Chernobyl 25 years later: Many lessons learned
From Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Dramatic events over the last week have produced heartbreaking images from Japan as its people face unimaginable adversity. In the wake of an earthquake of historic proportions, a tsunami of biblical scale and now potentially a nuclear emergency of terrifying magnitude, the ripples of fear span the globe. Natural disaster has collided with manmade hazard and this may prompt a full-scale nuclear meltdown. Many governments on the brink of a nuclear rebirth have been forced to reassess their nuclear strategy. Germany has already shut down some nuclear plants while it reconsiders its approach.
In a piece recently featured on SAGE Insight, we highlight again this timely essay from the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, contributed to a special issue – Chernobyl 25 years later where he looks back at the catastrophic accident in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine and writes how, two and a half decades later, the nuclear accident offers many lessons for preventing, managing, and recovering from such a horrible event.
Article details
Tags: Chernobyl, germany, Gorbachev, Japan, nuclear disaster, nuclear power, nuclear strategy, Ukraine
