This week marks the 28th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It remains the worst nuclear incident of all time and, for a lot of people, a powerful symbol of the dangers of nuclear power. Before Chernobyl, nuclear power had been seen as a low risk, low cost, and limitless form of energy. The global industry never quite recovered from the Chernobyl incident and subsequent events, such as the Fukushima incident in Japan, suggest the future of nuclear power may be bleak for a long time.
Chernobyl was built in 1977, during the heart of the cold war. By that stage, the cold war was waged more with economics than with weapons; each side competing in an arms race to outdo the other. Throughout the post war period, cheap, reliable energy was seen as an essential ingredient for a strong economy that would be needed to fund our militaries. Nuclear power was seen as the answer for both sides of the cold war. On our side, the Americans, British, French, and West Germans all rolled out significant nuclear power generation programs. On the other side, the USSR rolled out nuclear power plants all across the other side of the iron curtain. Chernobyl was just one of these nuclear power stations that allowed the Soviet Union to stay in the cold war as long as it did.
When the Chernobyl incident occurred on April 26th, 1986, the role of nuclear power in the world's economy changed forever. The Soviet Union would dissolve in less than four years. While that was bound to happen sooner or later, the Chernobyl incident likely hastened its demise. Starved for energy, the strain on the Soviet economy as a result of its huge military spending proved to be unsustainable. Chernobyl's impact was not limited to the east though.
Germany, which was the western country most at risk of radiation from Chernobyl, has become the most anti-nuclear industrialised country in the world. Not only are they not building any new nuclear power plants but they are prematurely retiring operating plants that cost billions of dollars to build. Before Chernobyl, the UK had intended on building about a dozen new nuclear facilities. In the end, they built just one. Even in the US, no nuclear power plants have been developed since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The one industrialised country that did continue with it's nuclear power roll out was Japan. That trend came to an unfortunate halt with the Fukushima disaster of 2011. While Japan may be having second thoughts about nuclear power, other Asian countries are not. China, for example, is currently building about a dozen nuclear plants. Each of these plants under construction is larger than Chernobyl and, to be fair to China, each is likely safer that Chernobyl too. Hopefully this new wave of nuclear power in China and other developing countries can spare the world from another incident like Chernobyl.
