grandiose nuclear plans of the 1950s had remained on the drawingboard. The Soviet planners were unconvinced they could be constructed cheaply.The physicists and engineers spent their days designingreactors that would not get built.Then, in the mid-sixties,Brezhnev came to power. He believed that the road to communism lay throughgiant technological projects. The nuclear power programme began again. It wasdominated by Anatoly Alexandrov, a famous physicist who had designed what wasknown as the "RBMK" reactor. His team planned giant versions to bebuilt around Soviet cities.[Anatoly Alexandrov (presumably), subtitled] I believe and I've always believed that nuclear poweris incredibly important. No other fuel neither gas nor oil, nor, to a lesser degree, coal can seehumanity through even the next thousand years. Atomic energy is ecologically cleaner than any otherform of energy.The idyllic picture of anuclear Eden masked a reality in which safety was barely even considered. Thereactors were built at great speed to cut costs and to fulfil the Soviet plan.Some had no protective containment at all, despite the high[?er] pressures of steam. Largeamounts of water, contaminated by radiation from the reactor core, were pumpedinto giant open ponds.Prof. Yurii I. Koryakin, Head of Research, USSRInstitute of Power Research [subtitled] A decision was taken to build huge million-kilowattreactors. The first was completed in 1973 and many others followed. But, in the headlong rush tofinish on time, all sense of proportion was lost.[Film excerpt featuring workers at a (presumably) Soviet nuclear plantshowering and checking themselves for radiation] [Voiceover (in English):] "Complete safety for the attendingpersonnel is ensured at the atomic power plant. Theslightest radioactive contamination can be detected with the aid of radiationmonitors. At the exitof the washroom, there is a [..?..] installation. This will not let you out if there is the slightesttrace of radioactivity about you."[Yurii Koryakin (subtitled)] Under Brezhnev, things started to fall apart. Theftand negligence were rife. In the late seventies, the Brezhnev era reached new heights of corruption justas we were building more atomic plants than ever. Our efforts to solve this probleminternally failed completely, so we went public.Koryakin and a fellowengineer wrote an article in the [journal] Kommunist. It openly challenged Alexandrov. It criticised the lack ofsafety in the design of the plants, where they were sited and the growingquestion of what to do with the nuclear waste. It caused a sensation.[Yurii Koryakin (subtitled)] At a press conference, our article was called a packof lies, but people knew we were right. The scientific mafia led by Alexandrov was firmly in thesaddle all those medals and foreign trips. There's a Russian saying: "Cake for some, knocksfor the rest." Ordinary engineerslike us got kicked in the teeth. It often happens like that inlife.Britain, meanwhile,struggled just to make her plants work.[From an episode of] Tomorrow's World [broadcast in] 1975 [Presenter (Michael Rodd?):] "So far, the first ofthe advanced gas-cooled reactors being built here on the Kentcoast at Dungeness hasn't produced a single watt of electricity. Ordered at acost of 80million and due to be commissioned in 1972, it might just start producing electricityin 1977 andreally, nobody has a clue how much it's going to