, some of my fondest childhood memories are from the many MUN trips I attended with my school. I knew I wanted to continue participating in MUN in college, and it’s through Harvard’s International Relations Council (the organization which oversees many international programs) that I’ve had the opportunity to staff this conference the past two years, as well as international conferences in China, Australia, India, Panama, and Dubai.

I’m looking forward to meeting you all soon! This conference is going to be a good one.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Hall

Director, Meltdown of Chernobyl 1986