The legacy of Chernobyl: the prospects for energy in the former Soviet Union
1993; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/oso/9780198584131.003.0008
ISSN2379-2078
Autores Tópico(s)Nuclear Issues and Defense
ResumoAbstract Dr Zhores A. Medvedev is not only a distinguished biochemist but also a member of the small, brave group of Russian scientists-of whom Andrei Sakharov was the most eminent-who sacrificed their careers and risked their personal liberty by openly opposing the human rights policies of the former Soviet regime. Born in Tbilisi, twin brother of the historian Roy Medvedev, Zhores Medvedev worked as a senior scientist in the Timiryazev Academy of Agricultural Science until 1962, as Head of the Molecular Radio-Biology Laboratory in the Institute of Medical Radiology, Obninsk, until 1969, and as Senior Scientist in the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals, Borovsk, until 1972. A year later, Dr Medvedev was exiled from the Soviet Union for his persistent and increasingly public opposition to the use of psychiatric treatment as a weapon against political dissidents. He settled in London, where he took up a post with the National Institute for Medical Research. Zhores Medvedev has made good use of his freedom to record the truth. He was the first scientist to expose the nuclear catastrophe-more serious, in local terms, than Chernobyl-which had occued in 1957 at Kyshtym, near Chelyabinsk, as the result of an accident in a nuclear weapons production plant. He has written extensively about recent Soviet history: his most recent book is ‘The legacy of Chernobyl’ (Blackwell, Oxford, 1990).
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