![]() Many shared suspicions with Shimanskiy that the government knew the Chernobyl explosion was going to happen, similar to the conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks. Stories spread about the grotesque mutations supposedly caused by the radiation, like descriptions of pike floating around local lakes without heads or tails.īut more elaborate conspiracy theories alleged government foreknowledge and sinister experimentation after the fact, both staples of American conspiracy theories as well. Since Soviet authorities kept tight control of information coming out of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, rumors about the effects of radiation began to blossom. Chernobyl Radiation RumorsĪ tourist takes a picture in an abandoned kindergarten in the ghost village of Kopachi near Chernobyl Nuclear power plant during their tour to the Chernobyl exclusion zone on April 23, 2018. ![]() In Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Svetlana Alexievich captured the oral history of the Chernobyl disaster's aftermath, including a catalog of rumors and conspiracy theories recorded by Alexievich's fellow journalist, Anatoly Shimanskiy. Into this explanatory void, conspiracy theories erupted. But small technical answers are unsatisfying when stacked against the scale of trauma and destruction. It took years and multiple reports to untangle the causes of the disaster, which came down to insufficient safety standards and design flaws, particularly in the control rods meant to tamp down chain reactions within the reactor. The scale of the evacuation, combined with the Soviet government's efforts to keep the disaster quiet-the wider world was only alerted two days after, when radiation alarms went off at a nuclear power station in Sweden-resulted in conflicting information and wildfire rumors in the absence of clear communications. Other investigations have connected thousands of additional cancer deaths to the Chernobyl disaster. agencies arrived at 4,000 deaths related to radiation exposure. The resulting death toll is disputed, but U.N. Radiation levels spiked, high enough in some areas to impart a lethal dose within seconds.Īt the time of the explosion, the town of Pripyat, built for Chernobyl workers and their families, housed 49,000 people. A few seconds later, a second explosion blew apart the core, ending the fission reaction within, but spreading fallout and contaminated metals in and around the reactor building. The first destroyed the reactor casing, blowing the upper plating through the plant's ceiling. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station went critical early in the morning of April 26, 1986, after a systems test went awry, causing two explosions in quick succession. Many of the rumors and conspiracies that popped up in the wake of the reactor meltdown are remarkably similar to the flavors of paranoia and conspiracism surrounding more contemporary traumas in the United States. The causes behind the Chernobyl disaster were both rare and complicated, making it a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories.
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