No Chernobyl diaster: butterflies?

I Blame Communism

Banned
My reading has recently raised a question that I thought worthy of your consideration: suppose that for whatever reason that the Chernobyl disaster does not occur. The test is carried out succesfully and no similar disaster occurs for a few years at least. What would be the consequences for the Soviet Union and the world? Some effects included, I believe, Gorbachjov's belief in nuclear disarmament becoming more earnest and urgent; his government being temporarily discredited internationally and partly also at home; and a speeding up of Glasnost.

Your thoughts?
 
Mr_ Bondoc

Mr_ Bondoc

Here are some PODs that would be scary:

* Rancho Seco Nuclear Plant, located on the San Andreas Fault, which was shutdown in 1989 in OTL by voter initiative (due to fears of nuclear disaster), would have been in operation during the San Francisco/Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, causing a potential disaster along the California coastline...

* Reagan (U.S.) and Thatcher (UK) would have been less trusting of the Gorbachev administration, due to the fact that in OTL Chernobyl showed the world that Gorbachev was serious about an "open and free press..."

* People assumed that Soviet/Russian science was free from corruption and incompetence, prior ro the Chernobyl incident. The Chernobyl Incident served to dispel people of the idea that socialism had created a "scientific state"....

* Al Gore (D-TN) wrote Earth int he Balance based on the idea that events like Chernobyl had highlighted the problems of environmental degradation...

*Star Trek VI would have been dramatically altered, especially with the story element of the Klingon moon of Praxis being destroyed...
 
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