A- Investigation Plan: For my historical investigation, I wanted to research the catastrophic nuclear meltdown that occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. My research question is: Could the Chernobyl disaster have been avoided, and if so, what moments in the chain of events leading to the accident should have occurred differently? To further my investigation, I plan to use the Internet, encyclopedias, and find books that explain how accidental Chernobyl really was, the variety of mistakes made by the Ukrainians and Soviets, and how these problems could be solved according to the time period. I will use Chernobyl, Global Environmental Injustice and Mutagenic Threats by Nicholas Low, and Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl by Adriana Petryna as references to help me in my investigation. Hopefully, with careful analysis and innovation, my research will teach the world about its past so that this disaster does not occur in the future.B- Evidence SummaryChernobyl (chĬrnō´byēl) is an uninhibited city in the north of Ukraine, near the border with Belarus, on the Pripyat River. Ten miles north, in the city of Pripyat, lies the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history ("Chernobyl", Columbia Encyclopedia). To clarify, on April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Ukraine, damaging the human immune system and the genetic structure of cells, contaminating soil and waterways. Nearly 7 tons of irradiated reactor fuel were released into the environment, or approximately 340 million curies. Included in the release were radioactive elements with a half-life of 16 million years. Yet, we humans cannot defend ourselves... from the middle of paper... and from the rancor of the Cold War. More importantly, the absence of a containment structure is particularly important. As Rhodes' article on Chernobyl points out, "post-accident analyzes indicate that if there had been American-style containment, no radioactivity would have escaped and there would have been no injuries or deaths" (Rhodes "Chernobyl", PBS ). Chernobyl would not have been such a traumatic event if the Soviets had been technologically advanced and, of course, if they had trained personnel to handle radioactive materials. Ultimately the obstinacy of the Soviets was an important aspect of Chernobyl as it prevented them from asking for help and the operating philosophy prevalent in the Soviet Union at the time, which did not trust automation and relied on operators who did not understand the process became revealed to cause this upheaval.