History Project On Chernobyl
Chernobyl:
By Cain Fogarty.
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that happened on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (at the time it was officially the Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct authority of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large levels of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over most of the western USSR and Europe.
The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being theFukushima Daichii Disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.
Overview:
The disaster began during a systems test on Saturday, 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the city of Pripyat and in close proximity to the border of Belarus and the Dnieper river. There was a sudden and unexpected power surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, an exponentially larger spike in power occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of steam explosions. These events exposed the Graphite Moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over a large area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout
By Cain Fogarty.
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that happened on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (at the time it was officially the Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct authority of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large levels of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over most of the western USSR and Europe.
The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being theFukushima Daichii Disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.
Overview:
The disaster began during a systems test on Saturday, 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the city of Pripyat and in close proximity to the border of Belarus and the Dnieper river. There was a sudden and unexpected power surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, an exponentially larger spike in power occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of steam explosions. These events exposed the Graphite Moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over a large area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout