(FORTUNE Magazine) – Never give up a good grudge is the present combatant's guiding principle, instantly invoked upon reading the news from St. Petersburg a while back. The news was grim. It told of ominous leaks of radioactive gases at the Sosnovy Bor nuclear plant, located just outside what used to be called Leningrad. It rapidly emerged, furthermore, that this was only one of three such leaks this year in what used to be the Soviet Union. And that many more are guaranteed to come along, as Chernobyl-type reactors like the one at Sosnovy Bor are still functional at 15 other sites. As the discussion got rolling, the data became more nightmarish. It now turns out that over the years, there were more than 100 nonmilitary nuclear explosions in the U.S.S.R., and that huge land areas are now uninhabitable. A large chunk of the Western aid going to the once-communist states will be targeted for nuclear cleanups. Our grudge seems to require reopening discussion of The China Syndrome. You will recall that this hugely successful oeuvre, starring Jane Fonda and released in 1979 to universal acclaim by socialist movie reviewers, was unkind to nuclear power. Its story line dwelt heavily on the disastrous possibilities of meltdowns and the laxity of safety inspections. The film's real target, however, was not the technology: It was the social system in which nuclear power was being introduced. The central problem was capitalism, here represented by a management ready to risk blowing up Southern California to boost quarterly profits. For those not getting it right there in the movie house, Jane gave out interviews exegetizing the main moral. The movie, she said, was about ''greed,'' and about the folly of entrusting the public interest to folks ''whose primary interest is maximizing their profits.'' But how would it play in Kiev? That is the question one lonely writer keeps asking.