The Technocratic Culture Behind Chernobyl’s Disaster

Recently my new article about nuclear Ukraine was published in NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin. As you might know, my dissertation analysed the nuclear power industry in the Soviet Union from a technocratic culture point of view. In this article, I am using this perspective to analyse what was going on at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant before that fateful night in April 1986, when reactor block four exploded.

Title:

Creating Chernobyl. Technocratic Culture and Everyday Life in Nuclear Ukraine, 1970-1982

Abstract:

Starting in 1970, this article studies how Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built. It follows the station’s operational history until 1982. During that year, reactor block one suffered a torn reactor channel, four years prior to the well-known catastrophe of 1986. It uncovers the genesis of these accidents by analyzing everyday history at the construction site. Construction relied on long established tools and processes, tried out at large-scale and mostly non-nuclear development areas. Masons, carpenters, and welders dealt with planned quotas and deadlines, material and personnel shortages, as well as a lack of quality management. The tools they used to build this nuclear giant were rather a shock of the old (Edgerton) than futuristic.

It uncovers circumstances, non-alignments, and decisions that amounted to a working environment characterized by a technocratic culture. This culture overemphasized the fulfillment of plans and quotas to the detriment of safety as should have been warranted by the nature of a nuclear reactor as specified in plans and regulations. By following the plant’ s construction in its everyday struggles, this article shows characteristics of the working culture that evolved on-site and led to the accident of 1982. This innovative approach aids understanding of why and how the catastrophe of 1986 came about—beyond the two standard reasons established in the literature, namely a faulty reactor design and mistakes made by the operators.

Full citation:

Klüppelberg, Achim: Creating Chernobyl. Technocratic Culture and Everyday Life in Nuclear Ukraine, 1970-1982, in: NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, Published online 31 July 2025.

Freely available version (read-only)