The first contract to build: The contract was for the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. Terry Macalister, “Westinghouse Wins First US Nuclear Deal in 30 Years,” Guardian, April 9, 2008.
At the beginning of March 2011: The new reactors were Units Three and Four, which the Ukrainian government planned to add to the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. “Construction cost of blocks 3 and 4 of Khmelnitsky NPP will be about $4.2 billion” [Стоимость строительства 3 и 4 блоков Хмельницкой АЭС составит около $4,2 млрд], Interfax, March 3, 2011.
Yet nuclear power endured: List of nuclear power reactors: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Operating Nuclear Power Reactors (by Location or Name),” updated April 4, 2018, www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors.
France continued to generate: “Nuclear Power in France,” World Nuclear Association, updated June 2018, www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx; “Nuclear Power in China,” World Nuclear Association, updated May 2018, www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/china-nuclear-power.aspx.
Humanity was predicted to double the amount of energy it uses by 2050: These forecasts vary depending on the prediction models employed. A more recent estimate suggests that demand will double by 2060. “World Energy Scenarios 2016: Executive Summary,” World Energy Council, https://www.worldenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/World-Energy-Scenarios-2016_Executive-Summary-1.pdf.
The fine particulates from fossil fuel plants: United States: “The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America’s Dirtiest Energy Source,” Clean Air Task Force, September 2010, 4.
Even to begin to head off climate change: Barry W. Brook et al., “Why Nuclear Energy Is Sustainable and Has to Be Part of the Energy Mix,” Sustainable Materials and Technologies, volumes 1–2 (December 2014): 8–16.
Statistically safer than every competing energy industry: “Mortality Rate Worldwide in 2018, by Energy Source (in Deaths Per Terawatt Hours),” Statista.com, www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source; Phil McKenna, “Fossil Fuels Are Far Deadlier Than Nuclear Power,” New Scientist, March 23, 2011.
In principle, these fourth-generation reactors: This thesis is examined in detail in Gwyneth Cravens, Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (New York: Vintage Books, 2008); and the documentary film Pandora’s Promise, directed by Robert Stone (Impact Partners, 2013).
The liquid fluoride thorium reactor: Robert Hargraves and Ralph Moir, “Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors,” Physics and Society (a newsletter of the American Physical Society), January 2011.
In 2015 Microsoft founder Bill Gates: Gates was one of the financial backers of TerraPower, funding research into a fourth-generation “traveling wave” reactor. See Richard Martin, “China Details Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Program,” MIT Technology Review, October 16, 2015; Richard Martin, “China Could Have a Meltdown-Proof Nuclear Reactor Next Year,” MIT Technology Review, February 11, 2016.
“The problem of coal has become clear”: Stephen Chen, “Chinese Scientists Urged to Develop New Thorium Nuclear Reactors by 2024,” South China Morning Post, March 18, 2014.
“were not nearly as substantial”: WHO/IAEA/UNDP, “Chernobyl: The True Scale of the Accident.” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/.
The Chernobyl Forum: WHO, “Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident: An Overview,” April 2006, www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/backgrounder/en; Elisabeth Cardis et al., “Estimates of the Cancer Burden in Europe from Radioactive Fallout from the Chernobyl Accident,” International Journal of Cancer 119, no. 6 (2006): 1224–35.
“paralyzing fatalism”: WHO/IAEA/UNDP, “Chernobyl: The True Scale of the Accident,” quoted in Petryna, Life Exposed, xv.
In a follow-up report: “1986–2016: Chernobyl at 30—An Update,” WHO press release, April 25, 2016.
“Basically nothing happened here”: Adriana Petryna, “Nuclear Payouts: Knowledge and Compensation in the Chernobyl Aftermath,” Anthropology Now, November 19, 2009.
Yet these conclusions: Petryna, Life Exposed, xix–xx.
She lived alone with six cats: Protsenko, author interview, 2015.
“It still stinks of radiation”: Ibid., 2016.
I found Viktor Brukhanov: Viktor and Valentina Brukhanov, author interview, 2015.
“The director has primary responsibility”: Ibid., Viktor and Valentina Brukhanov, author interview, 2016.
By the morning of April 26, 2016: Author attendance at ceremony marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 26, 2016.
“Satan sleeps beside the Pripyat”: The poem is “Satan Sleeps Beside the Pripyat” [На березі Прип'яті спить сатана] by Lina Kostenko, translated here by Tetiana Vodianytska.
He spoke of the accident’s catalytic role: Petro Poroshenko, “The President’s address at the ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe” [Виступ Президента під час заходів у зв'язку з 30-ми роковинами Чорнобильської катастрофи], speech on the New Safe Confinement site, April 26, 2016, online at the President of Ukraine website: www.president.gov.ua/news/vistup-prezidenta-pid-chas-zahodiv-u-zvyazku-z-30-mi-rokovin-37042.
The official cost of its completion: Nicolas Caille (Novarka project director), speech at the dedication ceremony for the New Safe Confinement, Chernobyl NPP, November 29, 2016; “Unique Engineering Feat Concluded as Chernobyl Arch Has Reached Resting Place,” EBRD press release, November 29, 2016; Laurin Dodd, author interview, telephone, May 2018.
“Ukrainians are a strong people”: Poroshenko, “The President’s address marking the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.”
Six months later: Author attendance at New Safe Confinement dedication ceremony, Chernobyl NPP, November 29, 2016.
Back in Moscow, the original architects: Bocharov, author interview, 2017; Belyaev, author interview, 2017.
“We have closed a wound”: Hans Blix, speech at the dedication ceremony, Chernobyl NPP, November 29, 2016.
Neither man nor machine: Laurin Dodd, author interview, May 2018; Artur Korneyev, quoted in Henry Fountain, “Chernobyl: Capping a Catastrophe,” New York Times, April 27, 2014.
EPILOGUE
Anatoly Aleksandrov: “Former Academy President Aleksandrov on Chernobyl, Sakharov,” Ogonek no. 35, August 1990, 6–10, translated by JPRS.
Major General Nikolai Antoshkin: author interview; “Nikolai Timofeyevich Antoshkin,” [Антошкин Николай Тимофеевич] Geroi Strany, www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1011.
Alexander Borovoi: Alla Astakhova, interview with Alexander Borovoi, “The Liquidator,” [Ликвидатор] Itogi 828, no. 17, April 23, 2012, www.itogi.ru/obsh-spetzproekt/2012/17/177051.html.
Following his fall from power: Taubman, Gorbachev, 650–663; Mikhail Gorbachev, “Turning Point at Chernobyl,” Project Syndicate, April 14, 2006.
Dr. Angelina Guskova: Guskova, The Country’s Nuclear Industry Through the Eyes of a Doctor, 156.
Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov: US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members of the Russian Leadership’s Inner Circle, and an Entity for Involvement in the Situation in Ukraine,” March 20, 2014.
Boris Scherbina: Andriyanov and Chirskov. Boris Scherbina, 386–88; Drach, author interview.
Vladimir Scherbitsky: Rada Scherbitskaya, interview with Sheremeta, “After Chernobyl, Gorbachev told Vladimir Vasiliyevich,” 2006; Baranovka, ed., The Chernobyl Tragedy, document no. 482: “Resolution on the termination of the criminal case opened February 11, 1992, with regard to the conduct of officials and state and public institutions after the Chernobyl NPP accident,” April 24, 1993.
Ukrainian Energy Minister: Vitali Sklyarov, interview by Natalia Yatsenko, “Vitali Sk
lyarov, energy advisor to the Ukrainian prime minister: ‘What’s happening in our energy sector is self-suffocation,’ ” [Советник премьер-министра Украины по вопросам энергетики Виталий Скляров: Самоудушение—вот что происходит с нашей энергетикой], Zerkalo nedeli Ukraina, October 7, 1994, https://zn.ua/ECONOMICS/sovetnik_premier-ministra_ukrainy_po_voprosam_energetiki_vitaliy_sklyarov_samoudushenie_-_vot_chto_p.html.
Following treatment: Ekaterina Sazhneva, “The living hero of a dead city” [Живой герой мертвого города], Kultura, February 2, 2016, http://portal-kultura.ru/articles/history/129184-zhivoy-geroy-mertvogo-gorodasazh; Tamara Stadnychenko-Cornelison, “Military engineer denounces handling of Chernobyl Accident,” The Ukrainian Weekly, April 26, 1992.
Vladimir Usatenko: Vladimir Usatenko, interview with Oleksandr Hrebet, “A Chernobyl liquidator talks of the most dangerous nuclear waste repository in Ukraine,” [Ліквідатор аварії на ЧАЕС розповів про найнебезпечніше сховище ядерних відходів в У країні] Zerkalo nedeli, December 14, 2016, https://dt.ua/UKRAINE/likvidator-avariyi-na-chaes-rozpoviv-pronaynebezpechnishomu-shovische-yadernih-vidhodiv-v-ukrayini-227461_.html.
Detective Sergei Yankovski: Sergei Yankovski, author interview, Kiev, 2017.
After pumping out: Zborovsky, interview with Babakov, in Gudov, Special Battalion no. 731, 36, 78; John Daniszewski, “Reluctant Ukraine to Shut Last Reactor at Chernobyl,” Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2000.
Bibliography
Archival Collections and Materials
The American Presidency Project, hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php.
Archive of the State Security Service of Ukraine [Галузевий державний архів Служби безпеки України (СБУ)]. Ukraine State Security Service Central Office. Kiev, Ukraine.
Barabanova, Dr. Angelika. Personal archive.
BBC Monitoring Service, Summary of World Broadcasts, daily reports on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
“Chernobyl, Pripyat: A Bit About Everything” [Чернобыль, Припять: обо всем понемногу]. Chernobyl and Pripyat electronic archive maintained by Alexander Kamayev. Online at http://pripyat-city.ru.
“The Chernobyl Tragedy: The Crime of the Soviet Government” [Чорнобильська трагедія—злочин радянської влади]. Ukrainian Liberation Movement electronic archive: Joint project of Ukrainian Center for Research on the Liberation Movement, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and National Museum-Memorial of Victims of Occupation Regimes (Prison on Łcki). Online at http://avr.org.ua/index.php/ROZDILY_RES?idUpCat=867.
CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), the Central Intelligence Agency. Online at www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/crest-25-year-program-archive.
Gorbachev Foundation Electronic Archive: Virtual Museum “M. S. Gorbachev. Life and Reforms” [Виртуальный музей “М.С.Горбачев. Жизнь и реформы”]. Online at www.gorby.ru/en/archival/archive_library.
Joint Publication Research Service (JPRS), Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents, foreign media monitoring reports produced by the US government’s National Technical Information Service (including CIA, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Congressional, GAO, and Foreign Press Monitoring Files), released March 2011.
Legasov, Valery. “On the Accident at Chernobyl AES” [Об аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС] aka “Legasov Tapes.” Transcript of five cassette tapes dictated by V. A. Legasov, online at http://lib.web-malina.com/getbook.php?bid=2755.
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum Electronic Archive: “Daily Diary” (www.reaganlibrary.gov/digital-library/daily-diary) and “Public Papers of the President” (www.reaganlibrary.gov/sspeeches).
Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) [Российский госуда рственный архив новейшей истории (РГАНИ)]. Hoover Institution. Microfilm, Fond 89: Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Trial, 1919–1992. Copies held at the Lamont Library: Archive of Contemporary History. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
The Second Russian Revolution (2RR) Collection. Material relating to the documentary film series The Second Russian Revolution (tapes and interview transcripts). Reference no. GB 97 2RR. LSE Library Archive, London.
Sorokin, Yuri. Personal archive.
State Film Archive of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine.
Tarakanov, General Nikolai. Personal archive.
Toptunova, Vera. Personal archive.
Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum [Национальный музей “Чернобыль”]. Archival documents and materials. Kiev, Ukraine.
Veterans of Rosatom website. www.veteranrosatom.ru.
Wilson Center Digital Archive. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org.
Author Interviews
Job title given at time of accident unless otherwise specified.
Antoshkin, Nikolai. Major general, chief of staff of the Soviet Air Defense Forces’ Seventeenth Airborne Army, Kiev military district. Moscow. October 21 and 23, 2015; October 13, 2016.
Barabanova, Anzhelika. Chief of radiation burn surgery, clinical department, Hospital Number Six. Moscow, October 14, 2016.
Belyaev, Igor. Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR; deputy head of Sredmash US-605, June–November 1986. Moscow, April 17, 2017.
Bocharov, Lev. Deputy chief engineer of the Main Directorate for Design and Capital Construction of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. Chief engineer of Shift Three, Sredmash US-605, September–December 1986. Moscow, April 14, 2017.
Bolshov, Leonid. Research physicist in the Troitsk branch of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy; director of the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1988. Moscow, April 15, 2017.
Borovoi, Alexander. Head of the neutrino physics research group, Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy; chief scientist of the Chernobyl Complex Expedition, 1988–2003. Moscow, October 15, 2015.
Breus, Alexey. Senior reactor control engineer, Second shift, Unit Four of Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, July 11, 2015.
Brukhanov, Viktor (director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant), and Valentina Brukhanov (Chernobyl plant heat treatment specialist). Kiev, September 6, 2015, and February 14, 2016.
Champlin, Richard. Chief of bone marrow transplant surgery at UCLA Medical Center. Telephone, September 21, 2016.
Daniloff, Nicholas. Moscow bureau chief, U.S. News & World Report. Telephone interview, September 26, 2017.
Dodd, Laurin. RBMK reactor expert in Nuclear Systems and Concepts Department, Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, March 1986–May 1994; managing director, Shelter Implementation Plan Project Management Unit, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 2006–March 2014. Telephone, May 4, 2018.
Drach, Leonid. Head of the Nuclear Energy Sector of the USSR Council of Ministers; member of the first government commission investigating the causes of the Chernobyl accident. Moscow, April 19, 2017.
Esaulov, Alexander. Deputy chairman of the Pripyat municipal executive committee, or ispolkom. Irpin, Ukraine, July 2015.
Flowers, Alan. Nuclear physicist and lecturer at Kingston Polytechnic, London; subsequently radiation protection officer at Kingston University; honorary doctor of radioecology with the International Sakharov Environmental Institute of Belarusian State University, Minsk. Telephone, February 25, 2016.
Gale, Robert. Professor of medicine at UCLA Medical Center; chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. June 22, 2016 (telephone) and August 11, 2016 (Big Sky, MT).
Gaschak, Sergei. In 2018, deputy director for Science, Chornobyl International Radioecology L
aboratory. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, February 7, 2011.
Glukhov, Andrei. Senior reactor control engineer, Unit One, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 1981–August 1984; head of Operational Support Group, Department of Nuclear Safety, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 1984–1986. Slavutych, Ukraine, July 12, 2015; Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, February 11 2016; telephone, July 3, 2018.
Goldston, Robert. Head of physics research team, Tokamak Test Reactor, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Princeton, NJ, February 15, 2018.
Grebeniuk, Vladimir. Colonel; commander of 427th Red Banner Mechanized Regiment of the Civil Defense Forces stationed in Kiev. Kiev, February 9, 2015.
Grodzinsky, Dmitri. Head of the Department of Biophysics and Radiobiology of the Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Kiev, February 8, 2011, and July 13, 2015.
Gubarev, Vladimir. Science editor, Pravda. Moscow, October 23, 2015.
Ignatenko, Sergey. Director of the Electrical Grid for the Right Bank of the Dnieper for the Kiev region, Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Electrification. Kiev, April 22, 2016.
Jacob, Sabine. In 2016, assistant to Dr. Robert Gale. Los Angeles, September 23, 2016.
Jorgensen, Timothy. In 2018, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University. Telephone, June 19, 2016.
Khmel, Piotr. Lieutenant, Paramilitary Fire Brigade Number Two. Kiev, February 16, 2006, and July 14, 2015.
Khodemchuk, Natalia. Engineer in Pripyat water pumping station Number Two and wife of Valery Khodemchuk. Kiev, May 28, 2017.
Kirichenko, Svetlana. Chief economist of the Pripyat ispolkom. Kiev, April 23, 2016.
Kizima, Vasily. Director of construction, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, February 7, 2016.
Klochko, Viktor. Colonel; head of the Pripyat department of the KGB. (Interview by Taras Shumeyko), Kiev, September 7, 2015.
Koldin, Valery. Colonel; deputy head of the Department of Military Construction, Third Shift, Sredmash US-605 (October–December 1986). Moscow, April 18, 2017.
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