In 1986, Tomasz Drozdowski was working as a lawyer, was married and had one daughter. He spoke to Michal Przeperski about his views on nuclear energy and why he is in favour of building a nuclear power plant in Poland.
Family background
Tomasz Drozdowski was born on 31st January 1950 in Rypin in a peasant family. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń. In 1984 he married; his first child, daughter Karolina, was born in 1985. In spring 1986 he lived in Włocławek, working as a lawyer. Not surprisingly, at the turn of 1985 and 1986, his daughter, wife and parents were the most important persons in his life. At that time he was a part of intelligentsia circles and professional and material stability were among his major concerns.
Attitude to nuclear energy before Chernobyl
Both before and after the catastrophe, nuclear plants were indispensable for the future of humanity. At that time it was meant to be a very important novelty and the Chernobyl disaster contributed to the increase of fear towards the nuclear energy. In his opinion, though, it was a Soviet technology that really was responsible for the mess. Even at the time of the catastrophe it was not perceived as a trustful one. So, definitely he was in favor of the development of nuclear plants. The knowledge of this issue was very much superficial, though, and mostly based on a press enunciations.
The Chernobyl accident and its consequences
He got to know about the catastrophe when the information was announced for the first time by Radio Free Europe. His first impression was that the communists were trying to hide something from the nation. That feeling was full of fear, especially because the first news announced that the accident was most probably serious, because Soviet officials were trying to deny it.
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