Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl explosion, disaster struck once again after a tsunami overwhelmed the considerable safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. However, Fukushima had in place a solid containment structure to reduce the spread of radiation in the event of a worst-case scenario; Chernobyl did not. These two incidents highlight the importance of such safety measures, which were critically lacking in an entire class of Soviet-designed reactors. This book examines why five countries operating these dangerous reactors first signed international agreements to close them within a few years, then instead delayed for almost two decades. It looks at how political decision makers weighed the enormous short-term costs of closing those reactors against the long-term benefits of compliance, and how the political instability that dominated post-Communist transitions impacted their choices. The book questions the efficacy of Western governments’ efforts to convince their Eastern counterparts of the dangers they faced, and establishes a causal relationship between political stability and compliance behavior. This model will also enable more effective assistance policies in similar situations of political change where decision makers face considerable short-term costs to gain greater future rewards. This book provides a valuable resource for postgraduate students, academics and policy makers in the fields of nuclear safety, international agreements, and democratization.
ISBN: | 9781138282360 |
Publication date: | 30th November 2016 |
Author: | III, Spencer (REGENT UNIVERSITY, Virginia Beach, VA, USA) Meredith |
Publisher: | Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis Ltd |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 164 pages |
Series: | Routledge Studies in Environmental Policy |
Genres: |
Regional / International studies Regional geography Environmental science, engineering and technology Climate change Human geography History Jurisprudence and general issues Environment law Politics and government |