Who is to blame for chernobyl disaster

You do a good job discussing the different ways that the government failed to act either purposefully or through negligence. I think you are correct in pointing out that this disaster has created a sense of fear when considering nuclear power as an alternative energy source.

Hi Kayt, thanks for your comment! Hey Michael! I really enjoyed reading your post, and I especially love the picture of the new mega tomb for the reactors that was just completed last year. The lengths the Soviet Union was willing to go to compete in the arms race is astonishing, but not unlike the US or other nuclear superpowers.

What frustrates me so much about the disaster was the prioritization of the cover-up over protecting the Soviet people, and those in other European countries, from serious nuclear fallout. And the fact that the government was unwilling to keep track of the deaths connected to the disaster shows that they were more focused on keeping their reputation in-tact amid a firestorm of bad press, as opposed to protecting their own people.

Thanks for the comment, Kendall! Even still, the Soviet government failed to act after the fact, like you said, and that most likely cost thousands of innocent lives. Good post, Michael. I wonder if they did that out of fear from the people. I agree that the Soviet government has equal responsibility for the incident. While the people overseeing the plant should be held accountable, if the government acted sooner and dealt with the problem rather than trying to cover up the incident, then people could have been saved.

It is better to deal with a problem early on rather than later. Hi Matt, I completely agree that so many different parties were at fault for the disaster occurring and for the travesty that happened after the fact. Matt, we studied the Chernobyl accident in Nuclear Engineering class.

The reactor had no large pressure vessel surrounding the reactor and no full containment building. The cause of the accident was a poorly thought out test of the system with many of the safety controls turned off. Without the warning systems turned off, a massive increase in power and pressure inside the reactor were not noticed until the system exploded. The three individuals on site did take the blame but the Soviet design was the real cause of the problem and was basically ignored.

It seems like the government was more concerned with saving face than informing the people. The fact that they failed to evacuate the nearest town is also unconscionable. If the proper safety procedures were not put in place, they had no business using nuclear energy. Great post! I remember watching the HBO miniseries about this and it still blows my mind how ineffective they were in reacting to the disaster.

How could the staff learn about it - by smell, by touch? Despite his sickness and disability, Dyatlov served time in jail, first in Kiev and then in the Poltava region in Ukraine. He underwent medical treatment in Germany, but suffered a lot and died in as a result of heart failure provoked by radiation.

To prove his point, he gave an interview in video available on YouTube and wrote a book in Russian. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. This website uses cookies.

Click here to find out more. The truth about Anatoly Dyatlov, the man blamed for Chernobyl History. June 17 Ksenia Zubacheva. The deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was in control on the night of April 26, But how true was his portrayal on the show? It's hard to tell without hearing his own story and exploring his take on the tragedy. Anatoly Dyatlov, All because, it seems, he wants a promotion.

It was the system, made up primarily of pliant men and women, that cut its own corners, ignored its own precautions, and ultimately blew up its own nuclear reactor for no good reason except that this was how things were done. The viewer is invited to fantasize that, if not for Dyatlov, the better men would have done the right thing and the fatal flaw in the reactor, and the system itself, might have remained latent. This is a lie. It would be harder to show a system digging its own grave instead of an ambitious, evil man causing the disaster.

It was the stories of those who suffered that most interested Alexievich. The series actually makes use of one of the stories in her book: the story of Lyudmilla Ignatenko Jessie Buckley , who broke the rules by staying with her firefighter husband in the hospital until he died, even though she was pregnant.

She lied about it. In the great-men version of history, only the powerful have speaking parts. We never see these pets through the eyes of their owners. We hardly see any of the evacuees at all, and we are given only one indication that some people resisted and refused to leave: an old woman who, at the beginning of Episode 4, obstinately continues milking her cow after she is repeatedly ordered to move.

Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Legasov gets the last word. One might say that these are fantasies, embellishments, shortcuts, and even translations. Whatever they are, they are not the truth. By Alex Wellerstein. Both leaders have promised to make their countries great again, and they have a way of alighting on the same points of reference.

By Masha Gessen. David Remnick speaks with Masha Gessen about the chance that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin, whether it matters, and surprising pockets of resistance in Russia. Masha Gessen became a staff writer at The New Yorker in The Daily The best of The New Yorker , every day, in your in-box, plus occasional alerts when we publish major stories. Enter your e-mail address.