Interviews
Oral history, collected and reviewed under an explicit consent protocol
This project collects first-hand testimony from survivors, engineers, former local officials, and other researchers with direct knowledge of the event or its aftermath. Interviews are a central source for this research, but they are also the material most likely to put a real person at risk if handled poorly — so publication here is deliberately slower than for documents.
Consent and anonymization
Every subject chooses, in writing, how they are represented on this site:
- Named, with their consent recorded.
- Partially identified (e.g. role and region, no name).
- Anonymized, referred to only by a coded identifier (e.g.
S-01for a survivor,E-01for an engineer).
Consent to be interviewed and consent to be published are treated as separate decisions. A subject can permit an interview for the researcher’s own use without agreeing to have any part of it appear publicly, and can withdraw consent for public material after the fact. Full detail is in Sources & Methodology.
Planned interview categories
- Survivors and family members
- Engineers and technical personnel involved in design, operation, or the post-failure investigation
- Former local administrators
- Other researchers and historians working on this event
Excerpt format
When published, each excerpt will carry: subject identifier (name or code), role/relationship to the event, date and location of the interview, language of the original interview, and a translation notice where applicable.