EuroSoviet: Chernobyl to Moscowâ€'The nadir and the zenith of Soviet science and technology

The Soviet Union was the largest country ever.  Rising from the revolutionary ashes of the Russian Empire, for 7 decades, through 1990, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a major world power.  Soviet forces helped the USA and Allies to defeat Germany in Eastern Europe in World War II.  Developing their science and technology, the USSR put the first satellite in orbit (Sputnik, 1957) and the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961).  They matched America in development of nuclear weapons, and also pioneered peaceful nuclear power plants.  But one Soviet reactor, Chernobyl, became the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, in 1986.  Shortly after that, the Soviet Union fell apart.  Russia retains most of its territory, people, and power; but most of the smaller republics in Eastern Europe have westernized, some even joining NATO and the European Union.  Astronomy instructor Erıc Wegryn has recently returned from a tour of Russia and six other former Soviet republics, from Ukraine to the Baltic states.  Highlights of this talk will include the Soviet legacy of cosmonautics (spaceflight), and a chilling visit to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where cleanup is never-ending, a huge and expensive new sarcophagus is under construction to contain the dangerous radiation, and nature slowly swallows the abandoned city of Pripyat.

Dr. Erıc Wegryn, a former engineer and NASA scientist, has taught astronomy (plus physics and engineering) at Ohlone College for over 12 years.