Revisiting Chernobyl accident:what were the causes?

It is generally stated, particularly in the West, that the Chernobyl accident was the result of a specific Soviet political and economic system, and that such an accident could not happen in the Western reactors. The reality is much more complicated. A careful examination of events that lead to the accident reveals that there were several different factors contributing to it. If any one of these factors were absent, there would have been no accident, or it would have been only a minor incident. Three of these factors were related to the reactor design, two to the preparation of the experiment, three to the judgment of the operators, judgments made under pressure and in a hurry, and at least one to the management..The management factor is perhaps the most controversial and interesting. One popular interpretation is that the accident was the result of excessive bureaucracy and individual irresponsibility. Some examples of mismanagement in other areas of human activity are quoted in this paper. They illustrate that similar mistakes occur quite frequently all around us, not only in the Soviet Union. The overall analysis of the Chernobyl accident confirms what scientists and engineers have known for a long time. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to develop a new technology without making mistakes, some of which may be fatal. (author)