Twenty-five years ago, Alexander Glushchenko volunteered to join
the "liquidators," an army of 600,000 who put their lives on the line
to clean up the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
But sitting in his Moscow apartment, packed with books and photos
about the catastrophe, he argued that with a disaster this big, there
could be no liquidation, only a "minimization" of the consequences.
Glushchenko, 68, said crucial facts about the catastrophe remain
"silenced" and that the global community still has not learned its
lesson.
However, the solution is not abandoning nuclear industry altogether
but developing a "culture of nuclear safety," said Glushchenko, who has
written three books on the matter, with the latest out last week.
A nuclear physicist by education, Glushchenko used to work at the
very institute that developed a Chernobyl-type nuclear reactor — and he
said he is among the few to harbor doubts about its safety.
"I was one of the few in the field to foresee the tragedy, but it wasn't in my power to do anything," he said, regretfully.
For years, the scientific community was confident to the point
of arrogance that nuclear safety was guaranteed. Anatoly Alexandrov,
head of the Soviet industry's leading research body, the Kurchatov
Institute of Atomic Energy, once boasted that it was safe to build
a nuclear power station even in the Kremlin.
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Data: 26.04.2011
Fonte: www.themoscowtime.com
Autore: Alexandra Odynova
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