Catastrophic Failure Of Chernobyl: A Simple Mistake
Mistakes happen, they are a common part of life. It is how we learn to do better. But, sometimes those mistakes can cost our lives, or other people’s lives. Chernobyl was a catastrophic event which starts with a catastrophic failure. Due to a failed power surge test caused the deaths of 45 workers and fireman. This event does not compare to the 200,000 workers that got infected by radiation and were lucky to have survived. People tend to not see how lucky we are that Chernobyl happened how it did.
In 1986, Chernobyl did a series of tests with their nuclear reactors. Mandatory tests, the biggest test being the emergency power test. In the case of a Power Surge, the Nuclear Reactor was tested to see how long the fans could keep spinning to hold the power until the Diesel Generator turns on. The previous test before the catastrophic failure ended with the fan slowing down a way to quickly which provided not a sufficient amount of energy to keep running. The Next day, after changes were made, they did the test again. This time the test did not go smoothly; One of the workers the previous day, shut off the Automatic Shutdown of Mechanism. This caused the fans of Reactor to slow down significantly faster than expected as it did not start to slow until after power was loss. Hot fuel particles interacted with water; This caused an increase in pressure in the reactor and the reactor quickly became unstable. Very quickly the reactor exploded from the pressure build up; This killed two workers immediately. Scientists are still not sure how the fuel particles touched the water.
Firefighters and Workers were called back to the scene to put out the radioactive fire and to stop the spread of radioactive material. This fire lasted for ten days which released a lot of radiation into the air, approximately 5% of the Reactor’s Core. Once the fire was put out, the firemen and workers were affected by the radiation. 45 died within months of the incident. After the fire, over 600,000 workers were hired to clean up the radioactive mess the explosion left behind. This lead to 200,000 workers receiving a dose of radiation. Out of the 200,000 affected, only 15 died. This was due to the amount of radiation that was released into the atmosphere lowering how much radiation was in the area. After the cleanup and the let up the radiation. The ukrainium government order people to cover the reactor in a concrete sarcophagus to prevent further leakage of Uranium. This was a temporary solution until they were able to put in a steel sarcophagus around the reactor. It is estimated that the steel containment should last around 100 years.
It is a big use of resources just to keep the radiation contained. Some people question why we even try to contain it. People fail to realize that the chernobyl incident could’ve been way worse that it was. It could also have been a lot better. The chernobyl incident was catastrophic sure. But what if the radiation wasn’t contained? We would’ve had more radiation in the atmosphere that the Earth might’ve become inhabitable. Only 5% of the reactor core leaked into the atmosphere which was about 50 tons of radioactive dust. That’s not all, if more radiation was released: Firefighters would have not been able to be on the scene for long and would have an increased chance of radiation sickness. More men would’ve died and the fire would have been put out in more than 10 days, releasing even more radiation into the air. If more than 5% of the reactor’s core got into the air; There would have been a lot more than 45 deaths. What if the other reactors exploded too? Well that would’ve quadruple our problem. 5% of each reactor’s core would be in the atmosphere. There would be a bigger fire which would’ve lasted longer due to firefighters not being able to safely getting into the area. The fire could have spread to the nearby forest and town as well. More workers would have died of radiation poisoning.
Chernobyl was a catastrophic failure. The area surrounding the Nuclear Power Plant is will not be habitable for 20,000 years. The whole world is very lucky that chernobyl wasn’t worse. Anything greater than what we got could result in a Nuclear Winter or global radiation poisoning. It was a terrible experience for everyone. Learning is a crucial part of this though. If those who build nuclear power plants learn about why Chernobyl went the way it did; It is less likely that another chernobyl incident will occur. People tend to look at the bad side of things. Sometimes people need to look at the good side too, Chernobyl could have been a lot worse.
