How Two Disasters in the 1980s Forever Changed Two Superpowers
The United States and Soviet Union experienced two public tragedies within 90 days of one another in 1986 - their reverberations are still felt today.
Nineteen Eighty-Six found the United States and the Soviet Union continuing to navigate their race for supremacy. Though not as intense, the Cold War was still on. So too the political posturing and propaganda as a result of Mikahil Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan assuming leadership of both super powers.
Gorbachev promised sweeping changes centered around openness and restructuring - two significant reform proposals in the shadow of leaders like Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Adnropov, and Konstantin Chernenko. Stagnation had become synonymous with Soviet Union, and Gorbachev was bent on changing that course.
Meanwhile, in the United States, an actor had climbed the ranks of the Republican Party to win the bid for President of the United States. Ronald Reagan was more than just a former actor however. He was a former Democrat who was considered by many to be the hallmark of the ‘new’ Republican Party.
Despite the differences in ideology, both men shared a vision of driving change in their respective countries. Both men also found themselves in the thick of a decades long technological competition against the other.
The Race Continued
Yet the 1980s would bring about two unforgettable tragedies that humbled both countries, impacted two very different industries, and served as a very violent reminder that the pursuit of technological innovation often features catastrophic moments.
Despite the much publicized and heated Space Race of the late 1950s and 60s, the 1980s looked much different than earlier days. Though the astronaut and cosmonaut names remained, rockets and landing capsules had been replaced by space shuttles. The moon had been conquered as new boundaries into the next frontier were targeted.
The 1950s also brought about the birth of a new source of energy - nuclear. In the United States, the Atomic Energy Commission began pushing for commercial reactors. Lofty goals to develop over 250 nuclear power reactors were set and the race to the future of energy was on.
The Soviet Union too was in pursuit of nuclear energy and were the first in the world to produce electricity when in 1954 their 5 MWe Obninsk reactor was activated. Two more commercial-scale nuclear power plants would be commissioned in the 1960s before commission of a new production-style model was granted in the early 1970s.
By all accounts the United States had pulled far ahead in both the pursuit of space and nuclear. Yet as we turned the corner into the decade of the 1980s, the optimism and enthusiasm surrounding rampant pursuit of innovation met unexpected challenges.
America Had Claimed Space
As we entered the mid-1980s, American progress in aerospace seemed unstoppable. NASA and pivoted its focus from one human spaceflight programs towards orbital capabilities via the space shuttle.
The birth of Columbia and its first launch in 1981 had been a hallmark moment for NASA and for the United States. Emboldened by their progress and the completion of shuttles Challenger and Discovery, they would go from just two flights in 1981 to nine by 1985. On the morning of January 28, 1986, NASA and the country would suffer tragedy.
The explosion of the shuttle Challenger, and the very tragic and public death of Christina McAuliffe in front of thousands of classrooms prepared to watch the first teacher go into space shook the nation. It bruised NASA’s reputation. And grounded the space program for three years.
Nuclear’s Ever Rising Bar to Inception
Meanwhile, as ambitious nuclear power plant development continued, concerns regarding cost began to pop up in the 1970s. Dozens of new rules and regulations - many requiring mid-construction changes - created new hurdles and caused multiple project delays.
The 1971 Clavert Cliffs ruling forced nuclear regulators to change their rules and comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. In an instance, citizen lawsuits to interview construction of nuclear plants was now on the table - which caused further delays.
Then in 1979, the nuclear power movement sustained a massive blow. A reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 led to a sharp increase in regulatory delays, updates to safety procedures and a whole new set of requirements. Time is money and construction timelines doubled, some stretching well past 10 years to completion. With the growing timeline came growing costs. In a decade the cost per kW when from $1,800/kW to over $7,000 kW.
The growing pressures surrounding nuclear energy in the United States would result in a cancellation of nearly half of the power reactors from the original order. Forbes magazine’s 1985 cover story declared the U.S. nuclear power program as the largest managerial disaster in business history.
Then came Chernobyl. Just three months after the Challenger disaster, the fourth reactor suffered core explosions and was completely destroyed. Nearly 20 miles in all directions of the plant became a zone of alienation due to unhealthy radiation and the impacts: be it environment, socioeconomic, and human health are well documented. It is still considered the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.
In the shadow of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, coupled with the soaring costs of nuclear plant construction cancellations for reactor orders in the United States came flying in. These shockwaves along with regulatory hurdles and sky-rocketing costs was so stark, not a single new reactor began construction in the United States from 1978 to 2013.
The Landscape of Space and Nuclear Today
Which leads us to today. Today, Space has become a commercial competitive ground. The once proud days of NASA’s space program overshadowed by the bold and rapid innovations of Space-X and Blue Origin.
Earlier this year we landed a craft on Mars, we accomplished a ‘helicopter-like’ flight on the surface of Mars. And by we, I do mean we - as NASA accomplished those feats. Our NASA.
When we think of today’s space race, most kids today will rattle off the names Musk or Bezos before they say NASA (I tested this on a group of pre-teens hanging around a grocery store). Their pursuits to commercialize space - be in colonization on Mars or transport of waste throughout our solar system have captured the imaginations of many. Yet I can’t help but think that growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, kids idolized Buzz Armstrong. Today I would ask if anyone could even name the NASA director - I couldn’t.
Despite the economical prosperity and innovative dominance the United States has enjoyed over the last eight decades, France, Canada, and Japan were able to achieve effective nuclear programs while maintaining relatively low costs.
France gets more than three-quarters of its energy from nuclear today and has managed to maintain a cost at around $1,500/kW (note that France’s recent pursuit of ‘mega-reactors’ has began to increase costs so much, some politicians are requesting a pivot away from such heavy investment in nuclear). Nevertheless, many of these efficiencies were gained at the adoption of standardization and less adversarial regulatory processes.
Feeling It 40 Years Later
Certainly the Challenger disaster was not the end to NASA or our space program. NASA continues to make tremendous discoveries - albeit in constant shadow to society’s obsession with billionaires.
And nuclear power - despite Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima - is far from dead. We’ve seen multiple countries invest in and harness its power. And in the face of of a changing climate and rising demands for cleaner sources of energy, though imperfect, nuclear remains an alluring option to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
So on the surface history labels Challenger and Chernobyl as disasters, it’s safe to say they were far more than that. The United States halted their space program and established a bar too high for a strong nuclear future. For the Soviet Union, Chernobyl was a global blow to a receding power - further accelerating its demise (within five years, the USSR dissolved). To both, it was the realization that ideological pursuit of technological utopia could not happen without consequence. A lesson we must continue to remember today.
History for the Hurried
August 31, 1997: Princess Diana dies at age 36 in a car crash at the Pont de l’Alma bridge in Paris.
September 1, 1939: Hitler’s armies invade Poland at 5:30 a.m. formally starting World War II in Europe.
September 1, 1983: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Russian fighter jet en route from New York to Seoul. 269 people were killed.