Posted: March 16th, 2022

Full Report with Bibliography

Assessment2

Full Report with Bibliography

This nuclear tragedy, Chernobyl, has left a lasting impression on the public’s perception of nuclear power facilities’ safety. “On April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing radiation” (Alexakhin et al., 2006). Reactor 4 at Chernobyl detonated at 01:23 a.m. local time that day. Operators and firefighters were among the 30 individuals killed by radiation exposure. This disaster has been attributed to a lot of errors. An emergency cooling method was being tested during this experiment when the catastrophe happened. Reactor 4’s planned shutdown was used to conduct the test. “RBMK reactors are unstable at low power levels and vulnerable to dangerous rises in energy production levels because of a positive coefficient in the reactor” (Alexakhin et al., 2006). This was a contributing factor in the Chernobyl reactor explosion. It is very important to understand this disaster, what caused it and how something like this can be avoided in the future. This is especially because Chernobyl’s lingering effects may still be felt today. Chernobyl is still radioactive and a threat to the population.

After the catastrophe, the Chernobyl disaster resulted in radiation poisoning and a mass exodus from the affected region. The Chernobyl tragedy poisoned large regions in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to the World Health Organization, people evacuated from these places were concerned about radioactive exposure. Plants died, and animals were unable to reproduce due to this catastrophe. Inducing mutations in both animals and plants influenced the genetics of both species. The irregular branching of stems, weird leaves, and hues of the plants in the vicinity of the accident were all signs that something was wrong. Radioactive aerosols are released into the atmosphere by the nuclear plant’s exhaust and the resulting explosion.

The World Nuclear Website discussed the Chernobyl site and plant that went into deep details of the whole structure, it explained how a RBMK 1000 work and operates. After explaining the site and plant he went on and talked about the incident in details, he started talking about the incident that happened on the 25 of April that it was the first nuclear power plant disaster that ever happened. He moved on to the impacts that were caused by the accident and how huge waves of uncontrolled radioactive is being release into the environment. After speaking about the impacts that Chernobyl has left, he began by telling us about Chernobyl and its statues and what have they done with is to this day, it says that there is around 200 tons of unclear waste still remain in Chernobyl reactor number 4. Finishing his updates on Chernobyl he started taking about the areas that were evacuated and the areas that are inhabitable to live in, around 161 thousand people who were living in areas located around Chernobyl were evacuated and relocated into other cities. Overall, we think this resource covers many helpful details about the Chernobyl accident. It includes graphs and drawings explaining the reactor and what made it malfunction and how they contained it. The source included a lot of detail but forgot a huge aspect of the incident which was environmental damage (the radiation effect on the water supply, the crops, the animals, and the air).

There were many problems that accumulated but the main problems that led to the disaster is the poor planning and preforming late safety tests for emergency shutdown for the plant. This is a test that cuts the power to the reactor and checks the emergency power supply and how well it operates. After starting the test, the operators saw that the turbine was losing power rapidly, which caused a spike in voltage. After the operators noticed the spike in voltage, they immediately went and tried to shut down the test but it was too late, when pressing the shutdown button, the reactor was unstable, and when activating the shutdown button the flue of the reactor was too hot, and the control rods that stabilize the reactor went in the core while the fuel was hot created a reaction that led to the nuclear materials exploding and opening up the lid of the reactor which led to radioactive materials going in the sky. The Chernobyl accident is still the largest nuclear disaster that ever happened, it left its mark in the world about the safety of nuclear power plants.

At the time of the incident 28 out of 600 workers have been killed, according to the source, in the first four months of the incident due to radiation, many more were diagnosed with radioactive diseases. Those who were diagnosed with the disease were exposed to high doses of radioactive materials, 106 workers for the plant were diagnosed with these diseases. The World Health Organization is concerned about the radiation materials which are leaking into the sky, due to the rise of the leukemia in people because of the excessive doses of this radiation. People who were diagnosed with thyroid cancer were evacuated to other areas to be treated, around 6000 people who were living around Chernobyl who were diagnosed with radiation diseases were moved to get treated for their diseases. Around 99% were verified and treated for cancer, according to the statistics mentioned by the author. This accident caused the pollution of large areas in Russia and Ukraine, which is the Chernobyl accident. Of course, this incident is not without the side effects that afflicted people with, such as that rates of depression increased and anxiety after the incident caused fear for some people as well as addiction to alcohol. Among the mistakes that led to the accident, the most important of which is the factory, it must be re-designed in a safe way to protect people from such frightening radiation. Also from the author strongest recommendations is that the NRC recommends the importance of designing reactor systems correctly on the drawing board and then implementing them correctly during the construction and maintenance process, motivating plant management and operating personnel, and more to help ensure the safety of the public and the environment.

The Chernobyl accident induced a lot of radionuclides into the atmosphere and subsequently affected the environment. The deposit nuclides eventually decayed and moved into the territory. The accident caused adverse effects on humans’ exposure whereby both workers and the general public got affected by radiation resulted in health effects. The Chernobyl accident happened in a temperate climate affecting both fauna and flora. It caused the death of plants and loss of animal reproduction. Both animals and plants were affected genetically by inducing mutation in both animals and plants. It was evidenced through the body of the plants near the area where the accident occurred, like abnormal branching of stems, strange leaves, and colors. The accident adversely affected shelter, air, surface water, and groundwater. Radionuclides contaminated the current shelter situation around Chernobyl nuclear plant affecting both people living around this site, plants, and animals; radioactive aerosols pollute the atmosphere air through exhaust release and emissions from the explosion in the nuclear plant site. Surface water was contaminated by nucleoids near the Chernobyl plant through runoffs into rivers. Chernobyl accident affected groundwater through water accumulation inside underground rooms, near pioneer walls, and water infiltration from the nuclear plant site. The Chernobyl accident affected human health, caused fatal deaths, affected plants caused morphological abnormalities like change in color and abnormal leaf size, and adverse effects on environmental aspects. It negatively affects the atmospheric air that people breathe. It affected surface water in water points near the nuclear plant, and the water infiltration from surface water through the pioneer wall affected groundwater.

The first step of the recovery plan was to contain reactor number 4. This was done for different reasons, mainly to continue using the whole plant. The other reason was to reduce or to stop the harm on the environment and people. So they focused on reactor number 4, and they started building a shield around the reactor to control what happened. This shield makes the plant usable; based on that the plant was still running. Reactor number 1 was closed in 1997, Reactor number 2 was shut down in 1991 due to fire, and reactor number 3 was working until December of 2000. The plant continued its own job because of that shield, without that shield people will be harmed more and the plant will be shut down.

Resources –

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Chernobyl Accident 1986. World Nuclear. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx

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. 2006Environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and their remediation: twenty years of experience. Vienna: IAEA.

5 3-

NRC Web. 2018. Backgrounder on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident. [online] Available at:

[Accessed 6 February 2022].

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