political fallout the failure of emergency management at chernobyl

4-6, 3436. Nuclear Disaster: A Spreading Cloud and an Aid Appeal; U.P.I. Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: wildfire Chernobyl disaster As we seek to transition away from fossil fuels our national security, as well as public and industry expectations, depend on energy security. During the night of 26 April 1986, Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located 130 km to the north-east of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,(Up until 1991, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine . Many accounts of the Chernobyl disaster erroneously state that Shcherbina made the final decision to evacuate on the evening of April 26, which is reflective of the extraordinary confusion that reigned at the time. 3 The international response to Chernobyl was delayed because President Mikhail Gorbachev chose to defer the declaration of emergency for political reasons. In early 1983, the ministry noted the problems of reliability and safety at nuclear power plants but evaluated the attendant costs entirely in terms of the economic losses resulting from repair shutdowns, not possible accident hazards. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 8083.Google Scholar, 34. 50. Gaidamak, V. A., Likvidatsiia posledstvii radioaktivnogo zarazheniia (Moscow, 1980), 4.Google Scholar, 26. 27. 25, spr. Baranovs'ka, Nataliia, Chornobyl's'ka trahediia: Narisi z istorii (Kiev, 2011).Google Scholar For an overview of Ukrainian historiography on Chernobyl until 2006, see Gorbachev touted the term heavily in his address to the Twenty-Seventh Party Congress, in February 1986, as a critical component of socialist democratism. Ivanov, , Chernobyl', Voennyeznaniia, no. The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international events, published daily by the Lowy Institute, Copyright 2023 Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 26.Google Scholar, 12. 2997, ark. Rossiter, Evelyn (New York, 1991), 1819.Google Scholar, 10. Despite the publication of numerous works about the accident, the number of studies derived from archival documents has, to date, remained limited. Most accounts of the disaster possess an anecdotal or journalistic character, which often effectively captures individual experiences but proves less successful at delineating the accident's institutional aspects or its precise chronology. From the Water Wheel to the Atomic Engine explored the political, economic, and cultural significance of an incipient atomic century and touted the nearly limitless applications of the power of the atom in agriculture, medicine and industry. Marples, David R., TheSocial Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster (New York, 1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 80. Access to the Jupiter plant is still restricted by the Ukrainian security services. hasContentIssue true, Copyright Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 31,48, 86.Google Scholar. 2995,11.12-13 (report to Ukrainian CP Central Committee on Chernobyl liquidation effort, June 12,1986). 25, sp. On the history of Soviet civil defense, see 31. April 26, 2021, 1:26 PM Policymakers who face unfamiliar challenges often turn to the past. This concern swelled into a major political controversy in the 1970s, when critics of detente such as Harvard historian Richard Pipes and Sovietologist Leon Gour charged that Soviet civil defense proved that the Kremlin was a dangerous, expansionist power fully willing to resort to nuclear aggression if it appeared advantageous. Stay informed with the latest commentary and analysis on international events from experts at the Lowy Institute and around the world. CHERNOBYL SYMBOL OF SOVIET FAILURE. Taubman, Phillip, At Moscow News Session: Brief and Not to Point, New York Times, May 7, 1986, A19.Google Scholar For the text of Gorbachev's May 14 address, see Vystuplenie M. S. Gorbacheva po sovetskomu televideniiu, Pravda, May 15,1986,1. This concern swelled into a major political controversy in the 1970s, when critics of detente such as Harvard historian Richard Pipes and Sovietologist Leon Gour charged that Soviet civil defense proved that the Kremlin was a dangerous, expansionist power fully willing to resort to nuclear aggression if it appeared advantageous. The Chernobyl safety test has been described as akin to testing an airliners engines during a routine flight, something that should have been absolutely unthinkable. The Fukushima reactors were early model. 64. On the night of 25-26 April, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 constituent republics of the. The political fallout of Chernobyl is still toxic See Kushnir, Valentina Shevchenko.. On the May 6 news conference, see Summits are too often harshly judged on what they deliver now rather than the agenda set for the future. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl 2995, listy (11.) Medvedev, The Truth about Chernobyl, 18587. 67, no. 2337, ark. Since the early 1950s, some Americans had argued that the USSR possessed a vast, well-resourced civil defense organization that was far more capable than its American counterpart. Bomb Shelters in the USSR, 1945-1962, Journal of Cold War Studies Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the worlds leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Vladimirov, V. et al., Of MPVO k grazhdanskoi zashchite: Stranitsy iz istorii MPVOGO-PSChS sub'ektov Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Moscow, 2004).Google Scholar Furthermore, several Russian scholars have touched on the role of Soviet civil defense at Chernobyl', particularly writer and Chernobyl liquidator Anatolii D'iachenko. The resulting fallout spurred a crisis for the people of the nearby city of Pripyat, Ukraine and for those living miles and miles away. Brown, , Plutopia, 285.Google Scholar, 20. In an attempt to contain the fallout, on May 14, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ordered the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of people, including firefighters, military reservists and miners,. 10 (October 2005): 1819.Google Scholar, 15. For instance, Paul Josephson states in his history of the Soviet nuclear power program that Soviet planners never anticipated an accident of such a scale, and apparently they never accumulated the medicines and equipment needed for nuclear civil defense purposes, except perhaps for the elite in capital cities. Paul R. Josephson, RedAtom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today (Pittsburgh, 2005), 260. 3 (March 1988): 38. The folly of large surface ships and primacy of submarines is not clear-cut. As the interest in nuclear power increases, serious, The story of the explosion and contamination was and still is suppressed in the Soviet Union and, the author contends, by the CIA and other Western intelligence organizations fearful of public, During the Cold War, the nature, intent, and scale of Soviet civil defense were the subject of heated debate in the West. Boris Ivanov, Chernobyl', Voennye znaniia 40, no. Politics News | Breaking Political News, Video & Analysis-ABC News 23, no. Alexievich, Svetlana, Voices from Chernobyl:The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, trans. For an account of Soviet propaganda extolling nuclear power, see 1. 26 kvitnia 1986r., DA SBU, f. 64, op. 4 led to a nuclear meltdown, followed by a raging fire and steam explosions. It maintains that the radiological conditions in Pripiat' did not objectively require evacuation on April 26, and it ignores the fact that GO officers protested the delay. As a solution, it suggested that all responsibility for operating the nuclear plants be transferred to itwith the exception of safety, which would remain under Soiuzatomenergo. But the lethal Soviet political fallout is just. It maintains that the radiological conditions in Pripiat' did not objectively require evacuation on April 26, and it ignores the fact that GO officers protested the delay. Attempts to control the situation encountered various obstacles: (1) insufficient preparedness; (2) rapidly evolving social conflicts and public demands; (3) complex, interwoven structures of competence, and (4) geographically fluctuating problem loads. Ivanov, , Chernobyl', Voennyeznaniia, no. Alexievich, Svetlana, Voices from Chernobyl:The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, trans. Gnatiuk, Neobkhodimosf MPVO-GO, 19. Again, the circumstances were situation-specific and the Fukushima reactors are not representative of modern reactors. Dovidka 3-ho Upravlinnia KDB URSR, 1-5. See, for instance, Shcherbak, Chernobyl'. Chernobyl Has Become a Comforting Fable - Foreign Policy 0 moral no-psikhologicheskoi obstanovke v respublike v sviazi s avarii na Chernobyl'skoi AES, Tsentral'nyi derzhavnyi arkhiv hromads'kykh obiednan Ukrainy (TsDAHO), fond (f.) 1, opis (op.) 'Chernobyl' recap: Final episode shows radioactive political fallout Vozniak, V. Copyright 2015 Association for Slavic East European and Eurasian Studies Shcherbak, , Chernobyl, 399.Google ScholarPubMed, 47. Shcherbak, Iurii Nikolaevich, Chernobyl (Moscow, 1991), 395401. la., Atomnaia energiia i radiatsionnaia bezopasnost (Moscow, 1983), 14243.Google Scholar, 13. PDF Chernobyl and Its Political Fallout: A Reassessment - Demokratizatsiya 25, sp. In its report in 1986 it supported the theory of operator error, "the catastrophic accident was caused by gross violations of operating rules and regulations" (INSAG safety report). Tsentral'nyi Komitet Kompartii Ukrainy-Informatsiia, TsDAHO, f. 1, op. 78. Overall, this detrimental accident proved that a process must be understood before it can be controlled. political fallout the failure of emergency management at chernobyl (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. 22. 60. 2 (2006): 4856.Google Scholar, 5. l, torn (t.) 24, ark. Google ScholarPubMed. Despite the publication of numerous works about the accident, the number of studies derived from archival documents has, to date, remained limited. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.74.1.104, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. 10 (October 2005): 1819.Google Scholar, 15. In various ways the accident contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. 1,32.Google Scholar, 54. Gorbachev had already begun speaking of glasnost the need for greater openness and transparency in government institutions and activities. 43. CHERNOBYL: LESSONS FOR EMERGENCY PLAN - The New York Times 2997, ark. Chernobyl contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and continues to impact on confidence in nuclear energy around the world. The exact sequence of events that unfolded in the days following the disaster and the forces that shaped it have, however, remained obscure. The RBMK's large size and relatively high complexity increased its construction costs, but it enjoyed the advantage of decreased fuel costs because it could run on low-enriched uranium, thanks to its superior neutron economy. Medvedev, Grigori, The Truth about Chernobyl, trans. On the history of Soviet civil defense, see Gnatiuk, Iu., Neobkhodimost MPVO-GO: Podtverdilo vremia, Grazhdanskaiazashchita Brown, Kate, Plutopia:Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (Oxford, 2013).Google Scholar For an account based on rumors about the disasters that circulated prior to Chernobyl', see 44. 2-4 (KGB report on conditions around ChNPP, April 26,1986). CHERNOBYL, U.S.S.R. -- When Reactor No. 4, no. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl The consequences of this accident exceed 34, ark. The costs to public health are extensively discussed, but the wider political consequences are also still felt. 41. Here are 10 of the most interesting facts about Chernobyl. D'iachenko, , Chernobylskaia katastrofa, 28.Google Scholar, 11. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 31,48, 86.Google Scholar. 21. The Chernobyl necklace: the psychosocial experiences of female The abuse potential of the latter two substances (aprofen can induce a hallucinogenic delirium) may have discouraged the Soviet government from issuing the complete kits to citizens following the Chernobyl' accident, and extant accounts suggest that civil defense distributed only the potassium iodide tablets. The first lesson of Three Mile Island was the most basic - that emergency planning was needed. 1, spr. The experiment was devised in such a way that if it had gone as planned, the disruption and danger to the plant would be very minimal. In December 1986, Pikalov received the USSR's highest military award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, for his service at Chernobyl'. Schmid, Sonja, When Safe Enough Is Not Good Enough: Organizing Safety at Chernobyl, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Potter, William and Kerner, Lucy, The Soviet Military's Performance at Chernobyl, Soviet Studies 30. Large industrial accidents, building collapses, high-rise fires, airliner crashes, ship sinkings, and acts of terrorism are frequently classified as human-caused disasters. See While the USSR's civil defense organization urged prompt and decisive measures to inform the population of the accident and move people out of harm's way, other Soviet institutions, such as the Communist Party and the KGB, feared the accident's threat to their legitimacy more than its implications for public health. Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences - Nuclear Energy Institute The Emmy-winning HBO mini-series "Chernobyl," which is a dramatized account of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster, has rekindled conversation about the accident, its subsequent cleanup and the long-term impacts on people living near the power plant. Informatsiine povidomlennia KDB URSR do TsK KPU pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koyi AES. The storm flooded New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people, and caused $100 billion in . It was the product of a severely flawed Soviet-era reactor design, combined with human error. Not long after midnight on April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear power accident began. 41. 40, no. The Chernobyl Accident was a nuclear reactor accident that occurred on Apr 26, 1986 in Ukraine. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 26.Google Scholar, 12. Known as aptechki individualnye AI-2, these first-aid kits came in bright orange plastic cases and included seven different drugs, including potassium iodide, two antibiotics (tetracycline and sulfanamide), cystamine, nausea-prevention tablets, a single-use syringe of morphine, and tablets of taren, a form of the Soviet drug aprofen included to counteract organophosphate chemical weapons. 4, no. Says Toll May Pass 2,000, New York Times, April 30,1986, A10. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 8083.Google Scholar, 34. D'iachenko, A. Stikhi, ocherki, rasskazy, otryvki iz romanov ipovestei, interv'iu (Kiev, 1988);Google Scholar Render date: 2023-03-04T05:38:26.289Z 34-38 (circular on Chernobyl accident for party propagandists, May 8,1986). Content may require purchase if you do not have access. 33, ark. Illesh, A. V. and Pral'nikov, A. E., Reportazh iz Chernobylia: Zapiski ochevidtsev.Kommentarii. D'iachenko, , Chernobylskaia katastrofa, 28.Google Scholar, 11. Pipes, Richard, Why the Soviet Union Thinks It Could Fight and Win a Nuclear War, Commentary 41, no. 25, spr. Baranovs'ka, N., Chornobil's'ka trahediia iak argument perebudovi, in Perebudova: Zadum i rezul'taty v Ukrainy do10-richchia protoloshennia kursu na reformy (Kiev, 1996), 3845.Google Scholar. Chernobyl contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and continues to impact on confidence in nuclear energy around the world. Marples, David R., Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR (Toronto, 1986), 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 9. Within the Soviet leadership, the secrecy over dangerous operating procedures had a major impact on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachevs thinking. Furthermore, they state that the maximum radiation in Pripiat was 14 microroentgens an hour on the morning of the 26thwhen in fact there were places in the city where radiation levels were hundreds of times higher. Illesh, A. V. and Pral'nikov, A. E., Reportazh iz Chernobylia: Zapiski ochevidtsev.Kommentarii. Shcherbak, , Chernobyl', 400.Google Scholar, 52. Chernobyl was the second of three major nuclear accidents: As a consequence of Chernobyl, a number of governments decided to phase out nuclear energy programs, and others decided against proceeding with new nuclear programs. 1 (unmarked document, apparently from April 26,1986, outlining radiation protection norms). 43, no. Legasov, V. A., Iz segodniav zavtra: Mysli vslukh Chernobyl i bezopasnost (Moscow, 1996), 57.Google Scholar, 76. A., Chernobylskaiakatastrofa: Dvadtsat letspustia (Moscow, 2006).Google Scholar For accounts touching on the role of civil defense during the disaster penned by the plant's assistant safety officer, see Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl 11A (1988), spr. bungee fitness naples fl. A t 1.23am on 26 April 1986, reactor no 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear plant blew up, spewing immense amounts of radioactive material into the air. Muddling through a "Nuclear-Political" Emergency - Academia.edu Access to the Jupiter plant is still restricted by the Ukrainian security services. As the functional ratemeters at the plant were sensitive only up to 1000 microroentgens an hour (0.001 R/hr), the KGB reports state that at the immediate point of the accident, the radiation is up to 1000 microroentgen an hour. In reality, this was a mere l/10,000th of the actual ambient radiation at the plant. Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 49.Google Scholar, 55. la., Ignatenko, E. I., Kovalenko, A. P., and Troitskii, S. N., Chernobyl': Sobytiia i uroki. Baranovs'ka, N., Chornobil's'ka trahediia iak argument perebudovi, in Perebudova: Zadum i rezul'taty v Ukrainy do10-richchia protoloshennia kursu na reformy (Kiev, 1996), 3845.Google Scholar. The complete story of the Chernobyl accident in photographs 2 (excerpts from NRB-76). 26 kvitnia 1986r., DA SBU, f. 64 op. Under the auspices of the UN Chernobyl Forum, WHO carried out its own independent health assessment of the accident. "useRatesEcommerce": false The test was supposed to recreate conditions of a power outage, aimed at creating a . 2-4 (KGB report on conditions around ChNPP, April 26,1986). 1012 Words5 Pages. February 28 Supreme Court conservatives take skeptical view of Biden student debt forgiveness The $430 billion plan would give relief to more than 40 million U.S. borrowers. 14, no. 25, spr. In early 1983, the ministry noted the problems of reliability and safety at nuclear power plants but evaluated the attendant costs entirely in terms of the economic losses resulting from repair shutdowns, not possible accident hazards. After the explosion of unit 4, the Soviet government rushed to lay blame for the catastrophe on a handful of mistakes made by expendable, easily scapegoated individuals and to defuse charges that the Soviet state could be held responsible. A., Chernobylskaiakatastrofa: Dvadtsat letspustia (Moscow, 2006).Google Scholar For accounts touching on the role of civil defense during the disaster penned by the plant's assistant safety officer, see Thirty-three years ago, on April 26, 1986, a series of explosions destroyed Chernobyl's reactor No. Chernobyl was not a natural disaster; it was a man-made one. Acknowledgements - Introduction - A Chernobyl Diary, 28th April-14 May 1986 - Soviet Energy in the 1980s - Nuclear Energy Development in Eastern Europe - Ukraine in the Soviet Nuclear Energy. Political Fallout is the story of one of the first human-driven, truly global environmental crisesradioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing during the Cold Warand the international response. Razmyshleniia, Voices from Chernobyl:The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, Atomic-Powered Communism: Nuclear Culture in the Postwar USSR, Atomnaia energiia i radiatsionnaia bezopasnost, Was There a Real Mineshaft Gap'? Horrifying photos of Chernobyl and its aftermath - CBS News A., Opyt likvidatsii posledstviiChernobylskoi katastrofy (Moscow, 2004);Google Scholar and 64. 7 (July 1977): 134;Google Scholar and Leon Gour, War Survival in Soviet Strategy: Soviet CivilDefense (Coral Gables, 1976). UC San Francisco's Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, grew up in Ukraine, trained as physician . For the last five weeks, HBO's smash-hit drama Chernobyl has been reliving the disaster at the . For one such scholarly account, see Ivanov, B., Chernobyl',' Voennyeznaniia Chernobyl Accident - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics PDF "Chernobyl" Lessons Learned for Post-Emergency Response A further factor which weakened the Soviet regime was the enormous economic cost of dealing with the effects of the accident. 32, spr. 25, spr. Many accounts of the Chernobyl disaster erroneously state that Shcherbina made the final decision to evacuate on the evening of April 26, which is reflective of the extraordinary confusion that reigned at the time. CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 8. As part of the test (and in violation of safety rules) a number of the reactors safety systems were disabled. Karpan, N. V., Of Chernobylia doFukusimy (Kiev, 2011).Google Scholar, 6. 9842741222, 9942641222, 9842724434 chinamanpaversscc@gmail.com. It's significant to wait for the representative and beneficial books to read. The plant managers failed to obtain safety authorisation for this test. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions 2558, ark. Feature Flags: { 79. Abstract. 55, no. The tragedy of Chernobyl sums up the cruel failures of communism Ever since the accident that destroyed unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26,1986, became public knowledge, the Soviet government's response to this catastrophe has been the, Borders have been a part of Viktors life for most of his adulthood. 3. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Most accounts of the disaster possess an anecdotal or journalistic character, which often effectively captures individual experiences but proves less successful at delineating the accident's institutional aspects or its precise chronology. For an overview of Soviet media accounts of the disaster in 1986-87, see How The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Shaped Russia And Ukraine - Forbes The Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) comprised four RBMK reactors, a design unique to the Soviet Union. Feature Flags: { On April 26th, around 01:23 AM, a critical failure of Chernobyl's reactor No. Published online by Cambridge University Press: Shkoda, V. G., Chernobyl: Dni ispytanii.Kniga svidetelstv. But the KGB deemed this could be a manual for saboteurs and classified it Top Secret, so the operators were never aware of the danger. 21. 2. Spravka, TsDAHO, f. 1, op. View all Google Scholar citations Chernobyl: the political fall-out continues - UNESCO 1 February 2023. Three Mile Island was a, The third major accident was at Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 29. 34, ark. The Chernobyl accident led to many political consequences along with the health and environmental issues. Backgrounder on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident | NRC.gov - NRC Web 3. Vypiska iz protokola no. While the USSR's civil defense organization urged prompt and decisive measures to inform the population of the accident and move people out of harm's way, other Soviet institutions, such as the Communist Party and the KGB, feared the accident's threat to their legitimacy more than its implications for public health. Saunders, George (New York, 1979).Google Scholar, 19. 34, ark. 10 (October 2007): 16.Google Scholar, 16. On April 26, 1986, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the republic of Ukraine. 66. See Kushnir, Valentina Shevchenko.. for this article. The Chernobyl accident caused serious contamination of large areas in Norway in 1986. Chernobyl's political fallout - New Statesman Hurricane Katrina: Remembering the Federal Failures 34-38 (circular on Chernobyl accident for party propagandists, May 8,1986). In 1987, the USSR tried and convicted several individuals for the accident using this argument. Ivanov, , Chernobyl', Voennyeznaniia, no. Nuclear Disaster: A Spreading Cloud and an Aid Appeal; U.P.I. 1 (January 1988): 32.Google Scholar. 3,39.Google Scholar, 70. 332 Contemporary European History Such a story, however, leaves a number of critical issues unaddressed. 58. According to a decision by the Government Commission headed by the USSR Council of Ministers Deputy Chair Comrade B.E. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 2528.Google Scholar, 25. Krutskikh, D. A., Memuary (Moscow, 2001), 4046.Google Scholar, 73. Nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl reactor blaze took the West German authorities completely by surprise. Vypiska iz Norm radiatsionnoi bezopasnosti NRB-76,' TsDAHO, f. 1, op. The accident at Chernobyl was the product of a lack of safety culture. Firstly, the accident prompted nuclear energy policy to arise as a significant public issue. The Chernobyl accident was the most severe in the history of the world nuclear industry. The RBMKs designers were well aware of this potential safety issue and prepared detailed instructions for reactor operators on how to avoid such an accident. 2337, ark. Ibid., 53. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. 55, no. Rossii, MChS TsSI GZ, Grazhdanskaia oborona: Slozhnyi etap razvitiia, Grazhdanskaiazashchita 3,39. This was despite the Chernobyl accident involving a unique reactor design, and a similar accident being physically impossible with light water reactors. restored republic feb 28 2021. how to become a sommelier as a hobby. Readers learn that, This study focuses on nuclear tourism, which flourished a decade ago in the Exclusion Zone, a regimented area around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine) established in 1986, where the largest, Cover; Half title; Series; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Figures; List of Maps; List of Tables; Acknowledgments; Archives and Abbreviations; 1 Nature and Power in the Soviet North; 2, Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years, by Christine Varga-Harris, Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press, 2015, xvii + 289 pp., US$49.95 (hardback), ISBN, En 1904, Frederick Soddy, laureat du prix Nobel en 1921 pour ses recherches en radiochimie, speculait sur le fait que le decodage, puis le dechainement des forces prodigieuses de latome.