This book is not for the faint hearted.

It is interesting, detailed and quite frankly, frightening.

The author details six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Miles Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.

It is clearly well researched book, and explores in depth some of the confused decision-making on the ground and the panicked responses of the management and governments to contain the crises and often cover up the scale of the catastrophe.

Having read this, I then watched 'the Days' on Netflix. Highly recommended if you get the chance.

This is a very comprehensive book. It is something people interested in history, and Nuclear History, in particular, will find fascinating. I picked it up to add some more information to my general knowledge reading and took some time to read it all the way through.
The author begins by describing the measurements and some basic information about radiation. Political situations of the time are discussed before descending into the actual nuclear disasters. The base setup is explained, and then the author brings up what went wrong, how long it took and the repercussions of it all.
It is scary to see how things recurred even with the lessons learnt from previous disasters. Political issues play a severe hand in exacerbating an already precarious situation.
This is a book to be used as a cautionary tale of what comes with trying to use Nuclear Power and how careful the establishment and care of it has to be. History buffs may already be aware of the salient facts, but this is an all inclusive look that will answer any question one might have on the topic.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Serhii Plokhy is one of the best Ukrainian historians around. If you pick up his works you are in safe hands.

A thorough examination of the most devastating nuclear accidents since the beginning of atomic history, both military and civil. The facts are narrated precisely and with historical accuracy. The genesis, evolution, resolution and consequences of each accident are explained. The flaw in the book lies, in my opinion, in the concluding chapter. It is clear that a subject such as the atom brings with it a certain amount of partisanship, but as much as the author occasionally goes so far as to say that atomic energy could help in mitigating climate change, it is clear that he does so from the point of view of one who would like not a single watt of energy to be produced in a nuclear power plant any more. However, the numbers of people affected by nuclear accidents should be compared with those affected by climate change, both as such and through the pollution produced by fossil fuel power generation, just as the costs of construction and decommissioning should be compared with those of decontamination from conventional pollution. As long as no one honestly makes these comparisons, any conclusion of such a work, however worthy, cannot be considered objectively valid.

In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, Bill Gates suggested the use of nuclear energy as one of the alternative sources of energy to reach net-zero. However, Serhii Plokhy’s latest book made me question the wisdom of utilising nuclear energy to generate civilian electricity requirements amidst the possibilities of nuclear accidents. The statistics of nuclear accidents do not sound promising. Between 1952 and 2009, there have been around 99 (military and civilian) recorded nuclear power plant accidents, a few of which are highlighted in this book. It’s as engaging as Mr Plokhy’s previous nuclear-related book Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, yet this one focuses more on documenting the sequences of events as well as on how both the governments and nuclear establishments alike mitigated the nuclear accidents, mostly related to nuclear power plants, namely: Castle Bravo (the US, 1954), Kyshtym (former USSR – now Russia, 1957), Windscale (England, 1957), Three Mile Island (the US, 1979), Chernobyl (former USSR – now Ukraine, 1986), and Fukushima Daichii (Japan, 2011).

Compared to Mr Plokhy’s previous book, this one is more technical with less emphasis on the political dimensions of the crisis. Honestly, I got sleepy whenever the technical aspects being discussed are too exhaustive. But after reading the afterwords and deriving from my experience dealing with nuclear regulatory bodies, it remains a challenge to this day to align the policies of the scientists at the nuclear regulatory bodies with the political tracks of the government. When dealing with a crisis such as a nuclear accident, oftentimes the crisis would involve not only the country where the accident took place but also neighbouring countries as well. Governments often responded to the crisis by coverup or downplaying the issue in face of international prestige and protecting national interests, or in the case of the Three Mile Island accident, the media played a role in stirring fear among the public. The scientists do not know how to communicate effectively to the public, whereas the politicians oftentimes do not understand the gravity of the crisis and ask the scientists to do the impossible, except for Jimmy Carter when dealing with the Three Mile Island accident as he had extensive technical nuclear experience.

The premise is quite straightforward. There are two questions asked by Mr Plokhy through his retelling. The first question would be to ask us to rethink the sustainability and the impact of relying on nuclear energy to fulfil our energy demands. There are many alternative options to fossil fuels, but the main challenge remains the economics of scale to adopt them by larger masses, i.e., to make them economically viable. The development of nuclear energy is mostly handled by governmental institutions as the proponents, with limited involvement of private companies, making safety compliance – in theory – easier to regulate. 178 states already concluded the safeguard agreements by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as of today. Yet it didn’t rule out nuclear accidents. In most cases, nuclear accidents were blamed on human errors (personnel’s negligence of safety requirements) or bad designs of the reactors (such was the case of the RBMK reactor model built in the former USSR). However, there were various factors at play contributing to nuclear accidents. There is no single magic wand to rule out nuclear accidents.

Human errors often are the result of external pressures, such as the pressure to build a hydrogen bomb during the Castle Bravo incident, or the expectations to fulfil the electricity demand in the case of Chernobyl accident. Whereas, the different types of nuclear reactors and the high stake of national interests also resulted in the delay in mitigating the crisis, which means coordinated international responses are unlikely to happen. The Chernobyl accident, for example, only got its publication by the Soviet authorities after the Swedish authorities noticed an abnormal amount of radiation in their territories and reported the case to the IAEA. The national interests at stake by the Soviet government, both to maintain prestige as a nuclear superpower in Cold War rivalries and to assure the control of information over their citizens, resulting in bad press handlings and late actions on the government establishments to form coordinated responses. Yet many developments also took place following nuclear accidents, such as the requirement to only perform nuclear tests underground as opposed to in the open air to prevent radiation fallout after the accident of Castle Bravo, as well as the adoption in 1986 of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident following the Chernobyl accident.

Due to the international nature of most nuclear accidents, I agree with Mr Plokhy’s assessment that most politicians and diplomats should be aware of the gravity of the issue and there should be coordinated responses from both nuclear regulatory bodies and the political tracks of government authorities. Despite the implementation of various safeguards, there are still risks that could trigger nuclear accidents outside of the technical dimensions, i.e. political, economic, and social pressures. Nuclear energy is often associated with danger since its first implementation was to bomb the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and it’s true that nuclear energy is dangerous. But now we also have the pressing issue of climate change which has been forcing us to find alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuels, which is also true. If I have to say a thing that I don’t like about this book, it put too much emphasis on retelling the accidents rather than providing analysis on how the accidents could be relevant to the present circumstances. The afterword, despite its short length, is actually more interesting and insightful rather than the retelling of the six nuclear accidents.

Atoms and Ashes is a detailed summary of six major nuclear accidents from Bikini Atoll to Fukushima. Plokhy’s writing style and storytelling makes it an informative and easy read. Whilst the book does a decent job of summarising the accidents, it probably could have benefited from a standardised measurement used throughout the book and more information on the effects of radiation on the environment and the human body to make comparisons easier.

This was, to me, a very disappointing read. Having read Plokhy’s excellent book covering the Cuban missile crisis I was expecting something less partisan, as one might expect from a historian fulfilling his role as seeker after truth. Instead the reader is treated to a partisan account of a series of highly significant and dangerous incidents relating to the military and civil uses of nuclear energy. Plokhy is undoubtedly an excellent historian with a well-deserved reputation; his narrative skills are first rate, and in many passages in this book those skills are deployed to good effect. But his limited appreciation of nuclear technology and nuclear engineering is all to apparent in his analysis of the incidents and his prescription for the future.

He is certainly correct to state that it is impossible to build something as complex as a nuclear power station and be certain that all possible problems can be ‘designed out’. But many industries and technologies have shown how risks can be managed and the consequences mitigated. Think, for example, of air travel, where a change to the reporting and analysing of accidents and potential accidents has seen a dramatic improvement in safety. Plokhy also ignores quite a herd of elephants in this particular room: most (all?) technologies have associated risks. In some cases the risks are significant and immediately appreciated, even if the scientific understanding of these risks is limited. Thus, a leak of radiation is always going to be a highly newsworthy event; will always inspire concern and often fear within local communities; and will lead to calls for shutdowns. But how often do we consider the pollution and carbon footprint, for example, associated with the manufacture of lithium ion batteries? The deaths and human rights abuses associated with the mining and manufacture of materials used in the renewables industry rarely attract the attention of a Fukushima or a Windscale, but their impact is arguably greater.

This is not to argue for a gung ho approach involving a massive expansion of nuclear power generation, but it is arguing for the kind of balanced approach, involving a mixed economy that is somewhat lacking in Plokhy’s book

Very interesting book, informative and frightening.

Plokhy tells the tale of six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Miles Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Widely-researched book, it explores in depth the confused decision-making on the ground and the panicked responses of the management and governments to contain the crises and often cover up the scale of the catastrophe.

In LinkedIn: Need to up your reading? There’s a wealth of new books out in May covering #business #science #health #mindandbody #history and #essays.
📚Atoms and Ashes: From Bikini Atoll to Fukushima by Serhii Plokhii tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world.

An informative and rather frightening history of nuclear accidents which focuses on Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. The writing is straightforward and not too technical, although it doesn’t have the gripping narrative style of, for example, Adam Higginbotham’s book Midnight in Chernobyl (which is one of the sources).

After some context of how the nuclear industry began, starting with ‘atoms for war’ and moving on to ‘atoms for peace’, the author examines how and why these notorious disasters happened, the role of the media and the effects on the population. He also compares the responses of the different governments. Politics, one way or another, is always a main cause of the accidents. I don’t have a background in either science or politics but I found the explanations easy to understand and feel that I’ve learnt a lot from this book. The message I took from it is that the potential for costly and damaging accidents is not a risk that humanity should be taking and even though the industry can learn from past mistakes, the future is not nuclear.

The several different measurements of radioactivity used in this book were very confusing – roentgens, rem, curies, becquerel, rads, sieverts, grays. Although there was an explanation of these at the beginning, it didn’t really help, as there were a variety of them used in each chapter. For me, they became meaningless numbers without much context.

The book was written before the 2022 conflict in Ukraine brought the fear of nuclear disasters back into the media spotlight, while the resulting fuel crisis, coupled with climate change, is accelerating the debate on nuclear power. It’s therefore a particularly timely read.

[Review will be on my blog, 17th May]

After being both terrified and awed by Plokhy's painstaking research into Chernobyl, I knew I had to read his latest work despite there being so much to worry over in the world right now.

I couldn't help but be engrossed in Plokhy's forensic exploration of nuclear accidents. In each case he explains what went wrong from a technological viewpoint, the human failures - mistakes, safety violations, lack of training - and the attempts to prevent full-scale disaster. He also shows how each country reacts with some level of duplicity, to prevent mass panic among their public, to save face on the international stage, to protect the nuclear industry, and to ensure smooth relations with allies.

A frightening but important read that has great significance as we all consider the future of our energy against a backdrop of climate change rising prices.