Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry

by Sonja D. Schmid

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.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Science, Politics, Russian History, World History

362 pages, Hardcover

First published January 16, 2015

About the author

Sonja D. Schmid is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just really appreciate that this book even exists. The author did so much research to tell this story of nuclear power in the Soviet Union. She discusses the Soviet economic conditions, how the nuclear industry developed within that economy, while exploring the organizations and workforce.

For those of you who don’t know, the reactor at Chernobyl was of a different design than the reactors used in the rest of the world, outside of the Soviet Union. Schmid traces the various reactor designs used in the Soviet Union and why those designs were chosen. Then she brings all this to bear on the Chernobyl Unit 4 disaster arguing that sorting out direct causes and blame is more difficult than the initial reports and lingering operating experience suggests.

I would not necessarily recommend this for the casual reader. It is an academic work and very situated in a nuclear power environment. However, I found this very interesting, compelling, and challenging for the nuclear industry worldwide.

[Paperclippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really insightful but a little hard to get through. To be clear, it was an academic text and not necessarily meant for the light reading that I was using it for, and it was very enjoyable in its own right, but it was a little hard to keep track and a little annoying to have to keep flipping to the glossary in the front of the book, since the acronyms were never explained in the actual reading. That having been said, it was incredibly informative and insightful and if you're interested in the history of nuclear energy, this is a must-read.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Academic text, just too difficult to get through, especially without a contiguous timeline

[Jesse Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is written for an academic audience, and it has the dull, directionless prose that one would expect as a result. I didn't think it could be done, but this book somehow makes the Chernobyl disaster incredibly boring. While there are some interesting insights about the Soviet bureaucracy and civil nuclear innovation, this is a difficult and dreary reading experience. There is so much fascinating and instructive history to be explored here, and yet this book spends most of its time explaining which ministries changed their names in which years at the behest of some obscure Soviet official. To be avoided, unless you have an acute technical or academic interest in this topic.

[ola ✶ cosmicreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

bardzo dobre źródło informacji, ale bardziej dla osób szukających niuansów, niż zwykłej opowieści