An examination of how the technical choices, social hierarchies,
economic structures, and political dynamics shaped the Soviet
nuclear industry leading up to Chernobyl. The Chernobyl disaster
has been variously ascribed to human error, reactor design flaws,
and industry mismanagement. Six former Chernobyl employees were
convicted of criminal negligence; they defended themselves by
pointing to reactor design issues. Other observers blamed the
Soviet style of ideologically driven economic and industrial
management. In Producing Power, Sonja Schmid draws on interviews
with veterans of the Soviet nuclear industry and extensive research
in Russian archives as she examines these alternate accounts.
Rather than pursue one "definitive" explanation, she investigates
how each of these narratives makes sense in its own way and
demonstrates that each implies adherence to a particular set of
ideas-about high-risk technologies, human-machine interactions,
organizational methods for ensuring safety and productivity, and
even about the legitimacy of the Soviet state. She also shows how
these attitudes shaped, and were shaped by, the Soviet nuclear
industry from its very beginnings. Schmid explains that Soviet
experts established nuclear power as a driving force of social, not
just technical, progress. She examines the Soviet nuclear
industry's dual origins in weapons and electrification programs,
and she traces the emergence of nuclear power experts as a
professional community. Schmid also fundamentally reassesses the
design choices for nuclear power reactors in the shadow of the Cold
War's arms race. Schmid's account helps us understand how and why a
complex sociotechnical system broke down. Chernobyl, while unique
and specific to the Soviet experience, can also provide valuable
lessons for contemporary nuclear projects.
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