Big Picture Science: 40 Years After Chernobyl
On April 26th,
1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union
blasted a plume of radioactive debris a half mile into the sky, blanketing
Europe. Witnesses described a laser of blue light eerily shooting up from the
reactor core. Built to represent the bright future of nuclear power, Chernobyl
instead became the biggest nuclear disaster in history. In the first of a
two-part series, we retell the story of the accident, the role that design
flaws and human error played, and the futile attempts at radiation containment.
We also consider the long shadow the catastrophe cast over nuclear power, and
the significant political fallout of the Soviet coverup; the Ukrainian vote for
independence and the fall of the U.S.S.R.
Guest:
- Adam Higginbotham – Journalist and author of “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster”
You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/
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