New Publication: Exploring Chernobyl’s Connection to Dnieper Hydropower

Today my article “Joining the Dnieper Cascade. An Envirotechnical Water-History of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 1927-1986” was published online in the journal Water History. I am really happy that this was possible. You should check it out! Unsurprisingly, I am indebted to so many people who supported me during the four years this little project took. Thank you all!

Abstract:

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built at the northern tip of the Dnieper Cascade, a vast industrialisation effort comprising six hydropower plants and their reservoirs. In hydropower’s eyes, the nuclear station can be seen as the seventh extension to the cascade. While Chernobyl took nuclear power to Ukraine from 1970 onwards, its construction was based on experiences gained during the development of these six conventional stations, starting in 1927. Concrete and water, mundane building technologies, mass mobilisation and the attributes of the planned economy characterised the early years of this nuclear giant, not the hunt for uranium or reactor technology. On many levels of institutional and personal hierarchy, overlaps existed between hydropower and the nuclear industry, as water expertise was crucial for Ukraine’s nascent nuclear sector. If Chernobyl is being interpreted as part of the Dnieper Cascade, it becomes clear that the station took a new dimension to the previously established envirotechnical system created by the construction of the cascade. Radioisotopes stemming from its four reactors contaminated the Dnieper catchment area, linking the station via the cooling pond and the Pripyat River, over the Dnieper with those six massive reservoirs, to the Black Sea and thus to world oceans. By contaminating waterways and wetlands, which led to a permanent recirculation of radioisotopes along human, animal, and plant food chains, Ukraine’s first nuclear power plant irrevocably renegotiated the envirotechnical system along the country’s largest river.

Keywords: Chernobyl, envirotechnical system, Dnieper Cascade, nuclear energy, Pripyat, Dnieper

How to get the article:
Klüppelberg, Achim: Joining the Dnieper Cascade. An Envirotechnical Water-History of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 1927-1986, in: Water History, Received 14 August 2024, Accepted 08 May 2025, Published online 09 June 2025.

You can also drop me a message under achim.klueppelberg[at]t-online.de, if your institution does not have a subscription to Water History.