Thoroughly enjoyed it. I've always been fascinated by the Chernobyl disaster from both a technical and Soviet cultural point of view. Very much looking forward to the next one.
What still amazes me, even after having read this several times in other accounts, is how the management were more ready to believe that their staff were hallucinating or 'seeing things', and that multiple dosimeters were defective, than they were prepared to entertain the idea that a Soviet reactor could have failed in this way.
The whole disaster was entirely avoidable, and only happened because an entirely unnecessary "test" that had been under way at the time fell foul of a flaw in the RMBK reactor's design, and itself required multiple safety systems and warnings to be disabled. The characteristics that led to the explosion would never be revealed under normal reactor operating conditions, illustrated by the remaining RBMK reactors that were installed all over the former Eastern Bloc running without incident for decades. Someone made an arbitrary decision to do something for the sake of it, and the minions carried it out.
This unquestioning following of orders, and the society and culture behind it are still fascinating to me.
Last edited by: DP on Wed 8 May 19 at 12:39
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