Ferrari Mailing List: Chernobyl

[georgedodson (georgedodson]

A colleague of mine from Harvard was filmed by a BBC crew interviewing the 
former director of the Chernobyl facility. He asked "why in world would you do 
prompt supercritical experiments on a power reactor (as opposed to a research 
reactor) which has no containment building?" The astounding response was " If 
you design and build a reactor properly, then you don't need a containment 
building and of course, everything in Soviet Union is designed and built 
properly". He said this while standing next to the ruins of his facility. I 
could go on for some time about the differences between western and FSU safety 
standards in science and  the nuclear industry.