I would like to present my work in progress on a comparative history of the French, Italian and British Chernobyl discourses, undertaken in the framework of my PhD at the European University Institute. By now, I have accomplished my case studies on France and Britain. In my paper, I would like to discuss conclusions drawn from my comparative work on France and Britain and perspectives for the approaching of the Italian case. My research deals with the question of how national nuclear politics have influenced the debate on the health effects of the accident in the respective countries (and vice versa) and how the commemoration of the accident has been used to underpin political arguments. At the same time, the comparative perspective applied sheds light on the importance of underlying structures such as risk perception, elite culture, and environmentalism as well as on the role of individual agency. These factors condition the emergence of a specific narrative of the accident within a specific discursive field and, furthermore, determine the meaning which is attributed to 'Chernobyl'. I pay special attention to the anniversaries of the accident in 1996 and 2006 because of the political implications that are tied to the commemoration of 'Chernobyl'. The case of 'Chernobyl' makes a particularly challenging research topic as the question ‘What was (or is) Chernobyl?’ directly impacts current questions regarding (nuclear) energy and environmental policies.