Nuclear Accidents

Does Chernobyl constitute a turning point in the history of environmental policy and politics? Around the world environmental policy was introduced in the early 1970s as a new policy area and arena of political and societal conflict. However, from mid-1970s onwards, as a result of the oil crisis, the new policy came to be increasingly challenged, and considered an obstacle to traditional economic growth objectives. Notably in West Germany, environmental policy’s great leap forward only happened in the 1980s. The debate about the dying forests led to the introduction of new filter technologies and catalytic converters to stop acid rain from killing trees and harming people. It was the shock of Chernobyl, however, that convinced the West German government to eventually establish a separate ministry of the environment at the federal level.
This conference has two aims:
First, it seeks to assess change in environmental politics and policy making – from its beginnings around 1970 until the 1990s, when the Rio Conference definitely lifted environmental issues to a global scale with the breakthrough of the sustainability agenda and the increasing dominance of the climate change issue. While the early phase of environmental policy is increasingly well-covered by environmental history, we know very little about the subsequent development of the policy.
Against this backdrop, we seek to examine to what extent and how environmental policy and politics changed during the first thirty years of their existence. Transformations may have concerned political, administrative, societal, and media practices and structures as well as problem perceptions. The conference’s goal is to uncover, in particular, the conditions for change, ruptures, intercepted developments and roads not taken.
Secondly, the conference aims at re-assessing the importance of the Chernobyl nuclear accident for change in environmental policy and politics. Did Chernobyl actually constitute a turning point? Did Chernobyl really strengthen environmental policy, by bringing environmental issues back to the centre of political attention? What were the consequences of Chernobyl for the perception of environmental policies? What was the impact on political and societal action, mobilisation and structures? Did Chernobyl offer new windows of opportunity for environmental policy makers.
We will also discuss an alternative interpretation: Is it more appropriate to consider Chernobyl rather as a catalyst where the different environmental debates, growing environmental consciousness and ecological concerns of the 1980s came together to accelerate and strengthen environmental policy. Next to the lasting conflict about nuclear power this included concerns about the visible environmental problems such as dying forests and polluted water, and increasingly also invisible and global concerns about the hole in the ozone layer and climate change. We will look beyond national borders: How does the West German response compare to other European countries – a question that seems relevant with a view to the German phase-out after Fukushima?

The reports of the dismal performance and unusually high incidence of scrams and accidents at the first unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India have created an impression that the reactor is a colossal failure. This is not true; there were also days when the operators celebrated its spectacular achievements of the first Generation-III reactor from Russia. During the three years of the reactor's life, the analysts and even the nuclear-friendly media failed to see a unique achievement of the machine, unparalleled in the history of civilian nuclear power. On one-tenth of its productive days, the reactor's output was on an average 10 MW (e) above the installed capacity of 995 MW; the highest gross generation recorded so far was 1018 MW. Through this innovation called power uprating, the reactor has so far generated an extra 1816 MW or 44 million units of electricity. Since uprating involves stretching the systems to their extremes and reducing the safety margins, the regulatory agencies mandate detailed studies, public debates and licensing procedures before initiation of the experiment. As these were not done and the experiment began during the commissioning phase, this one can be considered as first of a kind in the world. While the Russian collaborator of the experiment is canvassing for an early official declaration of the uprated capacity of 1020 MW, the Indian operator denies the experiment for reasons not known. This case study shows that the regulatory agencies in India have failed in implementing not only their own rules and regulations, but also the orders of the Supreme Court of India. Illegal Reactor Experiments at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, India VT Padmanabhan, Joseph Makkolil " We knew, with certainty, with arrogant certainty, that we were in control of the power we were playing with. We could make the forces of nature bend to our will. There was nothing we could not do. This was the day, of course, when we learned we were wrong. " 1 Sergiy Parashyn, Engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the accident.

On this edition of the HONEST podcast we explore the legacy of Chernobyl in terms of how it changed the relationship between nuclear energy and society in the context of: Sweden, Italy, East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union.

Guests on this podcast include:
Arne Kaijser, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm
Luigi Piccioni, University of Calabria
Julie Ault, University of Utah
Paul Josephson, Colby College

This programme was recorded in the context of the Conference  "Chernobyl – Turning Point or Catalyst? Changing Practices, Structures and Perceptions in Environmental Policy and Politics (1970s-1990s)", which took place in Berlin between the 2 and 3rd December 2016. Co-organised by HoNESt's Jan-Henrik Meyer - in cooperation with Marianne Zepp and Christoph Becker-Schaum of the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation, Berlin. Partners of this conference were the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, the Centre for Metropolitan Studies Berlin and the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam.