Aw, Forget Chernobyl!

It sounds like a bad joke, or perhaps the world's biggest public-relations challenge. The Russian firm AtomStroyExport (ASE) is trying to sell nuclear reactors to Finland — one of the countries worst affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

It's a tough job. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear-power station's No. 4 reactor experienced a massive fire and meltdown, releasing radioactive dust that wafted over Finland. The resulting contamination forced Finnish authorities to slaughter almost a half a million farm animals and restrict fishing in rivers and lakes in central and northern Finland until 1988. Those memories die...