IMMEDIATE PUBLIC SAFETY MEASURES FOR THE ACCIDENT AT THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

摘要

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the largest technogenic catastrophe of the 20th century, revealing the technical, ecological, and social problems of the epoch of scientific-technical progress. Twenty years have passed since the accident, but discussions of the reasons for the accident and, especially, the radiation consequences are continuing uninterrupted. Of course, this is due to objective factors. Specifically, during the first and most acute period the public had no official information about the real situation in the zone of the accident. Then, the secrecy curtain was raised, and the mass communications media inundated people with nonobjective and often falsified information about the effect of radiation on man, which engendered the syndrome of radiophobia. An exacerbating factor was and still remains the extremely low level of knowledge in the field of radiation safety not only among the public but also among the intelligentsia (doctors, teachers) who play an important role in forming public opinion. As a result, the public, even now, does not trust information provided by scientists.