The Chernobyl nuclear accident was the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry. Due to inadequate safety precautions and without properly coordinating or communicating with safety personnel, disaster struck causing an incident that wouldn’t just go away. The nuclear power plant consisted of 4 reactors, each capable of producing 1000 megawatts of electric power, that came online between the years 1977 -1983. Chernobyl’s accidents had many factors involving many structural and safety regulations unfollowed, but also negatively effected the environment and people surrounding it.
Chernobyl is situated at the settlement of Pryp’yat, 16 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, and 104 km north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The power plant consisted of 4 pressurized water reactors of the soviet (RBMK – Reactor BolshoMoshchnosty Kanalny- high power channel reactor) design. These were designed to produce both plutonium and electric power, and were different from standard commercial designs, employing a combination of a graphite moderator and a water coolant. The reactors were highly unstable at a low power. On April 25, 1986, the plants operators and technicians prepared to conduct a special test or a poorly designed experiment to see how an emergency water cooling system would fare in the event of a complete loss of power. The test began at 1:23:04 am on April 26, 1986 when workered shut down the reactors power-regulating system and its emergency safety systems and withdrew most of the control rods from its core. Within 56 seconds enough pressure in the form of steam, was caused by the sudden increase in heat which ruptured some of the pressure tubes containing fuel, built up in reactor No. 4. This hot fuel particles reacting with water caused an explosion that lifted a 1000-metric ton lid that covered volatile fuel elements. As well as rupturing the rest of the 1660 pressure tubes, causing a second explosion that exposed the reactors core to the elements. Radiation was immediately released into the air. All while allowing the reactor to continue running at 7% power. As oxygen poured into the reactor, a graphite fire began, causing a chemical reaction, causing another explosion, and burning debris landed on the roof of reactor No. 3. Later 30 separate fires developed and an alarm was sent to the local fire station, at 1:45 am firefighters arrived. The fires burned for ten days releasing enormous amounts of radiation into society. Unfortunately, the firemen didn’t know about radiation and weren’t wearing any protective clothing. The driver Grigory Khmel later recalled in a loose translation “We saw graphite lying everywhere, I kicked a bit. Another fireman picked up a piece and said ‘hot’, neither of us have any idea of radiation. My colleagues Kolya, Pravik, and others all went up the latter of the reactor. I never saw them again”. At 3:12 am an alarm was sent off to an army base deep in the Soviet Union. The general in charge decided to send in troops, and they arrived in Kiev at 2 pm. Chernobyl’s power plant did not have the massive containment structure common to most nuclear plants in the world, without this protection radioactive materials escaped into the environment.
This disaster sparked critism of unsafe procedures and design flaw in Soviet reactors and heighted resistance to the building of more nuclear power plants. Reports say that 2 people were killed in the initial explosion but other reports said the figure was closer to 50. After the disaster, Soviet authorities started to evacuate people from the area of Chernobyl within 36 hours of it happening. This accident killed 30 operators and firemen within 3 months of the accident. Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) was originally diagnosed in 237 people onsite and involved with the clean-up, but later cases confirmed the number of cases was 134. Exposure to ionizing radiation is measured in terms of absorbed energy per unit mass (absorbed mass). The unit of absorbed dose is gray (Gy), which is a joule per kg. The absorbed does in a human body of a few grays may cause ARS. In 2005 World Health Organizations reports concluded that as many as 4000 people with eventually die as a result of Chernobyl. Between 50-185 million curies of radionuclides escaped into the atmosphere, due to wind patterned travelled around the area as far as Europe. In 1986 local people were evacuated and the government subsequently resettled another 220 000 people. The day after the accident, the 30000 inhabitants of Pryp’yat began to be evacuated. Since the accident, some 600 000 people have been involved in emergency, containment, cleaning, and recovery operations. More than five million people living in areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine are significantly contaminated with caesium-137 form the accident. Soviet Authorities
Due to the enormous release of radiation and the wind spreading it across Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, as far as Europe, millions of acres of forest and farmland were contaminated and although many thousands of people were evacuated, thousands more remained. A cover up was attempted but on April 28 Swedish monitoring stations reported abnormally high levels of wind transported radioactivity and pressed for an explanation. The Soviet government admitted there had been an accident, thus setting off an international outcry over the dangers posed by the radioactive emissions. This caused an ethical problem as to why citizens weren’t being told the whole story. Although being caught up, citizens and firemen weren’t told how to deal with these situations. Environmentally the issues have caused many livestock to be born deformed, and among humans seven thousand radiation induced illnesses and cancer deaths were expected in the long term. Reactor No.2 was shut down in 1991 after a fire, Reactor No. 3 continued to operate until 2000 when the nuclear power station was officially decommissied. Follwing the disaster the Soviet Union created a circle exclusion zone covering an area of 2634 square km around the plant.
It’s been 30 years since the accident, and experts say that a big factor behind the disaster was the unusual and poor design of the reactor. The area has been restricted, and the reactor has been covered in a sarcophagus. The reactors have been shut down. Chernobyl still stands as one of the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power generation.