Abstract: On March 11, 2011 came the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the escalating crisis at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. As the Fukushima accident unfolded and the extent of radioactive contamination was revealed (?!), the world wondered: Is this another Chernobyl? A month after the earthquake the Japanese government classified the accident as a Category 7 disaster, the same as Chernobyl. No doubt comparisons with Chernobyl will be elaborated, negotiated, challenged, and rejected as the situation develops at Fukushima Daiichi. For now, the renewed awareness of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident–which coincides with the event’s 25th “anniversary”–provides an opportunity to ponder the multiple kinds of fallout the disaster produced: health, environmental, social, cultural, and political.
Abstract: The Budapest Chernobyl Day commemoration generated a creative outpouring of stories about parental responsibilities, scientific knowledge, environmental risks, and public participation. ! examine the stories and performances elicited by the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1996. In these “Chernobyl stories” activists criticized scientific and state paternalism while engaging in alternative practices of citizenship. The decade between the catastrophic explosion and its commemoration coincides with the development of the Hungarian environmental movement and the transformation from state socialism Chernobyl Day 1996 consequently became an opportunity for activists to reflect upon how the meaning of citizenship and public participation had changed in those years as well.
