> You're taking 30 years worth of expenses and comparing them to the UK tax intake for one year. I am pretty certain the USSR didn't pay for all that up-front.
Didn't pay all of it ever, that's also the damages of other affected nations after the collapse of the USSR.
So, there was a de-facto if not de-jure default on that cost.
> As a comparison, during the 07/08 financial crisis the UK government bailed out the banks to the tune of $185b and managed to not collapse...
It also owned some of the banks as a result (I was personally affected by this, LLOY shares), it wasn't just a pure cost.
They are only intended to show that it is a real possibility by analogy with what happened to the USSR following Chernobyl. It would require a detailed simulation to elevate this from "vibe" to "a clear risk percentage".
I do not have sufficient grounding in any of the relevant fields to create such a simulation, so I'm limited to drawling circles on a map around the reactors, seeing what's inside, and making a best-guess as to the consequences informed more by world news than anything more precise.
Didn't pay all of it ever, that's also the damages of other affected nations after the collapse of the USSR.
So, there was a de-facto if not de-jure default on that cost.
> As a comparison, during the 07/08 financial crisis the UK government bailed out the banks to the tune of $185b and managed to not collapse...
It also owned some of the banks as a result (I was personally affected by this, LLOY shares), it wasn't just a pure cost.