‫‪CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT DISASTER‬‬

‫عل ‪ ,‬أمجد محمود هادي ‪ ,‬محمد فارس و حيدر‬ ‫إعداد كل من ‪ :‬ي‬

‫اسم المادة ‪ :‬أخالق المهنه‬

‫موضوع التقرير ‪:‬كارثة محطة جرنوبل النوويه‬

‫المرحله الرابعة للدراسه الماسائية‬

‫السنة الدراسية ‪2020-2019 :‬‬

‫‪1‬‬
Introduction

• Chernobyl is located on the border area between Ukraine and Belarus.

• The Chernobyl nuclear power station was built in 1978-1979.

• This plant produced 10 % of Ukraine’s electricity.

• There were four unit (1 to 4) in operating conditions and Unit 5 and 6 unit under
construction at the time of disaster.

• All four reactors were of RMBK-1000 type, each capable of producing 1000 MW Electrical
power.

• T• his disaster happened in Reactor of Unit 4 during carrying out turbo generator
efficiency test

• The test consisted on a simulation of a power failure, the objective was to determine how
much time the turbines generate

energy despite the power failure.

• The explosion was caused mainly due to three types of errors: humans, design and
automation.

•It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and is one of only two nuclear energy
disasters rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

•It is 100 times more radioactivity than Hiroshima.

Where Is Chernobyl?

Chernobyl is located in northern Ukraine, about 80 miles north of Kiev. A small town,
Pripyat, was constructed a few miles from the site of the nuclear plant to accommodate
workers and their families.

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Construction of the Chernobyl power plant began in 1977, when the country was still part of
the Soviet Union. By 1983, four reactors had been completed, and the addition of two more
reactors was planned in subsequent years.

What Happened at Chernobyl?

The accident, which occurred at reactor 4 of the plant in the early morning of April
26, 1986, resulted when operators took action in violation of the plant’s procedures.
Operators ran the plant at very low power, without adequate safety precautions and
without properly coordinating or communicating the procedure with safety
personnel.

The four Chernobyl reactors were pressurized water reactors of the Soviet RBMK
design, or Reactor BolshoMoshchnosty Kanalny, meaning “high -power channel
reactor.” Designed to produce both plutonium and electric power, they were very
different from standard commercial designs and employed a unique combination of a
graphite moderator and water coolant.

The reactors were highly unstable at low power, due to control rod design and
“positive void coefficient,” factors that accelerated the nuclear chain reaction and
power output if the reactors lost cooling water.

These factors all contributed to an uncontrollable power surge that led to Chernobyl
4’s destruction. The power surge caused a sudden increase in heat, which ruptured
some of the pressure tubes containing fuel.

The hot fuel particles reacted with water and caused a steam explosion, which lifted
the 1,000-metric-ton cover off the top of the reactor, rupturing the rest of the 1,660
pressure tubes, causing a second explosion and exposing the reactor core to the
environment. The fire burned for 10 days, releasing a large amount of radiation into
the atmosphere.

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The Chernobyl plant did not have the fortified containment structure common to
most nuclear power plants elsewhere in the world. Without this protection,
radioactive material escaped into the environment.

After the accident, the crippled Chernobyl 4 reactor was originally enclosed in a
concrete structure that was growing weaker over time. As of November 2018, it is
now encased in an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus which is expected to
last 100 years or more.

Officials shut down reactor 2 after a building fire in 1991 and closed Chernobyl 1 and
3 in 1996 and 2000, respectively.

PIC. 1

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 PIC. 2

Picture 1 at 1986 and picture 2 at 2020 and shows the change of this disaster .

Dealing with the Consequences

Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl 4 reactor contained about 190 metric tons of
uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. An estimated 13 to 30 percent of this escaped
into the atmosphere. Contamination from the accident scattered irregularly, depending on
weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and western scientists indicate that Belarus
received about 60 percent of the contamination. A large area in the Russian Federation
south of Bryansk also was contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.

Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36
hours of the accident. In 1986, 115,000 people were evacuated. The government
subsequently resettled another 220,000 people.

However, the United Nations study found significant shortcomings in the Soviet Union’s
implementation of countermeasures. “In the first few weeks, management of animal fodder
and milk production (including prohibiting the consumption of fresh milk) would have
helped significantly to reduce doses to the thyroid due to radioiodine,” according to the
study. “There is no doubt that a substantial contributor to the excess incidence of thyroid
cancer has been exposure to radioiodine released during the Chernobyl accident.”

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While the Soviets’ initial countermeasures were deemed inadequate, over the next few
years the government implemented extensive measures to protect the public. These
measures included:

o to decontaminating settlements

o removing substantial amounts of food from human consumption

o treating pasture

o providing clean (i.e., noncontaminated) fodder to farm animals.

o “In part because of the countermeasures taken, the resulting radiation doses were
relatively low … and should not lead to substantial health effects in the general
population that could be attributed to radiation exposure from the accident,” the study
concluded. The average radiation dose in “contaminated areas” was about equivalent
to that from a computed tomography scan, according to the study.

PIC. 3 show A team of human liquidators prepares to clear radioactive debris off the roof of
the No. 4 reactor.

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PIC.4 A Soviet technician checks the toddler Katya Litvinova during a radiation inspection of
residents in the village of Kopylovo, near Kiev, on May 9, 1986

Soviet Secrecy

It took days for Soviet leadership to inform the international community that the
disaster had occurred. The Soviet government made no official statement about the
global-scale accident until Swedish leaders demanded an explanation when
operators of a nuclear power plant in Stockholm registered unusually high radiation
levels near their plant.

Finally, on April 28, the Kremlin reported that there had been an accident at
Chernobyl and that authorities were handling it. The statement was followed by a
state broadcast detailing the U.S. nuclear accident at Three Mile Island and other
nuclear incidents in western countries.

Three days later, Soviet May Day parades to celebrate workers went ahead as usual
in Moscow, Kiev and Belarus’ capital Minsk—even as hazardous amounts of radiation
were still streaming from the wrecked power plant.

Most people, even within the Ukraine, were still unaware of the accident, the
deaths, and the hasty evacuations of Pripyat.

Chernobyl Disaster Spewed Radiation

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The damaged plant released a large quantity of radioactive substances, including iodine-131,
cesium-137, plutonium and strontium-90, into the air for over a period of 10 days.

The radioactive cloud was deposited nearby as dust and debris, but was also carried by wind
over the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Scandinavia and other parts oEurope.

In an attempt to contain the fallout, on May 14, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ordered
the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of people, including firefighters, military reservists
and miners, to the site to aid in clean-up. The corps worked steadily, often with inadequate
protective gear, through 1989 to clear debris and contain the disaster.

PIC. 5

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 PIC. 6

Pictures 5 and 6 show the readiness of the forces to clean up the mess resulting from the
reactor explosion.

Chernobyl Sarcophagus

Over a hurried construction period of 206 days, crews erected a steel and cement
sarcophagus to entomb the damaged reactor and contain any further release of radiation.

As former liquidator, Yaroslav Melnik, told the BBC in January 2017, “We worked in three
shifts, but only for five to seven minutes at a time because of the danger. After finishing,
we’d throw our clothes in the garbage.”

Starting in 2010, an international consortium organized the building of a bigger, more secure
sarcophagus for the site. The 35,000-ton New Safe Confinement was built on tracks and then
slid over the damaged reactor and existing sarcophagus in November 2016.

After the installation of the new structure, radiation near the plant dropped to just one-
tenth of previous levels, according to official figures. The structure was designed to contain
the radioactive debris for 100 years.

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 PIC. 7 show the first Sarcophagus.

PIC. 8 show the current Sarcophagus

Chernobyl Elephant’s Foot

Deep within the basement of Reactor 4 lies the Chernobyl Elephant’s Foot, a huge mass of
melted concrete, sand and highly radioactive nuclear fuel.

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The mass was named for its wrinkled appearance, which reminded some observers of the
wrinkled skin of an elephant’s leg and foot.

In the 1980s, the Elephant’s Foot gave off an estimated 10,000 roentgens of radiation each
hour, enough to kill a person three feet away in less than two minutes. By 2001, that rate
had dropped to roughly 800 roentgens per hour.

How Many People Died in Chernobyl?

Ukraine’s government declared in 1995 that 125,000 people had died from the
effects of Chernobyl radiation. A 2005 report from the United
Nations Chornobyl Forum estimated that while fewer than 50 people were
killed in the months following the accident, up to 9,000 people could
eventually die from excess cancer deaths linked to radiation exposure from
Chernobyl.

As of 2005, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, some 6,000

Health effects from the Chernobyl disaster remain unclear, apart from the
initial 30 people the Soviet government confirmed killed from the explosio ns
and acute radiation exposure. No official government studies were conducted
following the explosion to assess its effects on workers, the liquidators and
nearby populations.

A 2011 study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health concluded that exposure
to radioactive iodine-131 from Chernobyl fallout was likely responsible for
thyroid cancers that were still being reported among people who were
children or adolescents at the time of the accident.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Apart from the ever-unfolding human toll from the disaster, the Chernobyl accident also left
behind a huge area of radiation-tainted land.

A 770-mile-wide Chernobyl Exclusion Zone around the site isn’t considered safe for human
habitation and can’t be used for logging or agriculture due to contaminated plants and soil.
By 2017, however, entrepreneurs found a new use for the territory.

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In December 2017, a Ukrainian-German company, Solar Chernobyl, announced construction
of a massive solar power plant in the abandoned territory. The one-megawatt power plant,
built just a few hundred feet from the damaged Reactor 4, was fitted with 3,800
photovoltaic panels. The Ukrainian government said that a collection of companies planned
to eventually develop up to 99 more megawatts of solar power at the site.

That’s a lot of power, but still not close to the former output of the ruined nuclear power
plant. At the time of the accident Chernobyl’s four reactors could generate 1,000 megawatts
each.

PIC.9 shows how the area became a ghost house

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 PIC. 10 also show how the area is empty

Chernobyl Animals Thrive

Meanwhile, wildlife, including boars, wolves, beavers and bison, showed signs of
flourishing at the Chernobyl site, according to an April 2016 study.

The researchers pointed out that while radiation exposure couldn’t be goo d for the
animals, the benefits of the absence of humans outweighed radiation risk.

A Safety Comparison with the U.S.

A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) identified two important
differences between the conditions that led up to the Chernobyl disaster and the U.S.
nuclear energy program:

The first key difference is in how the plants are designed and built. All U.S. power reactors
have extensive safety features to prevent large-scale accidents and radioactive releases. The
Chernobyl reactor had no such features and was unstable at low power levels.

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Second, federal regulations require extensive emergency preparedness planning for all U.S.
nuclear energy facilities. NAS cited three factors:

Stringent emergency preparedness plans. Even with the Chernobyl reactor’s poor design,
officials could have averted many radioactive exposures to the population with an effective
emergency response. Key personnel at all U.S. power reactors work with surrounding
populations on an ongoing basis to prepare for an orderly and speedy evacuation in the
unlikely event of an accident.

Alert and notification. Chernobyl plant operators concealed the accident from authorities
and the local population, and thus the government did not even begin limited evacuations
until about 36 hours after the accident. In the United States, nuclear power plant operators
are required to alert local authorities and make recommendations for protecting the public
within 15 minutes of identifying conditions that might lead to a significant release—even if
such a release has not occurred. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission posts resident
inspectors at every nuclear power plant site to ensure the plants are following federal safety
requirements.

Protecting the food chain. Since authorities did not promptly disclose details of the
Chernobyl accident, many people unknowingly consumed contaminated milk and food. This
would not be the case in the United States. As it did following the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident in 1979, the federal government would carefully monitor and test food and water
supplies that potentially could become contaminated. Under existing federal programs and
regulations, the government would quarantine and remove from public consumption any
unsafe food or water. In addition, after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors in
Japan in March 2011, the U.S. strengthened protections of the public from contaminated
milk and food by conducting specialized training and drills with farmers and agricultural
producers.

Currently resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing. In 2011,
Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction.

Chernobyl Today

Humans, on the other hand, aren’t expected to repopulate the area any time soon.
Ukrainian authorities have said it will not be safe for people to live in the Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone for more than 24,000 years.

Today tourists can visit the site, which appears frozen in time, apart from signs of
looting, natural weathering and the encroachment of nature.

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Sources

“Chernobyl: The True Scale of the Accident,” September 5, 2005, World Health
Organization.

Chernobyl Accident 1986, updated November 2016, World Nuclear Association

“Chernobyl’s Legacy 30 Years On,” by Tom Burridge, April 26, 2016, BBC News
“Higher Cancer Risk Continues After Chernobyl,” March 17, 2011, National
Institutes of Health.
“How Many Cancer D

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eaths Did Chernobyl Really Cause?” by Lisbeth Gronlund, Union of Concerned
Scientists.

“Animals Rule Chernobyl Three Decades After Nuclear Disaster,” by John

“World’s Largest Moveable Steel Structure Shelters Sarcophagus at

“Pictures: ‘Liquidators’ Endured Chernobyl 25 Years Ago,” by Marianne

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