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Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists in "Perpetual Anticipation" April 13-15, 2012 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)22. Soviet Leader: Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Caused the Collapse of the USSR
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachevs policy of open politics called perestroika is largely blamed for the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, according to Gorbachevs 1996 memoirs, it was the Chernobyl nuclear accident, rather than perestroika (or Ronald Reagans increased arms spending), which destroyed the Soviet Union.
As Gorbachev wrote in 2006:
The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later. Indeed, the Chernobyl catastrophe was an historic turning point: there was the era before the disaster, and there is the very different era that has followed.
***
The Chernobyl disaster, more than anything else, opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue. It made absolutely clear how important it was to continue the policy of glasnost, and I must say that I started to think about time in terms of pre-Chernobyl and post-Chernobyl.
The price of the Chernobyl catastrophe was overwhelming, not only in human terms, but also economically. Even today, the legacy of Chernobyl affects the economies of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
***
The Chernobyl disaster, more than anything else, opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue. It made absolutely clear how important it was to continue the policy of glasnost, and I must say that I started to think about time in terms of pre-Chernobyl and post-Chernobyl.
The price of the Chernobyl catastrophe was overwhelming, not only in human terms, but also economically. Even today, the legacy of Chernobyl affects the economies of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
As weve previously noted, the risk of a nuclear catastrophe could total trillions of dollars and even bankrupt a country. Indeed, Fukushima may yet bankrupt Japan.
And any country foolish enough to build unsafe nuclear reactors based upon their ability to produce plutonium for nuclear warheads and to power nuclear submarines may go the way of the Soviet Union.
Especially if it is foolish enough to let the same companies which built and run Fukushima build and run their new plants as well.
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