HIST251 Final - Hist 251 Essay Notes PDF

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Final Exam Essay The Chernobyl disaster has been interpreted in a number of frames: as a story of Soviet authoritarianism and secrecy; as a story of Cold War competition, a story of industrial modernity gone awry, and as a story about the challenges of the Anthropocene. Weighing the costs and benefits of these different narratives, discuss which frame is the most appropriate for understanding Chernobyl for our current moment.

The Chernobyl disaster was originally thought to be a story that highlighted the flaws of Soviet secrecy and authoritarianism. While this is a true statement, this is not exactly the full picture. When we take a step back and examine the global situation around the time of the Chernobyl disaster, we see that actually another country, the United States, was using similar tactics to the Soviet Union such as dishonesty for their own nuclear issues. This was to make each country look as perfect and powerful as possible. Therefore, it is only logical to claim that the Chernobyl disaster is a story about a Cold War competition. The Soviet Union covered up the catastrophic effects of Chernobyl in order to remain in a powerful global spotlight. In the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, we can see many instances in which the Soviet Union attempt to cover up fatal flaws in their nuclear reactor designs. When Ulana Khomyuk does digging into the files of the reactor designs, she finds redacted information about the AZ5 button. This shutdown button had a catastrophic flaw that increased activity of the nuclear reactor.1 Since this information was redacted, the Soviet Union scientists understood the dangers that this shut down button posed, but instead they decided to redact it in order to keep the trust of their citizens as well as not risk any information getting leaked about incompetency in the nuclear science. Just as Charles Perrow stated, with tightly coupled complex systems such as nuclear reactors, “accidents” are normal but can be catastrophic. 2 We also see the Soviet Union attempting to Cover up the issues of the disaster when ordering “The Joker” robot from 1 “Vichnaya Pamyat.” Chernobyl, 5-part miniseries, episode 5, HBO Original, 2019. HBO

2 Germany. This robot was intended to be used to remove the highly radioactive and dangerous pieces of graphite from the core of the reactor that had exploded onto the roof. However, instead of giving the true measurements of radioactivity to get a robot that could handle the stress, the Soviet Union lied to Germany.3 The false numbers that they provided resulted in Germany sending an unprepared robot that became useless and dysfunctional once its tires touched the radioactive roof. Through their willingness to sacrifice men’s lives to falsely uphold the name of the Soviet Union the USSR blatantly demonstrated the authoritarianism that rampaged through the country. While the Soviet Union demonstrated a lack of responsibility and leadership with such a destructive problem, the United States also demonstrated irresponsibility in handling the issues of nuclear reactors and radiation issues. In Plutopia, Kate Brown discusses the issues that occurred in plutonium town such as Richland. In this town, an array of medical data was skewed and dishonest to reflect very little radioactive damage when in fact lots of radioactive damage was occurring. The town only publicized a small amount of data about radioactive exposure that made the numbers seem much smaller than they actually were.4 This false data analysis happened in order to keep the fear of nuclear related activity at its minimum. While this fear was reduced, this kind of dishonesty lead to lots of irrevocable damage to the citizens of Richland and the surrounding environment.

2

Perrow, C. (1999). Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

3 “The Happiness of All Mankind.” Chernobyl, 5-part miniseries, episode 4, HBO Original, 2019. HBO 4 Brown, Kate (Kathryn L.). (2013). Plutopia: Nuclear families, atomic cities, and the great Soviet and American plutonium disasters. Oxford: Oxford University Pre

3 While we sit and mock the Soviet Union for being irresponsible at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, the United States must acknowledge that they as well covered up issues within their own nuclear related problems and were dishonest to their people. The similar theme of dishonesty between both countries highlights the foundation of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. Both countries put their citizens at risk in order to make themselves appear less flawed than they actually were and, in the end, cost themselves lots of damage. So, while the Chernobyl disaster may connote Soviet irresponsibility, the United States did the exact same thing; therefore, Chernobyl is inherently a Cold War story. Word Count: 700 ______________________________________________________________________________ Over the course of the semester, we have developed a number of conceptual questions to help us think more productively about the relationship of science and society. Choose two of these questions, write those down as clearly and concisely as possible in the beginning of the essay and discuss 1) How they help us better understand the history of science using specific examples from the course and 2) How they can help us better understand the coronavirus pandemic, using examples from Ed Yong’s article from the first week of class.

Two questions that we were able to formulate through this course that helped us think more productively about the relationship of science and society were: 1) How does contextualizing history impact the way we view historical events? 2) What are the ways in which science should aid in society's endeavors?

In addressing the first question, if we contextualize history by looking at only one outlet, then we will never be able to truly get the full story of what happened. For example, if we look at the Chernobyl event from only the United States perspective, then we would assume that the Soviet Union was extremely irresponsible and was the only one that had issues with nuclear

4 power at the time of the disaster. We can see the irresponsibility through the redaction of the AZ5 button information.5 This systematic dishonesty is also demonstrated when the Soviet Union lies at the conference in Austria about the details regarding the incident and where the blame is placed.6 When looking at it on its face value, an American’s consensus would be that the Soviet Union was extremely irresponsible with nuclear power, and probably should be able to harness it. However, when we look at the issue of nuclear power from a global perspective, we can see that other countries like the United States suffered from the same irresponsibility and dishonesty as the Soviet Union. Towns like Richland dealt with the same lack of honesty when being presented with the quantitative data on radioactive exposure. 7 When we look at Darwin’s exploration and research, we see lots of positive benefits in what his theories brought to the world. The theory of natural selection was revolutionary. Yet, in his travels Darwin devastated the Galapagos islands. Specifically, his hunting for tortoises destroyed that native population.8 When we look at the implications of his theories, horrendous ideas spewed such as the idea of eugenics, which developed from his encounters with these natives and immigrants. These drove the ideas of racial difference to become even more prominent and gain a socially acceptable foothold in society for a long time. 9 If we don’t explore other perspectives of a historical event, we would never be able to understand it fully. When we look at the Ed Young article, it talks about how the Trump 5 “Vichnaya Pamyat.” Chernobyl, 5-part miniseries, episode 5, HBO Original, 2019. HBO 6 Ibid

7 Brown, Kate (Kathryn L.). (2013). Plutopia: Nuclear families, atomic cities, and the great Soviet and American plutonium disasters. Oxford: Oxford University Press 8 Charles Darwin, Evolutionary Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 9 Velmet, Aro. “Week 3 Session 2 Eugenics 3.” YouTube lecture. August 27, 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHCttuRpD-E&feature=youtu.be

5 administration had ripped the nation apart and left us ultimately vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic by not preparing our healthcare systems and storages.10 However, recently the Trump administration has funded operation Warp Speed that has generated seemingly positive results for a potential vaccine for the virus. In 20 years, if we were to look back in history and look at this singular positive moment for the Trump administration, we would be remiss to not pay attention to the failures of the administration during its four years. Therefore, looking at all parts of a historical event are imperative. For the second question, this pertains specifically to the module of Hygienic modernity. In the 19th century, medicine was making a groundbreaking turning point. Hospitals began to arise, and public health became much more important than before. Unfortunately, the ethics behind the gaining popularity of medicine were disregarded when applied to Third World countries. For example, the colonies that France occupied suffered greatly from tuberculosis. 11 While in France, there was skepticism about the health consequences of the vaccines, the French colonizers use this vaccine as an alternative to continue the forced labor of the indigenous people of their colonies to maximize financial profit. Obviously, France used science to aid in its endeavor to continue monetary gain in their colonies. In Havana, United States doctors used Cuban citizens who are unaware of their participation in scientific research. 12 The French considered the West Africans to be hygienically uncivilized; the result was the destruction of their native homes and civilization that was replaced with French styled buildings. This begs the question, does the end justify the means? Personally, I don’t think it does. Unfortunately, many of the indigenous peoples of these imperialistic countries suffered at the hands of authority for an

10 11 Velmet, Aro. “Week 6 Session 1 Moralism.” YouTube lecture, 8:16. September 15, 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_s3KStR5kQ 12 Paul de Kruif, Microbe Hunters, Walter-Reed (Classics of Medicine Library, 2006)

6 understanding of science. These natives were subjected to the role of lab rats so that whatever imperfections occurred could be worked out and not harm the citizens of the first world countries. Some suffered from a distaste in culture. Only when there is consent, can there be fair relationship, and this was clearly not true of the colonies of the United States or France. In the Ed Young article, it talks on how the black population was left even more vulnerable due to the destruction of the social safety net that was in place during the Obama administration. This left them forced to work their jobs until the title of “Essential Worker” to be able to feed themselves. The Trump administration claimed that by shutting down the business that America’s economy would cripple, but by remaining functional a herd immunity could be developed to get rid of the disease. However, this places the lives of American’s at the face value of stocks. In this instance, the science of coronavirus has led us to determine that by shutting down, wearing masks, and distancing we can reduce the deaths of the virus and create enough time for a truly developed vaccine. In this case, the science we know should aid in our endeavor to end the pandemic and should carefully be considered before leaving your home to go party since there is a considerable population consent to have operations slow down for a while. Word Count: 987...