The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster

This book examines the impact of Chernobyl on people's lives in the Soviet Union and the West, the environmental consequences, the portrayal of the event in the Soviet media, the reconstruction of life in the disaster zone (including the new city built for Chernobyl workers) and changes in the nuclear industry and in attitudes to nuclear power. Information about the aftermath of the accident is provided rather than about the events leading up to it as in David Marple's "Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR" (Macmillan, 1987). Victor Snell's introduction provides a technical account of how the disaster occurred. As a media event, coverage by Soviet reporters such as Kondrashov, Pralnikov, Bladamir Gubarev and Ukrainian writers such as Yurii Shcherbak and Oles Honchar have enabled a more accurate picture of what happened after Chernobyl. The author sees the only positive outcome of the event to be to stress safety in nuclear power industry and examines whether it has changed as a result of the disaster.