VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL

The Oral History of a Nuclear

Disaster

Svetlana Alexievich

Book Review
Submitted by:
Noor Ahmed
Roll no: 09
Batch: 05
Session: 2017-18
Department of Nuclear Engineering
University of Dhaka

Submitted to: Dr. Samina Luthfa

Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Dhaka

Submitted on: December 17, 2018

‘Voices from Chernobyl’ published in the year 1997. It is an award
winning book. The writer Svetlana Alexievich won Nobel Literature Prize
in 2015. The book is a compilation of interviews with survivors of the
nuclear reactor accident. The survivors expressed their terrible
experience about the nuclear disaster which are all heart touching. The
1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is one of the worst
nuclear accidents of all time. The interviews on the book, all from the
year 1996, are collected, edited, and arranged by Svetlana Alexievich, a
Belarussian writer, an investigative journalist as well as a Nobel laureate.
Their narratives form a crucial document revealing how the government
masked the event with deception and denial. It is the first book to
present personal accounts of what happened on April 26, 1986, when
the worst nuclear reactor accident in history contaminated as much as
three quarters of Europe.

Chapter Summary:
There are three chapters in this book. The wife of a first-response
fireman who took several weeks to die from radiation poisoning. "Self-
settlers" who stayed behind or returned to the contaminated zone.
Russian refugees from Tajikstan who preferred the risks of radiation to
those of young men with guns. Hunters employed to kill abandoned cats
and dogs. Children with birth-defects. Those who used condemned food
and equipment or recycled it onto the black market. Scientists and health
workers who tried to alert people to the risks of radiation. Officials and
bureaucrats who spoke out and those who toed the line--- all of the topic
came throughout the whole book. The chapters are briefly discussed
below.
LAND OF THE DEAD:
Here is eight different interviews of different people , living in the
Chernobyl. The place is entirely irradiated by the devastating nuclear
explosion. All of the people , who went near the power-plant area had
the same fate, death. Everyone were not ready to face that unexpected
situation. Some lost their near ones, some of them were forced to leave
their home, some of them were forced to go near the power plant to
clean the radiation but at the end the climax remains the same. Actually
the animals also could not escaped from the death. The foods , water,
means, almost every single object there is contaminated with radiation.
The military force was applied so that the people were forced to leave
their home. They were abandoned to eat the foods, vegetables, meat.
This incident spread to much fear to the other people that they did not
consider the people of chernobyl as common people. Nobody wanted to
come close with the people of Chernobyl as they had fear of getting
radiated. There were very less safety for the common people. In words,
the whole land had become a land of death.

THE LAND OF THE LIVING:

The second chapter is about the people who survived after the disaster
took place. The contaminated area was totally an improper place to live.
The foods, the air, whole of the surrounding environment contained high
radiation and living there means to call the death. Children were born
having birth defect and very less of them survived. The authority ordered
to empty the whole place for safety. But some of the people had no
alternative way to go or enough money. They accepted their fate and the
people started to eat the contaminated foods, vegetables, meat of the
animals. As a result, some of them got high radiation in their body and
died. But death had become a common thing then and no-one got
excited. The animals were killed by the hunters as the order of the
government as they contained radioactivity. These animal had no value
of their life. The government did not want to spread fear among the
people about radioactivity, so, abandoned all the books about nuclear
disaster like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about X-rays and Gamma rays. The
common people had almost zero security of radiation. The soldiers
cleaned the area near the power plant risking their lives as they were
highly paid for this work. The scientists worked raise awareness about
radiation exposures among people all over the affected sites. But, all of
the nuclear scientists were blamed by the common people because of
their fate. They said the nuclear disaster as the war of all wars.

AMAZED BY SADNESS:
The third chapter is the synthesis of the first two chapter. It harmonies
the first two chapter and includes a conclusion of the whole book. In
Chernobyl people experienced death from very close. After the incident
many people lost there everything. Many lost their near ones, their
home, many of them were like living death body who lost their organ
because of high radioactivity and they had no meaning of life, counting
for the death to come. Again, many people did not give up. They fought
against their faith, for their lives. Even after losing everything, the people
of Chernobyl loved their country and their home. It is a painful thing to
see a children facing the cruelty of the world at such an age. Many of
them lost their mates. The children were born with birth defect. Many of
them did not survive and accept death immediate after birth. Being too
much depressed they some of them committed
suicide. Hence, the ending of this book is not a happier one.
CONCLUSION:
In this book the writer showed an excellent variety of pronunciation and
unutteredness. The proper use of emotion and rage took this book into
a new level. The writer very neatly presented the unbearable situations
of the sufferers. Besides , This book has came up with patriotism. People
, loving their country went to the radioactive place and worked with the
soldiers to clean the radio source risking their lives. Along with so many
things, this book has come up with love of people for each other. Seeing
ones near one to accept the death... there is no hardship than this. Finally
the books shows peoples enthusiasm to left behind all the sorrows and
sufferings and move forward for a better future.

Nuclear safety management in Bangladesh:

The government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh signed the
Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) on 21 September 1995.
Consequently it was formally accepted and entered into force on 24
October 1996. To date, apart from a research reactor, Bangladesh does not
have any “nuclear installations” in operation, under construction or
decommissioned as defined in the Convention. However, Bangladesh is
going on with a nuclear power project named Rooppur Nuclear Power
Plant (RNPP) project to construct two units of VVER-1200 (AES 2006)
PWR in the north-western part of the country with the help of Russian
Federation. Bangladesh will move a step closer to becoming the 33rd
nuclear power-generating country. The first initiative of installing a
nuclear power plant in the territory of Bangladesh was taken in 1961.
Afterwards, particularly in the post-independence period till present days,
a good number of technical and economic feasibility studies of the
proposed NPP have been conducted. Bangladesh adopted a Nuclear
Power Action Plan in 2001 considering the role of nuclear power as vital
for long-term energy security and sustainable development of the country.
Later in 2007 government affirmed its plan to build a nuclear power plant
in the Rooppur site of Pabna district to meet the shortage of electricity as
well as to diversify the sources of energy. For this, after considering
various proposals from number of vendor countries, Bangladesh finally
signed an 7 intergovernmental agreement with the Russian Federation in
November 2011 on cooperation for construction of a nuclear power plant
in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Russian company Atomstroyexport is likely complete the construction of

the main structure of the power plant within 68 months. The government
expects the first 1200MW unit of the Rooppur plant will be available to
the national power grid in mid-2023 while the second unit will be active
a year later. Construction work is proceeding apace on the 250,905 square
metre area of the Rooppur project. Most of the infrastructure of the first
phase has already been built. The first ever nuclear power plant in
Bangladesh costs about $12.65 billion and is being built with the
assistance of Russia.

Security of Ruppur NPP:

The power plant is being built with five levels of safety measures using
third generation technology, says the government. Russia has agreed to
handle the disposal of the nuclear waste. The Rooppur plant is being built
with 3 plus technology and Russia has taken responsibility for waste
management. Generation 3+ reactor is the most modern reactor
currently availavail in the world. The government has been setting up
two international standard VVER-1200 reactors having five-tier safety. A
total of 2,400MW electricity would be generated from the two reactors
and each of the reactors would produce 1,200 MW power.
The containment of the reactor will be build in such way that if there is
any leak in the containment vessel the radioactive gas will not come
outside, rather will be isolated from the environment surrounding. VVER-
1200 is a pressurized water reactor which contains separate primary
water loop and secondary water loop , so that the radioactive water
remains in the primary loop and do not come with contact with the
turbine engine. So, even after all these safety features and suitable
environments, if any accident occurs, necessary steps have been made
to counter it as fast as possible. Incase of radiation, the generation 3+
reactor emits radioactivity of 32 micro REM unit which is 60-70 times low
than a coal based power plant because, the generation 3+ reactor does
not allow radiated water to come in contact with surrounding. Even our
surrounding has a radiation of 28 micro REM unit which is almost same
as the power-plant. So, there is no chance of being affected by the
radiation. The power-plant can not be damaged by calamities because it
can stand firm even a bigger size plane crashed into it. So, nuclear energy
is the future of the world. We can not rely on coal based energy for much
more time when there will be no coal. We can not get as much power
we want from recycled source. So, we have to take this alternative step.
Again nuclear energy is a green energy. It does not emits any pollution in
the environment while coal does. So, we can say nuclear power is safe,
environment friendly in Bangladesh.

END
Reference:
 Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana
Alexievich.
 Wikipedia