Chernobyl: the work of self-confident fools, after whom invisible heroes had to clean up
· EUobserverThe Chernobyl disaster in 1986 sent radioactive material across all of Europe (Photo: Trey Ratcliff) (Source: Trey Ratcliff)
Chernobyl: the work of self-confident fools, after whom invisible heroes had to clean up
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By Petr Koubský,
Chernobyl
,
When something arouses strong emotions, it tends to be difficult to have a rational discussion about it. And the strongest emotion is fear. We should keep that in mind whenever nuclear energy is discussed, and doubly so when the topic is Chernobyl, the greatest failure that has ever occurred in this field.
Evolutionary experience, stored in our unconscious, tells us what to fear and what not. We recognise danger when we see it: a predatory beast, stinging insects, a poisonous mushroom, a deep abyss, a person with a weapon… A good solution in such encounters is to run away, to hide. Our ancestors did that for tens of thousands of years and thus managed to pass their genes down into our bodies.
But what about a threat that cannot be seen, is completely new and, on top of that, is a human invention, so it would not actually have to exist at all? That is the feeling evoked today by the words nuclear or atomic.
The Chernobyl disaster contributed significantly to this.
However, it would be an exaggeration to claim that it alone caused the nuclear phobia of part of Western society. Its roots run deeper: first and foremost, in the dual-use nature of atomic power – as a source of energy and as a terrifying weapon.
Added to that are the visible safety measures, more stringent than anywhere else: the tight security of power plants, staff in hooded coveralls, warning signs.
Nuclear energy is, among other things, the embodiment of power, authority, the superiority of the state over the individual. Because no matter how many commercial suppliers take part in building and operating a power plant, the main owner and overseer is always the state in the end.
Trust in nuclear power and trust in state institutions are more or less the same thing.
Liars
This is where it is worth recalling the historical context of the Chernobyl disaster.
A year before it, the leader of the authoritarian regime in the USSR became Mikhail Gorbachev, more educated, more reasonable and more honest than any of his predecessors. He announced a programme to restructure state institutions and a policy of glasnost, openness. He more or less promised that the country’s leadership would stop lying to its citizens. That was – without irony – a very radical idea.
It did not, however, withstand the clash with reality.
When a serious accident occurred in Chernobyl through the accumulation of human errors, the Soviet leadership lied to the public and concealed the facts just as it had before.
It tried to hide the true scale of the catastrophe even at the moment when the complete evacuation of the 50,000-strong Pripyat was already under way and when firefighters and rescue workers were risking their lives in an effort to stop the fire that continued to spew radioactive fallout into the air.
In the final analysis, it does not matter whether responsible local and expert officials deceived Gorbachev and hid from him how serious the situation was, or whether he was well informed and still ordered both an information blackout and the full-scale May Day celebrations in Kyiv, the passage of the Peace Race and other ostentatious regime ceremonies. In the latter case, he presented himself as just another liar in the line of Soviet rulers – and a hypocrite to boot. In the former, as an inept leader who could easily be misled by his subordinates.
The Soviet Union would surely have collapsed even without Chernobyl.
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The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 sent radioactive material across all of Europe (Photo: Trey Ratcliff) (Source: Trey Ratcliff)
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Author Bio
Petr Koubský is a Czech publicist, analyst of information and communication media, and pedagogue. He is a science and technology editor at Deník N. He has written and translated several books on IT. His academic career includes teaching at the Prague University of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. He currently teaches at the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University in Olomouc.