“Quenching the chain reaction throughout the reactor. Yet the AZ-5 mechanism was not designed to bring about an abrupt emergency stop.”
This is one of the most important quotes in the entire book because it illuminates one of the many reasons why Chernobyl blew up: poor reactor design.
After the team at the Chernobyl Reactor decided to conduct a safety test, they brought about a chain of events that could not have been stopped. The AZ-5 mechanism, which was not designed to suddenly stop the reactor in the event of a meltdown (something it should have been designed for), was no match for the chain reaction that was brought about by the safety test.
In other words, because of a bad reactor design, the chain reaction could not have been stopped.
“A society where the cult of science had supplanted religion, the nuclear chiefs were among its most sanctified icons—pillars of the Soviet state. To permit them to be pulled down would undermine the integrity of the entire system on which the USSR was built. They could not be found guilty.”
This quote speaks directly to why the Chernobyl power plant explosion happened, as well as to the Soviet Union as a whole.
Because Soviet society considered science and the nuclear chiefs to be God-like, they could do no wrong - no matter what their transgressions were. If they, for example, approved a flawed reactor design that would eventually result in one of the most damaging events in human history, all would be forgiven.
Obviously, this was a tremendous flaw in the Soviet Union. The government could do no wrong, which means that ordinary people could - and would - never question the government no matter how poorly and ineptly they act.
