Modern World History Midterm

Chernobyl - A Retrospective Look at Government Transparency

By Danny DeGirolomo
 The Chernobyl Incident was a fluke, an accident that should have never happened.
It was caused by an unforeseen flaw in the system that set off a chain reaction that killed
thousands, and consequences of this event plague the world to this day. However, this was
an incident that could have been helped by the Soviet Union letting go of its pride and
allowing others to help it and release information about what happened. Instead, Russia
allowed nuclear fallout to rain down upon itself and other countries without revealing what
had happened, and without Sweden accidentally discovering the increased amount of
nuclear radiation in Russia, it's possible that there would have been even more damage. If
Russia had also revealed to the populace the amount of danger they were in, it’s also
possible that a large number of people would have been safe from nuclear radiation. At the
very least, any people irradiated during the Mayday celebrations would have been safe, as
they wouldn’t have gone back into a radioactive area where they would be harmed. If the
Soviet Union’s Government had been transparent from the beginning, it’s unknown how
many people would have been saved, but if even one person would have been saved,
wouldn’t it be worth it?

On April 26, 1986, trouble was brewing for an innocuous nuclear reactor in the
town of Chernobyl, the Soviet Union. The town’s nuclear facility was undergoing some
routine safety testing, specifically a test of how the well the emergency liquid cooler would
function in the case of a power failure. The test was scheduled for during the daytime, and
all of the engineers at the facility were prepared for the experiment. However, it was
quickly interrupted by a different, unscheduled power failure, and the experiment was
postponed for a later time, during the night. The night crew was quickly briefed on the
experiment, and they were told to do it that night.1 The night crew made some mistakes
during the test but pushed on anyway. However, there was one fatal flaw they made; one
of the safety systems turned off was the one used during the test, the water turbines.
Without a steady stream of water, the comparatively smaller amount of water in the reactor

1 ​Hjelmgaard, Kim. "Chernobyl: Timeline of a Nuclear Nightmare." ​USAToday​, April 17, 2016. Accessed December 18, 2018.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/17/chernobyl-timeline-disaster-30th-anniversary/82899108/​.
boiled, turning into pure steam and quickly blowing the top off of the reactor before plant
operators could stop the reactor using metal rods to seal it shut. Oxygen flooded the
reactor, starting a secondary explosion and a graphite fire inside the reactor. These twin
explosions quickly released radioactive smoke into the air, some of which would fall to the
ground nearby, causing major damage to the town of Chernobyl nearby. However, the
majority of the radioactive smoke would be pushed around by wind currents, which would
cause more fallout to fly unpredictably around the world. This radioactive smoke would
threaten people worldwide, causing danger to other countries, and would continue
uninhibited unless the fire was stopped and the reactor was contained.2 Fortunately, a
number of immediate containment procedures went into place; firemen arrived to contain
the flames, causing the amount of nuclear smoke that was released to lessen, likely saving
many lives; however, many of these men died in the line of duty, due to not having
sufficient protective gear as well as having devices to detect radiation that couldn’t reach
as high as the radiation levels around the men, causing them to assume the danger was
much less then it was. These men mostly died of radiation poisoning within three weeks.
Some interesting people died during this initial event, including Reactor Crew Chief
Vasyli Ignatenko, who helped the men pump water directly into the reactor and weaken the
fire This ironically proved that if the test had gone not turned off the water turbine, it’s
possible that the reactor would have survived the experiment and many people would still
be alive today. The main containment measure was put into play in time This was the
construction of the “Sarcophagus”, a large construct made of concrete and steel that
surrounded the entirety of the destroyed reactor. The Sarcophagus was constructed to hold
in the radioactive smoke and contain the radiation to the building. However, the
Sarcophagus took almost a full year to finish, and while Chernobyl wasn’t constantly
releasing radioactive smoke anymore due to the actions of the firefighters, the area was
still dangerous, which called for the creation of the exclusion zone, a section of land that
was used as a buffer of sorts around Chernobyl, to protect the general populace. On April
26, all citizens within a six-mile radius of Chernobyl were evacuated, and many people
were forced to move permanently from their homes, without time to take their possessions.
The citizens were given an announcement that said,

2 ​Hjelmgaard, Kim. "Chernobyl: Timeline of a Nuclear Nightmare." ​USAToday​, April 17, 2016. Accessed December 18, 2018.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/17/chernobyl-timeline-disaster-30th-anniversary/82899108/​.
 “Attention! Attention! In connection with the accident at the Chernobyl atomic
power station, unfavorable radiation conditions are developing in the city of
Prypiat. In order to ensure complete safety for residents, children first and
foremost, it has become necessary to carry out a temporary evacuation of the city’s
residents to nearby settlements of Kyiv oblast [province]. For that purpose, buses
will be provided to every residence today, April 27, beginning at 14:00 hours,
under the supervision of police officers and representatives of the city executive
committee. It is recommended that people take documents, absolutely necessary
items and food products to meet immediate needs. Comrades, on leaving your
dwellings, please do not forget to close windows, switch off electrical and gas
appliances and turn off water taps. Please remain calm, organized and orderly.” 3

The exclusion zone is still in effect today, as is the nuclear sarcophagus. However, the
Sarcophagus is currently corroding due to the excessive amounts of nuclear energy found
within and will require replacement in the coming years.

The Chernobyl Incident caused widespread panic throughout the Soviet Union and
the greater world. The incident was kept quiet for the most part, with Soviet officials
being unwilling to reveal information about the incident to the world. Mikhail Gorbachev,
the general secretary of the Communist Party at the time was the first powerful politician
to learn of the explosion at 5 am. However, due to not knowing exactly what had
happened, he didn’t take the necessary steps to help the general populace ; instead, he
decided that whatever was going on, it didn’t require him to wake up the rest of the
country’s leaders or to summon the Politburo, the ruling committee of the Communist
Party. Instead, he authorized the creation of a state committee and left them to handle the
mess that was created. Three days passed without much information being released to the
world,4 5 until the Swedish government released a map showcasing the increased radiation

​
3 Plokhy, Serhii. "The Chernobyl Cover-Up: How Officials Botched Evacuating an
Irradiated City." History.com. Last modified May 10, 2018. Accessed
December 18, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-coverup.

4 ​Brewin, Thurstan B. "Chernobyl and the Media." ​BMJ: British Medical Journal​ 309, no. 6948 (1994): 208-09. ​http://www.jstor.org/stable/29724230​.

5 ​History of the United Nations and Chernobyl. Accessed December 18, 2018. ​http://www.un.org/ha/chernobyl/history.html​.
in the Soviet Union, revealing that yes, there was indeed a nuclear explosion in the Soviet
Union. The map also contained some predicted windfall, which showed a possible route
for the radioactive smoke to travel, which would allow some people to stay ahead of the
radioactive material, saving a number of lives. However, information about Chernobyl was
still hard to come by, including safety measures that could be taken by the citizens; there
was no way to find out how to purify the water nearby, or how to protect themselves
against the radioactive smoke falling from the sky. Nobody knew to cover food and
people, stopping the creation of cancers and making food inedible. Had the Soviet Union
stepped up, the people could have been protected better. However, the Soviet Union kept
information under wraps for several months, causing more people to be irradiated and
suffer from nuclear radiation without knowing about it. In fact, May Day celebrations
happened without a change in schedule near Chernobyl,6 which meant that a large number
of people were actively traveling into more dangerous areas. Windfall caused nuclear
clouds to blow towards Kiev, where the May Day celebrations were happening, causing
nuclear fallout to rain down upon the celebrating people. The events continued for several
days until news about the event was released by Mikhail Gorbachev on television on the
day of May 14, 1986, 28 days after the incident. Gorbachev mobilized hundreds of
thousands of people to help clean up the area and help save the people who were relocated
because of the Incident, however much of the damage was already done;7 it was too late for
action.

If the Russian Government had remained transparent through and through, the people of
Russia would not have suffered as deeply as they did. However, they instead hid the
information that they knew and caused a massive amount of people to suffer and die
painful, horrible deaths caused by nuclear radiation and lack of food and water. The
population of Russia suffered and died because of the pride of their leaders, providing an
important lesson to the leaders of the world; no pride is truly worth the cost of human
lives. However, this lesson would go on unheeded by many, as government secrets still
proliferate.8 What secrets lie hidden beneath the veneer we know? Only time will tell.

6 Hjelmgaard, Kim. "Chernobyl: Timeline of a Nuclear Nightmare." USAToday, April

17, 2016.

7 ​Plokhy, Serhii. "The Chernobyl Cover-Up: How Officials Botched Evacuating an Irradiated City."

8 ​Scott, Peter Dale. "The Nevada Radiation Cover-Up." ​The Threepenny Review​, no. 27 (1986): 3. ​http://www.jstor.org/stable/4383491​.
 Bibliography

1. Hjelmgaard, Kim. "Chernobyl: Timeline of a Nuclear Nightmare." ​USAToday,​

April 17, 2016. Accessed December 18, 2018.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/17/chernobyl-timeline-disast
er-30th-anniversary/82899108/​.
2. Brewin, Thurstan B. "Chernobyl and the Media." ​BMJ: British Medical Journal
309, no. 6948 (1994): 208-09. ​http://www.jstor.org/stable/29724230​.
3. DeGirolomo, Jennifer Ann. Interview by the author. Trumbull, CT. December 10,
2018.
4. History of the United Nations and Chernobyl. Accessed December 18, 2018.
http://www.un.org/ha/chernobyl/history.html​.
5. Plokhy, Serhii. "The Chernobyl Cover-Up: How Officials Botched Evacuating an
Irradiated City." History.com. Last modified May 10, 2018. Accessed December
18, 2018. ​https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-coverup​.
6. Scott, Peter Dale. "The Nevada Radiation Cover-Up." ​The Threepenny Review,​ no.
27 (1986): 3. ​http://www.jstor.org/stable/4383491​.
7. Wikipedia. "Chernobyl." Wikipedia. Last modified September 3, 2002. Accessed
December 4, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster.