Chernobyl Presentation 1
The Chernobyl Disaster
By: Dennis
Fowler and
Vicky Eads
A Day that Shocked the World and
Scarred it for Years to
Come
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant
Located 11 miles north of the city of Chernobyl
Plant consisted of 4 reactors each producing
1,000 MW of electricity
Produced 10% of Ukraine’s electricity
Construction began in the 1970’s
Reactor #4 was completed in 1983
At the time of the accident, reactors #5 and #6 were in progress of being built.
Events Leading to the
Accident
Reactor
4 was to be shutdown for routine maintenance on April 25,1986.
Reactor
4 was a RBMK (an acronym derived from the Russian initials for heterogeneous, water-graphite channeltype reactor), which uses graphite as a
"moderator," i.e., to slow down neutrons and thereby sustain the nuclear chain reaction. Events Leading to the
Accident
Saturday April 26, 1986
During the shutdown a test was to be run to see if the slowing turbine could provide enough electrical power to run the main core cooling water circulating pumps.
Reactor #4 was undergoing a test to test the backup power supply in case of a power loss.
The power fell too low, allowing the concentration of Xenon 135 to rise.
The Accident
Power dropped to 30MWt
The workers continued the test and in order to control the rising levels of Xenon
135 the control rods were pulled out.
Power was brought back to 200MWt
Although operation below 700MWt was dangerous they continued the test.
The Accident
The experiment involved shutting down the coolant pumps, which caused the coolant to rapidly heat up and boil.
Pockets of steam formed in the coolant lines. When the coolant expanded in this particular design, the power level went up.
The automatic control rod system was able to counteract the rise of power for the time.
The Accident
The automatic control system only had control of 12 rods though since nearly all the rods had been removed manually.
All
By: Dennis
Fowler and
Vicky Eads
A Day that Shocked the World and
Scarred it for Years to
Come
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant
Located 11 miles north of the city of Chernobyl
Plant consisted of 4 reactors each producing
1,000 MW of electricity
Produced 10% of Ukraine’s electricity
Construction began in the 1970’s
Reactor #4 was completed in 1983
At the time of the accident, reactors #5 and #6 were in progress of being built.
Events Leading to the
Accident
Reactor
4 was to be shutdown for routine maintenance on April 25,1986.
Reactor
4 was a RBMK (an acronym derived from the Russian initials for heterogeneous, water-graphite channeltype reactor), which uses graphite as a
"moderator," i.e., to slow down neutrons and thereby sustain the nuclear chain reaction. Events Leading to the
Accident
Saturday April 26, 1986
During the shutdown a test was to be run to see if the slowing turbine could provide enough electrical power to run the main core cooling water circulating pumps.
Reactor #4 was undergoing a test to test the backup power supply in case of a power loss.
The power fell too low, allowing the concentration of Xenon 135 to rise.
The Accident
Power dropped to 30MWt
The workers continued the test and in order to control the rising levels of Xenon
135 the control rods were pulled out.
Power was brought back to 200MWt
Although operation below 700MWt was dangerous they continued the test.
The Accident
The experiment involved shutting down the coolant pumps, which caused the coolant to rapidly heat up and boil.
Pockets of steam formed in the coolant lines. When the coolant expanded in this particular design, the power level went up.
The automatic control rod system was able to counteract the rise of power for the time.
The Accident
The automatic control system only had control of 12 rods though since nearly all the rods had been removed manually.
All