Chernobyl and Fukushima: the Importance of Following Instruction

Nuclear energy was the main energy provider to areas surrounding Chernobyl and Fukushima, until deadly accidents occurred at the power plants. Chernobyl was considered a man made disaster because the Ukrainian government and power plant workers were responsible for the explosion. The government undermined the importance of following instructions step by step, therefore, causing a disaster that impacted the lives of thousands of innocent people. Fukushima was considered a natural disaster because it was initially caused by an earthquake followed by a tsunami that devastated the surrounding cities. In both cases, citizens were evacuated from their homes and workers suffered through radiation effects in order to clean up the disasters. Nuclear energy should not be used because of the intense consequences workers and citizens suffer due to radiation exposure, as shown in Fukushima and Chernobyl. This is 1000 word essay on the importance of following instructions with life-based examples. 

Effects on Citizens

The day following the accident in Chernobyl, citizens were taking no precautions to protect against radiation, because they were unaware that they were being exposed. They took their children to school and spent their time outdoors, while the government kept the crucial information about what had occurred a secret. The Babushkas stated that they remember standing outside watching a circle of smoke over the reactor because they did not know it was unsafe outdoors. Citizens began to act in protective ways when the men that worked in the reactors the night of the explosion made phone calls from the hospital to warn their families about what had taken place in the power plant. The government allowed citizens to stay in Pripyat for 36 hours following the accident, which led to high levels of radiation exposure. Even when they did evacuate, the citizens were sent to surrounding cities, such as Kiev, which were close enough to the reactor to be a radioactive zone, as well. Citizens were not only affected by health issues, but they also had to accept that they would never live in their homes again. They lost all of their personal belongings and left behind pets when they were evacuated. The liquidators were required to go through, shoot the pets left behind, and tear down the homes in order to prevent further radiation from spreading. The citizens of Chernobyl lost their most valued items and the places where all their memories were formed due to the misuse of nuclear energy.

The Babushkas returned to the exclusion zone following the evacuation by walking 70 kilometers and crawling under barbed wire because they spent their whole lives in the town of Pripyat. The soldiers brought them bread and used their land for scientific studies about radiation effects on the land. One of the babushkas lost her three year old son to appendicitis related to the radiation exposure from the accident. Another babushka, Yakovna, passed away in the time following the disaster. The people she grew up with carried her back into the exclusion zone against the law because being buried in the homeland was a strong piece of their culture. The babushkas had to break the law in order to remain loyal to their culture because of the risks that the nuclear power plant explosion presented.

The disaster in Fukushima resulted in an immediate 12 mile evacuation zone. Within this zone, citizens evacuated in a chaotic manner, leaving the places where they once lived in a disastrous state. The government allowed citizens to move back into the cities on the outskirts of the evacuation zone, such as Naraha, but few returned because of the radiation. The citizens that did return excavated their own land because they did not trust the thoroughness of the government. In an attempt to reassure citizens, the government opened a school in Naraha, but radiation monitors were placed onsite to ensure that the levels are not too elevated for human life. The citizens that returned to Japan are living a limited lifestyle and will never feel as secure as they did prior to the accident.

Citizens faced extreme health effects from the radiation exposure that not only affected the generation alive at the time, but future generations as well. In addition to air exposure, Pripyat citizens consumed contaminated food and milk. This increased the likelihood of health effects on those individuals. Children were born with extreme birth deformities that prevented them from performing natural bodily functions, “I write that every half hour we have to squeeze out her urine manually, it comes out through artificial openings in the area of her vagina… No one knows the effect of small doses of radiation on the organism of a child”. Evacuees to surrounding cities were not welcomed because people thought they were capable of spreading radiation. This idea discouraged people from allowing evacuees into their house or even providing a form of help to them. The citizens of Fukushima had more reliable homes after the evacuation because the government granted subsidies and were more prepared to handle affects of the explosion. They also were not as affected by the radiation because they were not exposed for an extensive period of time, nevertheless, the radiation still caused health issues. If the government did not use nuclear power, the families that lived through nuclear disasters would not have had to worry about how radiation exposure would affect the future generations of their families.

Effects on Workers

The Chernobyl workers were not prepared for the high levels of radiation they would face during the clean up efforts that took place. They were assigned to cleaning buildings in Pripyat that were abandoned and cleaning the reactor itself. Their only form of protection was lead sheets in their suits. For the workers that wanted to receive higher pay, the government made them live in a station closer to the reactor. When the liquidators were assigned to cleaning the roof of reactor four, they experienced more than just physical effects: “Having worked in the highly active zones one start to understand that radiation is not only dangerous but also insidious. It seemed to affect even the psyche”. Their chances of having children in the future decreased drastically, which influenced the likelihood of them finding wives in the future. The firefighters were not told the effects of radiation when they were sent to extinguish the fires in the night of the explosion, and experienced immediate symptoms from radiation exposure. Some firefighters looked directly into the radiative fumes without face masks or helmets. The government caused Chernobyl and sent innocent workers to deal with the aftermath of their mistakes.

In Chernobyl and Fukushima, there were attempts to use robots in order to clean up the reactor sites. The government working to clean up Fukushima was more equipped for the efforts and had more available resources for robots. Radiation mapping was performed by packbot robots that entered the reactors at the Fukushima power plant. This differs from Chernobyl because the main robot used in the Chernobyl power plant’s only purpose was to clear nuclear fallout from the roof of the reactor, as opposed to determining the levels of radiation. This robot got stuck on debris and failed to continue functioning. The loss of function for this robot meant that liquidators had to go on the roof and clean up the most radioactive part of the power plant. They were limited to the amount of time they were allowed to stay on the roof in one shift and the level of radiation they were allowed to be exposed to before being discarded. Fukushima faced issues with their robots getting stuck as well, but they were able to accomplish more than Chernobyl. In both cases, the government resorted to work performed by drafted people. Robots were unable to compensate for human work, in other words, nuclear disasters will always require human efforts, putting those individuals at risk.

Conclusion

Within days after the Chernobyl accident, almost 2,000 people were hospitalized because of the radiation effects that the accident had on people that were exposed. Nuclear energy is the reason thousands of people were forced from their homes and unable to return. Those that did return to the exclusion zone were only allowed to stay because their old age would affect them faster than the radiation exposure. Even those individuals faced internal debates between their loyalty to their home or being with their family that was evacuated. The workers were drafted to participate in clean up efforts and have a lower quality of life from a choice they were not able to make. Nuclear explosions can occur from uncontrollable situations, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, or manmade situations, but the outcome is the same. A nuclear explosion releases radiation that takes the lives of innocent people and cannot be controlled once released. Nuclear power is responsible for the death of thousands of people and should not be used as a source of energy.