Episode 144 - How Bureaucracy Created the Worst Hot Zone in History

 

 

April 26, 1986, A company town in northern Ukraine became the hottest hot zone in history.  How that tragedy changed the world, coming up on today’s podcast.

 

Hi folks.  Today we're going to talk about Chernobyl and the nuclear disaster that happened there back in 1986.  But before we get to that, there are a few short news stories I want to cover that I haven't heard much about in the news.

 

There's a heat wave in Europe this summer, but in Spain, it's the terror threat that's got people worried.  Security and police services in Spain have dramatically increased their presence on the streets after ISIS made threats to tourist spots, to include the iconic Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.  Recall that ISIS had targeted the Christian cathedral in the past, but when their bomb factory blew up with two of their bombmakers inside, they switched to a vehicle ramming attack instead.  I was there to report on that.

 

[barcelona]

 

That plan, had it not been disrupted by a premature blast, would've involved multiple vans, explosives and assault rifles.  This time, the ISIS linked group which goes by the name Al-Muntasir has sent three threats aimed at Spain in the past month.  The threats included a photo of the Sagrada Familia.  In response, the Spanish government has deployed over 40,000 police to tourist spots around the country.

 

Let's move on.  You know, I haven’t really watched television for about 25 years.  I think I could probably count the number of shows I’ve followed on one hand since about 1994, when I made the realization that I had a wife to support and nobody would pay me to watch tv.  I’ve liked to call it the electronic income reducer.  Now I’m not saying I don’t ever watch it, but more like I prefer to spend my time on more engaging pursuits.  

 

However, we did sit down the other night and watch this HBO series on Chernobyl, mostly because I've visited the site of that nuclear disaster twice in the last ten years and I was interested to see how well they dramatized the event.  I wasn't disappointed.  The whole series was extremely well done.

 

[clip from series]

 

Now I've heard people on both sides of the political spectrum saying this is either an indictment of socialism or somehow of the Trump administration.  But I think it's really more of an indictment of  bureaucracy, no matter what form it takes or who controls it.  

 

I first traveled to Chernobyl in 2007 when I was doing research for one of my novels, called Meltdown.  I spent about a week in Ukraine, visiting villages out in the countryside that had not seen a foreigner in living memory.  It was fascinating.  I took a tour of the dead zone around Chernobyl, and it was one of the more memorable experiences of my life.

 

[pripyat stairwell standup]

 

The town of Pripyat once held fifty thousand people, and it's today one of the world's more famous ghost towns.  The people who left there all thought they'd soon be able to return, but in reality they never went back.  So the place was left as if the whole town got raptured.  Now since then thieves and vandals have ransacked the whole town...which doesn't seem too smart considering everything in that town was very hot with radiation.  We were only allowed to spend an hour there and were told not to touch anything.  I guess what surprised me the most was just how fast nature has rebounded after the event.  The flora and fauna around Chernobyl are seemingly as healthy as ever.  

 

When I was there the first time they were just getting started on the new sarcophagus that would eventually cover the damaged reactor.  And I was struck by the lack of security there...I ended up writing about it in my novel, which you can get a copy of at Amazon.com or by subscribing to the podcast over at patreon.com/hotzone.  I'll send you a copy for free.  Anyway, in the novel, terrorists hatch a plot to blow up the damaged reactor, because the amount of radioactive material still in there could make much of Europe uninhabitable.  When you watch the show you can get a sense of just how close they came back in 1986 to turning Europe into a nuclear winter wonderland and possibly killing millions.  It's really a miracle of God that didn't happen.

 

My second trip to Chernobyl was back in 2016, and I talked more about the threat then.  Check out an excerpt of that piece.

 

[chernobyl Frontlines]

 

I highly recommend the HBO series.  One of the best parts of the whole thing is a small speech the main scientist gives at the end, in which he says "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner  or later that debt is paid."

 

Tremendous food for thought.  The tragedy at Chernobyl shows that bureaucracy breeds mediocrity and carelessness.  It magnifies the worst parts of human nature.  That's one of the reasons I'm so much of an advocate for individual charity as opposed to government welfare programs.  The only thing the government does really well is screw things up in the most expensive way possible.  There's no better example of that than Chernobyl.

 

Well that's all I have for today folks.  Thanks for watching.  If you listen to the podcast and would like to watch it, you can go to opslens.com and see it, or find us on youtube.  Just search for the hot zone podcast with Chuck Holton.

 

Hope to see you back again tomorrow.  Have a great day.