TWBN#7: Bhopal, Chernobyl

I vaguely remember Chernobyl. It happened on 26 April 1986 and it was the worst nuclear power plant disaster so far. Since then nuclear power production has greatly reduced (or at least western nations are not building new ones) and more safety procedures have been introduced in existing nuclear plants. An informative article at the BBC H2G2 site says there was never any danger of a nuclear explosion; this is a misunderstanding that many people have about nuclear power plants; reactor fuel is not explosive like nuclear weapons. It is very dirty though and surrounding countryside (and some surrounding countries) were affected and continue to be affected for years.

Strangely I remembered Bhopal as being more recent, but in fact it happened in 1984. It was also a much more serious accident than Chernobyl in its immediate effects on the surrounding population. A poisonous gas was released from a Union Carbide pesticide plant and spread to the nearby city of Bhopal, exposing half a million people. There is much more serious disagreement about the handling of the accident and what happened later than in the case of Chernobyl. Union Carbide claim that the accident must have been the result of sabotage, since they had safety procedures in place, whereas The Bhopal Medical Appeal gives a more believeable account from the victims' points of view, including eyewitness accounts. Union Carbide passed on responsibility for the plant to the local government in Madhya Pradesh. The Union Carbide site reads like an effort to wriggle out of any responsibility.