“The accident was the result of severe violations of the maintenance schedule by the operating staff and also of serious design flaws in the reactor,” the chairman began. “But these causes are not on the same scale. The commission believes that the thing that triggered the accident was mistakes by the operating personnel.” This was the preferred narrative of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building—and yet Scherbina went on to admit that the failings of the reactor were extensive and insoluble. The RBMK was not up to modern safety standards and even before the accident would never have been
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