In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst.
Acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy returns to the podcast. Serhii joins Dan to tell the tale of some of the nuclear disasters that shook the world. From the 1957 fire at the Windscale facility in Cumbria which burned for three days and released radioactive fallout, to the 1986 crisis at Chernobyl, Serhii shows how the same story of nuclear ambition, often clouded by political and economic motives, is tragically repeated time and again.
Produced by Hannah Ward
Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore
Up Next in Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧
-
🎧 The Great Fire of London
Rebecca Rideal is an author, editor of History Vault, and a PhD candidate. Here she discusses the Great Fire of London, the subject of her book '1666: Plague, War and Hellfire'.
-
🎧 How Geology Shaped Human History
Lewis Dartnell explains the important role geology has played in human history.
-
🎧 Exciting New Mayan Discoveries
Dan talks to Albert Lin, who has been using LIDAR technology to reveal tens of thousands of new Mayan structures in Guatemala.
1 Comment