Chernobyl Disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chernobyl Disaster - Essay Example Chernobyl disaster happened due to overheating of the core, which resulted in the core meltdown. The meltdown of the core exposed the radioactive matter to the outer environment and it was also carried far away by wind. People were forced to leave the city as quickly as they could. At first, people were not informed by the accident but after some time, the news of the disaster spread widely. The radioactive materials from the reactors were found hazardous to the people and other living beings of the place. The persons who were quite near the power plant or working inside the power plant faced the high exposure of radioactive materials. Only two workers had lost their lives, when accident happened but the accident caused severe damages to the people nearby the place of accident and a large number of people had suffered from cancer and died after the accident (World Nuclear Association 2011). The radioactive ash from the reactor had two parts. One part of the ash contained very small particles which were carried away by the wind. The other part of the ash contained a bit thick particles and could remain hazardous for many hundreds of years. The disaster had endangered more lives as compared to any other such incident. Belarus, the place nearest to Chernobyl, had been affected more than any other region from the radiations, spread as the result of Chernobyl disaster (World Nuclear Association 2011). ... The reactor no four was made with high precision and a lot of instrumentation was utilized to precisely measure different functionalities. A nuclear power plant is incomplete without the implementation of a cooling system. The cooling system is employed to draw the decay heat away from the reactor core. Water is utilized mostly as a coolant in the nuclear reactors. On 26th, April 1986, the water pumps, which were used to maintain the temperature of the core, were stopped for some time to verify that the backup power system to power the water pumps is working properly. In this little while the temperature of the core was raised but the backup power system did not worked. Then it was tried to normally start the cooling pumps but in vain. The temperature of the core exceeded to an uncontrollable level which blew the thick steel roof of the core with a massive amount of heat and unused radioactive material. Chernobyl power complex had lacked one of the most important safety features that are employed in modern nuclear reactors. Containment cooling method, that is considered when there is an uncontrollable situation at the nuclear reactor, prevents the radiations from spreading in the atmosphere. At the Chernobyl, there must be a containment cooling system which could reduce the spreading of the radiation material. The authorities like government should emphasize more on safety features rapture than generating high profits. The Chernobyl nuclear reactors had lacked other safety measures, active and passive cooling techniques must be there to meet the uncontrollable situations. There were construction errors, like the pillars that were to be placed horizontally were not present there at the reactor building