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Before the 1986 disaster, Chernobyl was rated as one of the safest
nuclear power stations. In fact, just 3 months prior to the explosion, a Soviet
official was quoted saying, "the odds of a meltdown occurring at Chernobyl are 1
in 10,000 years." During the trial of the administrative
staff of the plant in 1987, it was found that there had been numerous accidents
and emergency shutdowns before the explosion. The following is from the official
court verdict of that trial, as quoted from a special correspondent of
Moscow News:
| "There were many unscheduled (emergency) shutdowns because of mistakes made by personnel. The causes were not always properly investigated and in some cases they were covered up. Out of 71 technical breakdowns in 1980 to 1986, no investigation into the causes was carried out at all in 27 cases. Many cases of equipment failure had not been registered in the operation logs." |