On April 26, 1986, the world faced its worst nuclear plant disaster to date (though Japan’s Fukushima disaster is next in line [1]). Chernobyl is a textbook example of how not to handle a nuclear disaster, and showed how morally bankrupt the Soviet Union had become by the mid-1980’s.  When the Chernobyl disaster occurred the Soviet Union told no one for several days [2].  The town of Privet, which is now a ghost town, was not immediately evacuated.  Firefighters and rescue staff worked in the Chernobyl reactor area without adequate protection, and many of them died because of the exposure.  The Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia are still paying, and will be paying for a long time, for the disaster and its effect on the land and people of the area.

So, let’s see how Chernobyl was a total disaster for the Soviet Union–the meltdown occurred during a test without safety features, and without the reactor being certified by Soviet authorities.  There was a failure to inform those in harm’s way about the disaster, misguided attempts to cover up the disaster and a general lack of concern for the well-being of emergency workers and civilians in the area, as well as for truth and candor in general.  By the time the extent of the disaster became known the Soviet Union had a major credibility problem with the world and its own people, faced a self-inflicted humanitarian disaster of a high order, and had put nuclear power under a black cloud of scrutiny from which it appears never to entirely vanish.

The repercussions of Chernobyl, which, ironically enough, means “Wormwood” in Russian, and which cost up to almost a million lives (estimates range from 4,000 to 900,000) through the effects of radiation damage in massive areas of three countries and led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.  One of the largest surface water areas, the Pripyat River and marshes, were heavily contaminated.  Forests turned red.  Fish were contaminated as far away as Sweden.  Even now notable concentrations of wild boar have excessive radioactive contamination in Germany.  (Yet another reason, I suppose, to avoid eating swine.)  Total costs from the disaster are estimated at $235 billion (2011 US Dollars).  On the plus side, the Ukraine has plans to open up the affected area to tourists interested in seeing Chernobyl and the surrounding area after 25 years.  Only brave tourists need apply.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/nuclear-disasters-a-logarithmic-scale/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster