In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, Craig Mazin, the writer, creator, and executive producer of the HBO’s miniseries Chernobyl, discusses his approach to creating a dramatized account of the historic 1986 nuclear accident in Ukraine which was then part of the Soviet Union. The critically-acclaimed miniseries tells the story of the men and women who made sacrifices to save Europe from an unprecendented disaster while battling the USSR's culture of disinformation.
In this edition of Wilson Center NOW we speak with Joseph Dresen, Senior Program Associate with the Kennan Institute. He recalls his travels to Kyiv and the Soviet Union during the week of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and previews the Kennan Institute’s upcoming screening of the first episode of the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl.” That June 26 event will feature a conversation with writer, creator, and executive producer Craig Mazin.
Image: The first photograph of Unit Four after the accident, shot from a helicopter by Chernobyl plant photographer Anatoly Rasskazov, at approximately 3.00pm on April 26 1986 (Anatoly Rasskazov/Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum).
Introducing the many official publications, memoirs, and journals related to PRC nuclear history
It is not an easy job to do archival research on China's modern military history.
Due to the PRC's administrative policy of limiting access to its central archives, none of the original archives related to post-1949 military developments can be reached by civilian researchers—not to mention the military or nuclear archives.
One of the gravest issues facing the international community today remains the problem of how to live with the most destructive weapon mankind has ever invented. With recent advancements in technology, and some of the Cold War arms control agreements crumbling—like the INF treaty—we could be at the threshold of a new nuclear age. It is therefore even more important to understand one of the central agreements of the nuclear order we currently live in.
Japan and the United States faced a serious rift in relations in the late 1970s over the future of civilian nuclear power. Japan hoped that the reprocessing of spent reactor fuel into plutonium would provide an abundant, domestically produced, and economical power source. The United States, especially under the Carter administration, saw an increase in the global stockpile of plutonium as a major proliferation threat.
