Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
It is a silent enemy, it has no odor, no smell, no shape, yet it is one of man’s deadliest foes. Radiation is not something most people face on a daily basis, but for the town of Prypiat in the Ukraine it is a barren wasteland because of it. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster was the worst nuclear catastrophe to have ever occurred and, is a perfect example of what can happen when the blind and unmasked furry of atomic power is left unharnessed. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is near the town of Prypiat, Ukraine, 18 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 km from the border of Ukraine and Belarus, and about 110 km north of Kyiv. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant consisted of four nuclear reactors, each capable of producing 1 gigawatt (GW) of electric power and the four together produced about 10% of the Ukraine's electricity. Construction of the plant began in the late 1970s, with reactor no. 1 commissioned in 1977, followed by no. 2 in 1978, no. 3 in 1981, and no. 4 in 1983. Two more reactors, no. 5 and 6, also capable of producing 1 GW each, were under construction at the time of the disaster. (Marples 27-29) During the daytime of April 25, 1986, reactor 4 was scheduled to be shut down for maintenance as it was near the end of its first fuel cycle. An experiment was scheduled to test a potential safety emergency core cooling feature during the shutdown procedure. Following an emergency shutdown known as a scram, cooling is required to maintain the temperature in the reactor core low enough to avoid fuel damage. The reactor consisted of about 1,600 individual fuel channels and each operational channel required a flow of 28 metric tons of water per hour. There was concern that in case of an external power failure the Chernobyl Power Plant would overload, leading to an automated safety shut down in which case there would be no external power to run the plant's cooling water pumps.
It is a silent enemy, it has no odor, no smell, no shape, yet it is one of man’s deadliest foes. Radiation is not something most people face on a daily basis, but for the town of Prypiat in the Ukraine it is a barren wasteland because of it. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster was the worst nuclear catastrophe to have ever occurred and, is a perfect example of what can happen when the blind and unmasked furry of atomic power is left unharnessed. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is near the town of Prypiat, Ukraine, 18 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 km from the border of Ukraine and Belarus, and about 110 km north of Kyiv. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant consisted of four nuclear reactors, each capable of producing 1 gigawatt (GW) of electric power and the four together produced about 10% of the Ukraine's electricity. Construction of the plant began in the late 1970s, with reactor no. 1 commissioned in 1977, followed by no. 2 in 1978, no. 3 in 1981, and no. 4 in 1983. Two more reactors, no. 5 and 6, also capable of producing 1 GW each, were under construction at the time of the disaster. (Marples 27-29) During the daytime of April 25, 1986, reactor 4 was scheduled to be shut down for maintenance as it was near the end of its first fuel cycle. An experiment was scheduled to test a potential safety emergency core cooling feature during the shutdown procedure. Following an emergency shutdown known as a scram, cooling is required to maintain the temperature in the reactor core low enough to avoid fuel damage. The reactor consisted of about 1,600 individual fuel channels and each operational channel required a flow of 28 metric tons of water per hour. There was concern that in case of an external power failure the Chernobyl Power Plant would overload, leading to an automated safety shut down in which case there would be no external power to run the plant's cooling water pumps.