Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1 Political rules and nuclear safety; 2 Ukraine's uneasy past and uncertain future; 3 Armenia at the crossroads; 4 Lithuania reluctant but resolved to obey; 5 Bulgaria, what a strange trip it has been; 6 Overcoming Slovakia's Meciar problem; 7 Delaying disaster; Appendix A: Map of Soviet-designed reactors; Appendix B: Reactor locations, statuses, and designs; Appendix C: Chernobyl Unit 4 after April 1986 disaster; Index
Summary
Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl explosion, disaster struck once more after a tsunami overwhelmed the considerable safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. However, Fukushima had put in place a solid containment structure to reduce the spread of radiation in the event of a worst-case scenario; Chernobyl did not. These two incidents highlight the importance of such safety measures, which were critically lacking in an entire class of Soviet-designed reactors. This book examines why five countries operating these dangerous reactors first signed internat
