Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry (Inside Technology)
Language: English
Published by Mit Pr, 1656
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: Phatpocket Limited, Waltham Abbey, HERTS, United KingdomPhatpocket Limited
AbeBooks seller since April 28, 2005
Condition: Used - Good
US$ 147.30
Quantity: 2 available
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- Title
- Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry (Inside Technology)
- Author
- Schmid, Sonja D.
- Publisher
- Mit Pr
- Publication year
- 1656
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0262028271
- ISBN 13
- 9780262028271
- Series
- Book 36 of 63: Inside Technology
An examination of how the technical choices, social hierarchies, economic structures, and political dynamics shaped the Soviet nuclear industry leading up to Chernobyl.
The Chernobyl disaster has been variously ascribed to human error, reactor design flaws, and industry mismanagement. Six former Chernobyl employees were convicted of criminal negligence; they defended themselves by pointing to reactor design issues. Other observers blamed the Soviet style of ideologically driven economic and industrial management. In Producing Power, Sonja Schmid draws on interviews with veterans of the Soviet nuclear industry and extensive research in Russian archives as she examines these alternate accounts. Rather than pursue one definitive explanation, she investigates how each of these narratives makes sense in its own way and demonstrates that each implies adherence to a particular set of ideasabout high-risk technologies, human-machine interactions, organizational methods for ensuring safety and productivity, and even about the legitimacy of the Soviet state. She also shows how these attitudes shaped, and were shaped by, the Soviet nuclear industry from its very beginnings.
Schmid explains that Soviet experts established nuclear power as a driving force of social, not just technical, progress. She examines the Soviet nuclear industry's dual origins in weapons and electrification programs, and she traces the emergence of nuclear power experts as a professional community. Schmid also fundamentally reassesses the design choices for nuclear power reactors in the shadow of the Cold War's arms race.
Schmid's account helps us understand how and why a complex sociotechnical system broke down. Chernobyl, while unique and specific to the Soviet experience, can also provide valuable lessons for contemporary nuclear projects.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Sonja D. Schmid is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Phatpocket Limited
Waltham Abbey, HERTS, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since April 28, 2005
Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
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