CRUZ, Anna Marielle A.

January 20, 2020

Grade 12- Saint John Paul II General Chemistry II

Chernobyl
1. What design flaws on the Reactor made the catastrophic explosion of the Chernobyl power plant possible?
Explain the severity of this design flaw.

The Chernobyl power plant did not use properly enriched fuel located inside the core. Since natural
Uranium is composed of various isotopes, this enrichment in Uranium fuel is necessary to separate and
remove Uranium-238 and increase the proportion of Uranium-235, making the fission of this element more
efficient. In this way, the probability of occurrence of power bursts in the form of steam bubbles would be
reduces. However, to make the un-enriched uranium useful as nuclear fuel, graphite was included in the
design. So they built and used a water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors with a positive void coefficient.
This is an RBMK reactor which utilized graphite blocks as neutron-moderator to reduce the speed of fast-
moving neutrons, instead of having water to act both as coolant method and neutron-moderator. These blocks
of graphite was designed to be made at the tips of cooling rods, surrounding the fuel. When a sudden increase
in power happened, these graphite blocks continued to moderate the neutrons so other uranium atoms could
split apart and result to chain-reaction of fossil fuel, thus power increased until the graphite blocks can caught
fire causing more heat and damage. Both the steam explosions and intense heat inside the core pushed the
reactor cover as fission products were thrown out of the reactor building. Also, the length and number of
control rods available need to be increased along with the flaw of shutdown system they referred to as “A3-5”
that acted as detonator instead of actually stopping the reaction process. Furthermore, the reactor vault was
not properly protected which was a high-ceiling room above the reactor. It is because the cover for the reactor
also served as the floor of the vault. Moreover, this reactor do not have containment buildings around them
unlike the common structure of most nuclear power plants in the world which serves as a protection to prevent
the escape of radioactive materials in the environment. In this way, the spread of toxic and harmful substances
for living organisms was initiated, reaching its surrounding towns, cities, provinces and even its neighboring
countries. When not contained immediately, these contaminants will be hard to or even impossible to stop as it
provide instant effects to human, deteriorating their health that could eventually lead to death, depending on
the amount of radioactivity that they have been exposed to. All of these fatal flaws rooted from the same
reason which is to produce a reactor at a lesser cost but with an increased risk in safety.

2. What does the power source issue and test run have to do with what happened before the explosion?

Before the explosion happened, a safety test in Reactor 4 was being conducted and supervised by
Anatoly Dyatlov. This is already the third test required to consider the complete construction of Chernobyl
power plant. He was determined to do it immediately to report a “finished test” without considering the desired
results he should have been working for. A nuclear reactor generates heat in the core which is cooled when a
series of pumps send a constant flow of water through it, resulting to steam which spins the turbine and the
result is electricity. They have to provide a solution for when the power needed by the power plant becomes
disrupted as it can result to fuel meltdown and a nuclear disaster. The presence of 3 diesel fuel backup
generators do not solve the problem immediately as it needs approximately a minute to reach the speed
required to power the plants but that interval was not enough. So they had a theory that if the facility lost
power, the dying turbine would take time to slow down and they could take the electricity it is still generating
and use it to power the pumps long enough until the 60-second gap of backup generators. To do this, they
lowered the normal output of reactor to 1 600 megawatts on April 25, 1986 and was kept stable until the test.
However, reduction in electricity cannot happen until after midnight so a 10-hour delay for the test had
occurred which created 2 problems. The first one was human error as there was a shift in personnel and the
scientists who were forced to engage in the test lack experience, they were not trained nor even warned about
this incident. They only had a set of instructions to follow with some of it crossed out. The second problem was
scientific as the delay created a poison in the form of Xenon. It was created as the atom split apart in fission. At
the core’s full power of 3 200 megawatts, Xenon would normally burn away before it created danger but since
the power is reduced to half, the element built up which was the reason why the reactor power that was
supposed to be reduced to 700 megawatts became uncontrollable and continued to reduce by itself. At 30
megawatts, Xenon was still being created and none are burned out and the reactor was not enough to produce
sufficient steam. To raise its power, 24 hours was the required span of time but Dyatlov with his personal
motives insisted on the test. 205 control rods were pulled out to immediately raise the power again but
because of the absence of control rods as well as negative temperature coefficient due to low temperature,
and low power to deliver water through the pump, the fuel remained unchecked without anything to reduce its
increase in power. Overall, the power issue and test both resulted to undesirable condition of the reactor
triggering the explosion that occurred.

3. Why are the readings regarding the radioactivity not accurate? What device should have been used in the
first place to make sure that the readings were accurate?

In the series, the measure of radioactivity present in the area was deemed inaccurate as they utilize the
device called dosimeter with a low level maximum limit of 3.6 roentgen. Scientists and authorities had not
anticipated the explosion of the core so they only expected minimal amount of radiation. They refuse the idea
as they believe that the core is not capable of destruction. Instead, they should have used a high quality and
high level dosimeter that could withstand extreme radiation.

4. What are the various effects to the people exposed to radiation? What are the immediate effects? Discuss
how radiation sickness is conveyed in the series. How about the pregnant women, what are the effects of
radiation to them and their unborn children?

Ionizing radiation has the ability to alter the atoms in a living cell of a human body that could damage
their genetic material. This intense change can result to the death of cells or existence of cancerous cells.
Immediate effects include skin burns and acute radiation syndrome or radiation sickness. In the series,
radiation sickness was presented through 4 stages. The first one was called prodomal stage where a person
experienced nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that lasted for a few minutes to several days. These are the
workers at nuclear power plant in Chernobyl who received high dosage of radiation. They immediately
undergone hospitalization and in their physical appearance, burns were already visible. At the latent stage,
they seem to be recovering already as symptoms started to disappear. They could already laugh and make
movements but it only lasted for some days as the third stage called overt took over and their internal organs
and system started to deteriorate. They remained fixated to their beds as they had difficulty moving due to the
internal bleeding they were experiencing. Breathing seem to be also difficult for them and their eyes became
sensitive to extreme brightness of light. They also had loss of hair and their complexion also changed to
various colors of yellow, purple and red. One even had his lips and nose black. At the last stage, they did not
recover at all and suffered from death. In the case of Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the pregnant woman who recklessly
exposed herself to radiation by making physical contact to her diagnosed husband, her unborn child had
absorbed all the harmful effects and damage leading to her daughter’s death while she continue to live
normally. However, she suffered multiple strokes afterwards.

5. Why is iodine an essential first aid to radiation exposure?

 Iodine pills have been used as first aid in the series through the indirect protection it can offer. What it
do is to change the behavior of the body. The supplement is a salt of stable iodine helps to block radioactive
iodine produced by the nuclear meltdown from being absorbed by the thyroid gland and protect it from injury,
considering that it is the part most sensitive to radioactive iodine. Since the thyroid gland cannot differentiate
potassium iodide from radioactive iodine, when this pill is taken, the thyroid only has the capacity to take much
at once and will block the radioactive one from entering the body.

6. Explain the flow chart presented by Valery Legasov on the trial regarding the explosion of the Chernobyl
power plant reactor #4.

He explained that a nuclear reactor has only two essential things happening inside which are reactivity
generating power either by going up or going down and the operators’ job is to maintain balance. He used
diagram representation using placards of red and blue. Located in the firs column at the left are red placards
which are Nuclear Fission (Uranium fuel), Positive Void Coefficient, and Nuclear Fission (steam/heat) in
descending order respectively. Meanwhile at the right column were the blue-colored placards of Control Rods
(Boron), Water, Negative temperature Coefficient, and Poisoning of Xenon respectively as well. Its fuel of
Uranium split apart and collide so reactivity goes up and will never stop rising. The presence of boron control
rods were to reduce reactivity like “brakes” while water takes heat out of the system producing steam or “void.”
In an RBMK reactor, the type of “positive void coefficient” is used wherein more steam increases reactivity that
increases heat and steam again. However, the “negative temperature coefficient,” initiates less reactivity when
nuclear fuel gets hotter. All together, they work as fuel increases reactivity, lowered by both control rods and
water, increases again as water converts to steam and temperature as well goes up so the negative coefficient
lowers reactivity. When Uranium splits apart, they breaks down to new element known as Xenon which lowers
reactivity. Normally when the core is at its full power it would burn away as mentioned above but because the
reactor held half the power for 10 hours, it did not burn away. As the power decelerates, the Local Automatic
Control (LAC) was turned off to gain more control to the power so the reactor cannot produce sufficient steam
and the fuel became cold diminishing negative coefficient in the process. 200 megawatts was the maximum
limit they should have but they continue to raise it. As the power increases drastically due to absence of 205
control rods while pumps also stopped moving water through the reactor, the remaining water was quickly
converted to steam and void is being created. Xenon burned away and power continued to rise with nothing to
stop it. Yet, there is a button to “scram” that would initially shutdown the reaction that when pressed, all the
control rods would be inserted at once and the reaction would stop. However, the tips of control rods made out
of graphite entered the core accelerating reactivity. A series of fuel rod channels ruptured and prohibited
further movement so the graphite tips remained in their position. At the instant lid is thrown off, oxygen rushes
in combining with hydrogen and graphite.

7. If the Bataan Nuclear power plant is in operation, do you think it will have the same fate as the Chernobyl
power plant reactor #4?

In my perspective, Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) will not have the same fate as the Chernobyl
power plant reactor #4 due to various reasons. First is the difference in structure of the two because unlike the
power plant in Chernobyl, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant did not use water-cooled, graphite-moderated but
instead water-cooled and water-moderated design. The RBMK reactor can only be found in the Soviet Union
so no graphite was included at the control rods that would accelerate and initiate the drastic increase in power
of the reactor when the shutdown system needs to be pressed to stop the reaction. Moreover, the main reactor
core structure is separated from the main building by 8 inches seismic gap securing the main reactor core in
case of earthquake. BNPP also has a reactor containment or Biological containment which is about 1 meter
thick of Class A concrete wherein radiation cannot pass through. Furthermore, the worst American accident
was at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, which has similar structure as
BNPP was caused by the malfunctioning of the Reactor Coolant Pump. For this reason, an additional pump
was installed so three pumps are present with two acting as spares, and reliability was greatly increased.
Lastly, the operators would probably be well trained PSME Filipino engineers that would not result to political
issues and problems.

8. Is the Meltdown an example of an Endothermic Exothermic reaction? Provide evidences.

The catastrophic event at Chernobyl is an example of exothermic reaction. The system is considered to
be Uranium that serves as the fuel in the reactor while the surrounding would be the core as well as the
environment. Heat from the system moved towards its surrounding during the explosion considering it as
exothermic. This uranium has the energy as it is capable of splitting up, exerting enormous amount of heat in
the process. In this incident, combustion also occurred after the explosion wherein the systems are hydrogen
and graphite as they are flammable and the surrounding is the air. As oxygen from the air combines with the
systems, fire was ignited and was sustained due to sufficient amount of oxygen. The energy from the system
was transferred to the surrounding as light and heat. As long as a release of energy from the system to
surrounding happen, usually in the form of heat, other times in light, electricity, or sound, then it is considered
as an exothermic reaction.