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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 November 2019
The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 had international repercussions, as nuclear fallout, and accompanying fear, traversed well beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. In Britain, raised radioactivity levels caused some upland regions, such as north-west Wales, to become subject to restrictions on the sale of livestock, which created upheaval for the agricultural community, leading to an uncharacteristic outburst of protest from farmers who were unhappy with the government's response to the crisis. Concurrently, nuclear sceptics in Wales attempted to politicise the tragedy in the Ukraine to underline the dangers of nuclear power, dovetailing the accident with the looming perils of Wales's domestic nuclear industry. In exploring these issues, this paper contributes to a growing body of work on ‘British nuclear cultures’, moving away from its generally urban focus by examining a Welsh rural case study. This approach also circumvents the well-trodden historiographical narrative surrounding the politics of nuclear warfare by highlighting debates arising from civil nuclear power. Crucially, the work demonstrates how looking at the modern Welsh past through the prism of a transnational nuclear event such as the Chernobyl catastrophe shows that the history of twentieth-century Wales is enriched by moving beyond the stereotypically ‘Welsh’ industrial shibboleths of the south Wales coalfield and the slate mines of north Wales.
Roedd oblygiadau rhyngwladol i drychineb Chernobyl ym 1986, wrth i lwch ymbelydrol, ac ofnau cysylltiedig, deithio ymhell y tu hwnt i ffiniau'r Undeb Sofietaidd. Ym Mhrydain, achosodd lefelau ymbelydredd uwch i rai ucheldiroedd, megis yng ngogledd-orllewin Cymru, ddod o dan gyfyngiadau ar werthu da byw, gan arwain at ansicrwydd i'r gymuned amaethyddol, ynghyd â ffrwydrad o brotest gan ffermwyr oedd yn anhapus gydag ymateb y llywodraeth i'r argyfwng. Yn gydamserol, ceisiodd sgeptigiaid niwclear yng Nghymru wleidyddoli'r ddamwain yn yr Wcrain i danlinellu natur fygythiol ynni niwclear, gan blethu'r drychineb gyda pheryglon y diwydiant niwclear yng Nghymru. Trwy archwilio'r materion hyn cyfranna'r papur at gronfa gynyddol o waith ar ‘ddiwylliannau niwclear Prydeinig’, gan wthio heibio ei ffocws dinesig arferol trwy ganolbwyntio ar astudiaeth achos yn seiliedig ar gefn gwlad Cymru. Mae'r dull hwn hefyd yn dargyfeirio o'r naratif hanesyddiaethol traddodiadol am wleidyddiaeth rhyfel niwclear trwy amlygu trafodaethau a ddeilliai o gynlluniau ynni niwclear sifil. Yn hanfodol, dengys y gwaith y modd y gall edrych ar y gorffennol modern trwy brism digwyddiad niwclear trawsgenedlaethol, megis Chernobyl, gyfoethogi hanes Cymru'r ugeinfed-ganrif, gan symud y tu hwnt i sibolethau diwydiannol ystrydebol ‘Gymreig’ maes glo de Cymru a chwareli gogledd Cymru.
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3 The ‘immediate threat of nuclear war’ suffuses an infamous civil defence campaign of the 1980s: Central Office of Information, Protect and Survive (1980).
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6 Examples of recent popular historical scholarship include Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: A History of a Tragedy (2018); Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster (2019). The recent release of UK government documents could change this; see Robertson, Alan W., ‘Chernobyl: The Response in Northern Ireland’, History Ireland, 24 (2016), 46–8Google Scholar.
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17 Hansard, House of Commons Debate (HC Deb), 20 June 1986, vol. 99 cc 1333–8. The becquerel (Bq) is the unit of radioactivity, 1 Bq being defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one atom decays per second. Thus, 1000 Bq/kg means for every second in every kilogram of lamb.
18 Y Cymro, 25 June 1986, 6.
19 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, Welsh Office News, 26 September 1986.
20 National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (NLW), Keith Best Papers (KB), KB 21, Chernobyl Radioactivity Lamb, G. Moss Jones, Cymdeithas Defaid Mynydd Cymreig to Keith Best, 7 July 1986.
21 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, Briefing note ‘The Ban on the Movement and Slaughter of Sheep in North Wales’, 26 September 1986.
22 HC Deb, 24 July 1986, vol. 102, cc 736–56.
23 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, ‘Emergency Planning Meeting’, September 1986.
24 TNA, WO, BD 119/31, Chernobyl Incident Welsh Office, ‘Sheepmeat restrictions, note of conference held on Monday 23 June 1986’; NLW, KB 21, Keith Best to Nicholas Edwards, 1 July 1986.
25 NLW, KB 21, M. H. Norris to Nicholas Edwards, 1 July 1986.
26 NLW, KB 21, ‘Tom’, Lord Stanley of Alderley, Amlwch to Keith Best, 17 September 1986.
27 ‘Chernobyl: Our Hills are Hot’, Farmers’ Weekly, 4 March 1988.
28 Glyn O. Phillips, ‘Golygyddol’, Y Gwyddonydd, Summer 1986, 4.
29 HC Deb, 24 July 1986, vol. 102, cc 736–56.
30 NLW, KB 21, Keith Best to Nicholas Edwards, 1 July 1986.
31 NLW, Beata Brookes Papers 72, Letter from Beata Brookes, Daily Post, 24 June 1986.
32 NLW, KB 21, Beata Brookes to Nicholas Edwards, cc Keith Best, 3 July 1986.
33 NLW, Dafydd Elis-Thomas Papers (DET), E2/4, Dafydd Elis-Thomas to F. H. J. Andriessen, vice president, European Communities Commission, 3 July 1986.
34 NLW, KB 21, NFU Memorandum, 3 July 1986.
35 Y Cymro, 23 July 1986, 3.
36 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, ‘Chernobyl: Compensation’, 7 August 1986.
37 Ibid.
38 NLW, KB 21, ‘Parliamentary Question for Answer on Friday 25th July 1986’.
39 The Guardian, 5 September 1986.
40 NLW, DET E2/4, FUW Press Release, ‘Llanrwst Meeting on Restriction Regulations’, 2 September 1986.
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43 Ibid., 5 September 1986; interview with Tom Jones, 16 August 2016.
44 NLW, DET, E2/4, David James Jones, NFU to Dafydd Elis-Thomas, 3 November 1986.
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46 The Guardian, 29 September 1987.
47 See copies of Welsh Office News, June 1986–August 1987, in NLW, DET, E2/4.
48 NLW, DET, E2/4, Ioan Bowen Rees to Peter Walker, cc Dafydd Elis-Thomas, August 1987.
49 The Guardian, 29 September 1987.
50 TNA, WO, BD 119/34, Chernobyl Review Meeting Notes, c. September 1987.
51 Martin Johnes, Wales since 1939 (Manchester, 2012), 399–400.
52 NLW, CND Cymru Archive (CND), D/31, WANA Memorandum, 29 June 1986.
53 NLW, DET, E2/4, Elisabeth Rowlands Hughes to Dafydd Elis-Thomas, 24 July 1986.
54 NLW, DET, E2/4, Dafydd Elis-Thomas to Alun Hughes, 1 July 1986.
55 Interview with Tom Jones.
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57 Y Cymro, 25 June 1986, 1.
58 NLW, Beata Brookes Papers 107, copy of Pamela M. Lewis, Institute of Economic Research, UCNW Bangor, ‘The Economic Impact of the Closure, without replacement, of Trawsfynydd Power Station’, May 1985; Daily Post, 17 June 1986.
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62 NLW, Wales Green Party Papers (WGP), 5, Report from the Welsh Anti-Nuclear Alliance Meeting, 6 December 1987.
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64 NLW, DET, C40, Trawsfynydd Seminar – R. Ross Mackay, ‘Trawsfynydd – An Alternative Strategy’, 19 November 1986.
65 Y Cymro, 25 June 1986.
66 Western Mail, 25 September 1987.
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69 NLW, CND, D/31, Newyddion/ News WANA/ CWNC, Winter 1986/87.
70 NLW, CND, D/31, News/ Newyddion WANA/ CWNC, Summer 1986.
71 The Guardian, 14 October 1986.
72 Western Mail, 20 July 1988; Daily Post, 11 March 1988.
73 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, ‘Contamination of Lake Trawsfynydd Fishery’, 12 August 1986.
74 TNA, WO, BD 119/32, Memorandum by G. R. Waters, 7 August 1986.
75 R. A. Page, ‘Ymbelydredd yng Nghymru’, Y Gwyddonydd, Summer 1986, 10–14.
76 NLW, WGP, 4, Minutes 7 June 1986.
77 TNA, WO, BD 119/34, Dafydd Elis-Thomas to Peter Walker, 21 December 1987; Western Mail, 30 September 1987.
78 TNA, WO, BD 119/34, Bala Town Council to Welsh Office, 17 October 1987.
79 NLW, CND, A1/92, ‘Radiation in Wales’.
80 Farmers’ Weekly, 11 March 1988.
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86 NLW, Ian and Thalia Campbell Papers, 9/2/1, Toby Hodd Election Leaflet, Cardiganshire District Council Elections, 1982–89.
87 Hogg, British Nuclear Culture, 133.
88 NLW, CND, F/6 1994/95, ‘From the Children of Cynghordy to the Children of Chernobyl’.
89 Western Mail, 22 June 2004.
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