The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster

The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster

Author: David R. Marples

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1988-09-01

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 134919428X

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A personal interpretation of the impact of the Chernobyl disaster both in the Soviet Union and the West, examining the environmental consequences, Soviet media coverage, reconstruction of life in the disaster zone (including the city built for Chernobyl workers) and safety changes in the industry.


Midnight in Chernobyl

Midnight in Chernobyl

Author: Adam Higginbotham

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2020-02-04

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1501134639

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A New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner From journalist Adam Higginbotham, the New York Times bestselling “account that reads almost like the script for a movie” (The Wall Street Journal)—a powerful investigation into Chernobyl and how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the history’s worst nuclear disasters. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a “riveting, deeply reported reconstruction” (Los Angeles Times) and a definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. “The most complete and compelling history yet” (The Christian Science Monitor), Higginbotham’s “superb, enthralling, and necessarily terrifying...extraordinary” (The New York Times) book is an indelible portrait of the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.


20 Years After the Chernobyl Accident

20 Years After the Chernobyl Accident

Author: E. B. Burlakova

Publisher: Nova Publishers

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9781600212499

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Radiobiology has made great steps forward in the last five years in the development of new mechanisms forming the basis of various radiation effects, specifically among the mechanisms of low rate irradiation by low doses. Investigations of radiation apoptosis, radiation hormesis, radioadaptive response, and by-stander effects have been intensively developed. Processes of premature ageing induced by irradiation are examined. All these questions are discussed here. The greatest part is devoted to assessments of the health of the population irradiated inhabiting the radionuclide-contaminated territories and people from other regions of the former USSR involved in the liquidation on the accident consequences.


Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident and Their Remediation

Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident and Their Remediation

Author: International Atomic Energy Agency

Publisher: IAEA

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9789201147059

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The explosion on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the consequent reactor fire resulted in an unprecedented release of radioactive material from a nuclear reactor and adverse consequences for the public and the environment. Although the accident occurred nearly two decades ago, controversy still surrounds the real impact of the disaster. Therefore the IAEA, in cooperation with other UN bodies, the World Bank, as well as the competent authorities of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, established the Chernobyl Forum in 2003. The mission of the Forum was to generate 'authoritative consensual statements' on the environmental consequences and health effects attributable to radiation exposure arising from the accident as well as to provide advice on environmental remediation and special health care programmes, and to suggest areas in which further research is required. This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Chernobyl Forum concerning the environmental effects of the Chernobyl accident.


Voices from Chernobyl

Voices from Chernobyl

Author: Светлана Алексиевич

Publisher: White Lion Publishing

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award A journalist by trade, who now suffers from an immune deficiency developed while researching this book, presents personal accounts of what happened to the people of Belarus after the nuclear reactor accident in 1986, and the fear, anger, and uncertainty that they still live with. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."


Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States

Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States

Author: Jonathan A. Becker

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-01-05

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0230598420

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This book examines changing Soviet and Russian press coverage of the United States from the emergence of Mikhail Gorbachev through the presidency of Vladimir Putin. A new afterword focuses on recent developments in the Russian media and Russian press coverage of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Becker argues that due to the absence of a language to support the reform strategy, the Soviet press presented positive images of its chief ideological and military opponent, the United States, as a means of supporting political, social and economic reform. He suggests that the end of the Cold War and the emergence of a more self-confident Russia means that the symbolic and discursive significance of the United States for Russia has diminished.


Producing Power

Producing Power

Author: Sonja D. Schmid

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2015-02-06

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 0262538806

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An examination of how the technical choices, social hierarchies, economic structures, and political dynamics shaped the Soviet nuclear industry leading up to Chernobyl. The Chernobyl disaster has been variously ascribed to human error, reactor design flaws, and industry mismanagement. Six former Chernobyl employees were convicted of criminal negligence; they defended themselves by pointing to reactor design issues. Other observers blamed the Soviet style of ideologically driven economic and industrial management. In Producing Power, Sonja Schmid draws on interviews with veterans of the Soviet nuclear industry and extensive research in Russian archives as she examines these alternate accounts. Rather than pursue one “definitive” explanation, she investigates how each of these narratives makes sense in its own way and demonstrates that each implies adherence to a particular set of ideas—about high-risk technologies, human-machine interactions, organizational methods for ensuring safety and productivity, and even about the legitimacy of the Soviet state. She also shows how these attitudes shaped, and were shaped by, the Soviet nuclear industry from its very beginnings. Schmid explains that Soviet experts established nuclear power as a driving force of social, not just technical, progress. She examines the Soviet nuclear industry's dual origins in weapons and electrification programs, and she traces the emergence of nuclear power experts as a professional community. Schmid also fundamentally reassesses the design choices for nuclear power reactors in the shadow of the Cold War's arms race. Schmid's account helps us understand how and why a complex sociotechnical system broke down. Chernobyl, while unique and specific to the Soviet experience, can also provide valuable lessons for contemporary nuclear projects.