I don't thinks that is correct. ....Both the US and the USSR, ... [snip]
The three "faits" were cruel to Neal, perhaps to the entire world if Neal's idea was great, but kind to me - broke a timing gear deep inside my VW's motor.
Fascinating insight Billy T!
Years ago as part of my research I had informal discussions with people (x2) who had intimate knowledge [ actually worked as engineers ] in USA reactors at the time Chernobyl's catastrophic reactor failure. The premise of the inquiry was that :
"If Chernobyl reactor had suffered failure all industry specialists world wide would have been informed almost immediately [internally and by normal media] of the potential for issues in their own individual work places. That they would almost automatically start checking and rechecking their situation to ensure their installation would not suffer similar due to unknown causes. The presumption would normally be that up until the disaster the reactors would be deemed to be safe however after reports of the disaster started to appear that presumption would have been severely tested.
The result of that inquiry strongly suggested that the hypothesis I was researching
was incorrect. That there were
no known fluctuations in reactor performance that would suggest geomagnetic or other global environmental anomalies that had impacted on nuclear reaction at the time of Chernobyl's reactor failure. That no immediate changes had been instigated to staff procedures etc as a direct reaction to the disaster.
So I was left with a hypothesis floundering and put it aside until I considered the possibility that the USA and Soviet reactors may have been very different in design leaving the possibility that the Soviet system was more vulnerable to global environmental issues than those the USA employed.
The hypothesis also extended to the difference in technology regards nuclear weapons programs that may have led to the same vulnerability. The question is not about superiority of design but merely the differing approaches used.
----
[If I am not mistaken High altitude nuke testing had revealed significant effect amplifications due to magnetic field EMP effects possibly a major factor leading to the threat of the "Star wars" SDI campaign 1983 which Reagen apparently was an enthusiast of]
No doubt one could speculate that the SDI, later changed to BMDO in 1993 by Carter administration has quietly matured since then.
However this relied upon USA superiority in the delivery of satellites and other space platforms, care of the space shuttle program which was mothballed for an extended period after the S,Shuttle Challenger disaster that occurred on Jan 28th, 1986. No doubt one of the tasks of the Rogers Commission was to rule out espionage due to the pivotal need of the space shuttle program to promote the SDI [The Cold war was still existent at this time]
Chernobyl incident occurs on April 26th 1986 [approx 3 months after the Challenger disaster.]
So check the time line:
SDI program started March 1983
Challenger disaster Jan 1986 [human error-blamed]
Chernobyl disaster April 1986 [human error-blamed]
OK no big deal and then we see the shelved space shuttle program was also responsible for the delay in launching the Hubble telescope with it's massive error [ again human error ]
SDI program started March 1983
Challenger disaster Jan 1986 [human error-blamed]
Chernobyl disaster April 1986 [human error-blamed]
Hubble telescope launched 1990 Flawed mirror* [human error blamed]
*Hubble Error even after extensive opportunity for testing due to launch delays caused by shelving of the Shuttle program.
...and of course the number of unprecedented events, climate, world health and other have continued ever since culminating in what we are seeing today with a lot more yet to come.
so I smell a rat...sorry but I can't help it...