Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency JPRS report, dated 1 August 1990, translates an OGONEK interview by Vanda Beletskaya with Academician Anatoliy Petrovich Aleksandrov, former president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Aleksandrov blames the Chernobyl accident on an ill-considered experiment prepared by Donenergo that violated operating instructions. He also describes earlier nuclear plant defects, Legasov's suicide, and his dealings with Beria and Kapitsa. He argues for continued atomic power engineering and a law on nuclear power.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990 Document 6 of 16 Page 6 however, were rewelded. 36. There was another incident, a very unpleasant one, at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, which ended, fortunately, happily. Nothing was also reported about it in the press. They noticed that during the operation of the nuclear power plant the vibration of the turbogenerator was increasing, its magnitude was approaching the limit. They instantly shut down the machine--a 500,000-watt turbogenerator. It turned out that the armature of the generator had been welded in such a way that a crack was progressing along the welded seam. Another 15-20 seconds, and the turbine plant would have disintegrated! 37. They shut down and inspected all the reactors. It turned out that there was the same flaw in seven machines! Again they conducted an investigation. This time the Kharkov Turbine Plant was to blame. I went there together with Paton. 38. It was after such facts that they established the system of atomic energy supervision. 39. OGONEK: However, shutdowns of nuclear power plants are continuing. There are assertions of specialists that industry of the country is not ready today to provide atomic power engineering with sound equipment. Hence, nuclear power plants are operating on the verge of risk... 40. A.P. Aleksandrov: No, it is impossible to say that. It is necessary to talk not so much about the level of development of industry as about its incorrect organization. When it comes to such a complex product, saving, haste, and any competitions there are not needed. It is necessary to pay workers for quality. 41. We went once with the same Slavskiy and the Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry (I do not remember who he was at that time) to a plant, where they manufactured machines for the nuclear fleet. Slavskiy said to the minister: ''Let us make it the first business that in all operations every element would undergo personal acceptance, the entire structure of the seams would be accepted by layers. To hell with all socialist competitions. Pay for a well-made seam, do not hurry the foremen.'' 42. We did not have any mishaps in the fleet plants, but at that time, in 1957, industry was less developed, yet it does not matter, they managed. 43. I will say the following: Atomic power engineering is a stimulus for the development of industry in general. One must not shut it down
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 22 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.