(8 of 10)
In addition to employing old technology, Soviet engineers and scientists have tended to show much less concern for safety than their Western counterparts. Says Physicist Robert Sachs, director of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago and a strong nuclear power proponent: "Those of us who know something about Soviet safety policy have wondered how they have gotten away without a big accident for as long as they have." The lack of a containment structure for the Chernobyl reactor, which might have limited the emission of radioactivity into the atmosphere after the explosion, is only the most glaring example.
Publicly, however, Moscow describes its nuclear generators as thoroughly up < to date. In an article on Chernobyl in the February 1986 issue of Soviet Life, an English-language publication, Ukrainian Power Minister Vitali Sklyarov boasted that "the odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years." In any case, he added, "the environment is also securely protected."
Yet a recent article in another Soviet publication revealed local worries about safety at Chernobyl. A story printed a month or so ago in Literaturna Ukraina, a Kiev publication, attacked shoddy building practices and workmanship at the power station. Writer Lyubov Kovalevska, who lives near the facility, noted "deficiencies" in the quality of construction and demanded that "each cubic meter of reinforced concrete must guarantee reliability and, thus, safety." The article's headline: "It Is Not a Private Matter."
The quality and safety of Soviet-built nuclear reactors is a subject that will soon be close to home for some Americans. The Soviets are helping Cuba install a pair of reactors near the town of Cienfuegos, some 250 miles south of Miami. U.S. experts say that the twin units will use water rather than graphite to moderate the fuel reactions and will apparently be housed in containment buildings. Though full details are unknown, some U.S. physicists familiar with the Western-style reactors say they are probably no more dangerous than several now used in Florida.
Following the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet Union reportedly closed all reactors that were built with the same design, a total of some 20 units that produce an estimated 5% of the country's electricity supply. Nonetheless, the Soviets seem certain to press ahead with their ambitious program of nuclear construction. Gorbachev has made atomic energy, which provides 11% of the country's power, a cornerstone of his drive to double the size of the Soviet economy by the year 2000. Thirty-four new nuclear plants are under construction. The plants are needed all the more because Soviet oil reserves are dwindling. Still, the disaster will inevitably delay new construction, particularly of graphite-core units. "This comes at a bad time for them psychologically," said a Western specialist in Moscow, "since there's been so much talk about speeding up productive processes."
Outside the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl meltdown is likely to cast a long global shadow. "Chernobyl will reanimate the entire nuclear debate in Western Europe," said Thomas Roser of Bonn's Atomforum. "All the people who object to nuclear power will have this week's disaster as a symbol."