The whole disaster of 26 March 1986, the
build-up, the flare-up, the clean-up and the cover-up, is brought into focus in
this ‘History of a Tragedy’.
It starts with the ill-planned and poorly
conducted test shutdown and moves swiftly onto the desperate but futile efforts
to quell the unquellable runaway reactor. That is followed by the failure to
recognise or admit to the scale of the escaping radiation, with the safety of
the population a mnor consideration compared with the need to maintain the
fiction that the Soviet nuclear power stations are safe and protect the
reputations of politicians, engineers and scientists involved. When that
becomes clearly problematic, the scapegoating begins, and blame is apportioned
where politically convenient. But in vain, the disaster and its effects are too
big to cover up indefinitely and Plokhy is convinced it plays a big part in the
eventual break up of the Soviet Union.
These components are all explored in forensic
detail, and detail is the word; this is no sensationalist overview. The reader
is provided with the frightening science of radioactivity and the oppressive
politics of the soviet state where jobs and party position go side by side in
an unhealthy mix. It inevitably involves some heavy reading, not so much the
science as the politics, with unfamiliar Russian names populating unfathomable
national, regional and local regimes that operate at the Party, government and industry
level, all having a finger in every pie.
Plokhy does his best and brings out the broad
themes effectively, and while he gives a balanced account he does not sit on
the fence as to where he feels the faults lie. So, it makes for an
authoritative, interesting, informative account, as digestible as such an
account could be. But best not read it within fifty kilometres of a nuclear
power station, unless you live there, in which case read it soon.
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