The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was as much a symbol of a failed ideology as of flawed design and technology.
In the city of Pripyat in Ukraine, built for workers at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant, stands a bronze statue of the god Prometheus clasping fire in his outstretched arms. It was intended to symbolise the triumph of human ingenuity in taming and harnessing the forces of nature – in particular, the fire locked inside the atomic nucleus, released in a controlled manner from radioactive uranium to generate power.
Now the statue has taken on a very different meaning. Like …read more
Source: New Statesman
