An examination of
the situation in Japan six months after the nuclear disaster
demonstrates the inadequacy of capitalism in responding to such a
crisis. It is telling to compare the response of the capitalist
government of Japan to the Fukushima disaster with the Soviet
response to the Chernobyl meltdown.
The Japanese
government has declared eight areas close to the damaged reactors as
no-go zones, potentially for the next two decades. The government,
however, is not stopping people from returning to the highly
radioactive areas.
It is not
difficult to understand why the former population of these areas
would want to visit the ruins of their former homes. These are the
only homes they have. Rather than providing any kind of housing for
the evacuated population, the government has placed
them in makeshift camps in auditoriums and warehouses. Thousands of
people remain homeless and jobless.
In the nearby
areas not evacuated, families are left with no information about the
level of radiation to which they are being exposed. It is commonly
accepted amongst the Japanese people that the government continues to
lie regarding the level of radiation leaked during the disaster.
A group of seniors
has petitioned the government to allow them to replace the cleanup
crew at the damaged plants because everyone accepts that the level of
radiation is such that no technology will be able to protect the
crew. Better, the seniors say, for them to die than the young.
The government
refuses to let the seniors take on this task because it refuses to
acknowledge that the situation is so dire. The state continues to
protect the interests of Tepco, the company that owned the damaged
reactors and built the power plants on earthquake-prone fault lines.
Chernobyl
disaster response: Evidence of Soviet indifference to safety?
When Chernobyl,
the Soviet nuclear power plant, suffered a meltdown in 1986, the
American press presented the disaster as evidence of the callous
indifference of the Soviet government towards its people. In fact,
the Soviet response to the Chernobyl accident was swift and thorough.
Unlike the unfolding disaster in Japan, the Chernobyl accident truly
could not have been anticipated.
At the end of
World War II, shortly after U.S. imperialism launched a nuclear
assault against the people of Japan, capitalist corporations began
plans to profit from utilizing nuclear power as a way to produce
electricity. The Soviet Union was now targeted by its former ally,
the United States.
The USSR was at
that time many years behind the imperialist powers in technological
advancement. It had to keep pace with a nuclear-powered adversary
that had demonstrated its willingness to use nuclear weapons against
innocent people. Thus the Soviet Union was forced to embrace nuclear
technology. The world’s first working nuclear power plant was put
into operation by the Soviet Union in 1954.
In the context of
a planned economy, however, the good of the majority was kept in mind
when implementing nuclear power. The Chernobyl reactor, unlike the
nuclear power plants in Japan and the United States, was
strategically located in an area known for a lack of natural
disasters that was also sparsely populated. There was only one city,
Pripyat, located close to the Chernobyl plant. The accident at
Chernobyl in no way demonstrated indifference to nuclear safety on
the part of the Soviet leadership. Ironically, the accident took
place in the course of an experiment to safeguard against a meltdown.
The concern of the
Soviet government was that in the case of an electric power failure
there would be a short interval when the cooling system of the
reactor had no power. Nuclear reactors rely on cooling systems to
slow down the release of gamma radiation that can be deadly to
humans. While there were backup generators to power the cooling
system, they took one minute to reach full power.
This potential
60-second interval without a cooling system was considered too
dangerous by the Soviet government. It was theorized that steam
pressure from the turbine could create enough energy to power the
coolers for 45 seconds while the backup generators reached
full-power. This had been attempted unsuccessfully, but with no ill
effects, four times in the past at different power plants in the
Soviet Union.
The station
managers at Chernobyl were, according to safety procedure and Soviet
law, supposed to get approval for the test from the Soviet Nuclear
Oversight Regulator, who had a representative at the plant. The
regulator was to ensure that all proper conditions for the test were
met and to determine if the test should be stopped.
Chernobyl
accident caused by violation of socialist law and safety procedures
The station
managers violated the law by not informing the regulator of the test.
They started the test when the reactor was running at too high a
temperature, and continued it even when still containable problems
became apparent. Had they followed Soviet procedure, the test almost
certainly would have been completed safely. Instead, the reactor
overheated, resulting in a series of explosions that killed 31 plant
workers and released a dangerous radiation cloud.
The next day
Soviet authorities evacuated 50,000 people. Pripyat was never
repopulated. The entire population was resettled and given new homes
and jobs. In the following years, thousands more people were removed
from the surrounding area and permanently resettled by the Soviet
government.
Many of those
evacuated eventually developed cancer and other diseases, as did
their children, as a result of radiation exposure. The nationalized
health care system attempted to attend to their medical needs,
although many died. Many of the survivors continue to receive free
medical treatment in socialist Cuba.
It would be easy
to condemn the Soviet government for embracing nuclear technology and
its inherent risks. Governments targeted by imperialism, such as that
of the former Soviet Union, have been forced to reflect the
environmentally unsound practices of the capitalists. But, as the
recent imperialist wars against Iraq and Libya highlight, any state
targeted by imperialism must seek to keep up with the technology of
the aggressor or risk invasion and destruction.
