An Explosive Time During Ukrainian History

First, as mentioned above, failure to mention reactors design flaws led to distrust in the infrastructure of the Soviet Union. While many scientists and researchers such as Valeri Legasov had noticed that there were issues with the reactors design prior to the disaster, and mentioned so in personal journals, the discovery of their failure to speak up lead to the questioning of Soviet leadership [5]. Additionally, these issues became worse upon the discovery of KGB classified documents that discussed various issues with the construction of the Chernobyl plant between 1971 and 1988 [7]. These compounding issues identified flaws

The disaster had more of an effect on eastern Europe’s nuclear experimentation and use but “While no-one in the West was under any illusion about the safety of early Soviet reactor designs, some lessons learned have also been applicable to Western plants” (World Nuclear Association). Since the Chernobyl disaster was majorly caused by human error and under qualified scientists, to work with nuclear reactors today you need to be insanely qualified. Since the accident, Soviet-designed reactors’ safety has improved greatly, even in smaller ways. Automatic shutdown mechanisms now work faster, and other safety mechanisms have been sped up. Even new equipment has been installed such as automated inspection equipment. Several scientist and reporters have even said an accident like Chernobyl is virtually impossible with today’s technology (World Nuclear Association).

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

(SP1) What Chernobyl nuclear power station looked like and how it was thriving in 1980s

The Soviet Union, after World War II, had begun building many facilities for nuclear reprocessing using many radioactive components. The Russian government, being behind in the nuclear era, decided they needed to move quickly and start producing a sustainable nuclear chain reaction with secrecy. One of these facilities they built was so discreet it wasn't on any official maps at that time. In the town of Ozyorsk, Russia they built the Mayak nuclear fuel processing complex. This particular accident has been titled and associated with Kryshtym because that was the closest town on an official map that they could categorize it with. They built this complex between 1945 and 1948 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. Since they had to move fast at building this complex, as well as poor understanding or little education of nuclear safety, and major disregards for human wellness, the systems were poorly built. They used what is called an open cycle cooling system, in which they pumped the water back and forth into their water source. Their main water source was Lake Karachay, as well as the Tech River. All 6 reactors that the Mayak nuclear complex had used the open cycle cooling system. They used huge lids weighing 160 tons for the tops of these radioactive components and systems, and even had them buried 8.2 meters (27 feet) under ground. With these cooling systems being built with the eager notion to be ahead in the nuclear era, they weren't prepared for any kind of error. If

There have been lots of nuclear accident around the world. One of the accident that had a major impact on the world was the Chernobyl disaster. The disaster took place on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The disaster was caused by a reaction explosion induced by design faults and staff application errors. The accident took place in the course of scheduled tests to check the power supply mode in the event of external sources loss. Even after 10 days, explosions and ejections of radioactive substances continued. The release of radiation and radioactive substance polluted the places within 30 km of Chernobyl, and those areas have been closed for a long period of

Chernobyl was one of the largest and most powerful nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union. It was used to power the part of the U.S.S.R now known as Ukraine. Also it was thought of as one of the safest nuclear reactors in the world. But on April 26, 1986 something went terribly wrong and it is now thought of as the worst nuclear disaster in history. It killed over 100,000 people with its radiation and is still expected to contribute to the deaths of over 300,000 people.

Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the

On April 26 1986, the fourth unit of 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was to close down for a schedule maintenance check. During this operation, a test was decided to experiment the capability of the equipment to establish enough power to operate the reactor core cooling system. This

The Chernobyl accident was a disastrous nuclear event that happened on 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster is classified as a level 7 event according to the International Nuclear Event Scale (only two events have been classified this high in the past) and has caused damages that consist of the cost of 500,000 workers and 18 billion rubles, 31 deaths according to the Soviet casualty count (this is still being disputed) and between 4000-27000 affected future deaths due to radiation exposure [G1].

The main reason for the mishap is by now well recognized (Petryna 1). However, initially the Chernobyl catastrophe baffled the minds of people in the 20th century and definitely left the people of Ukraine disordered while living in anxiety. Now, without question, the public knows that the accident at Chernobyl was the result of a disastrous combination of ignorance from the Ukrainians and complacency from the Soviets in control of Ukraine at the time. As according to American physicist and Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, “…the Chernobyl disaster tells us about the deficiencies of the Soviet political and administrative system rather than about problems with nuclear power." The immediate basis of the Chernobyl accident was a mismanaged electrical-engineering experiment (Rhodes "Chernobyl", PBS). While, the indirect source of the calamity was an industrial malfunction of a Soviet made nuclear-based machine. Ironically, the Chernobyl accident occurred during a test run, which was conducted to improve plant safety. This accident proved once more what experienced control engineers have all learned: that a process must be understood before it can be controlled. (Liptak “Control Global”). Engineers with no familiarity of reactor physics were interested to see if they could draw electricity from the turbine generator of the Number 4 reactor unit to run water pumps during an emergency, when the turbine was no longer being driven by the reactor but was

for the next time they would be able to conduct would be in one year

On April 26, 1986 the entire world’s view of nuclear energy changed forever (Nave Chernobyl, n.d., para. 4). This was because on that day there was a massive explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine (part of the USSR at the time). Science can be applied to this event to explain why the plant exploded in the first place. Science can be used to look at how the plant was designed to work versus how it worked at the time of explosion. This event had massive health effects on nearby humans as well as animals and plants in the area. Radiation is very dangerous in high quantities and can have many detrimental effects. The radioactive material spread by the explosion can have continued effects many years after the event. The

The disaster took place on April 1986, and was caused by inexperienced staff. When the power plant had to undergo a special test, to make sure that sufficient amount of cooling water would be supplied to the reactor in case of a power outage. However, the test had been delayed, because the national grid required the power output more than the expected time. Hence, the test was postponed after midnight where the night shift had to come. The night shift had little experience about such a test as most of them were electrical engineers rather than nuclear. On the other hand, the night shift had to perform the test before the grid needed the power again, otherwise they would have all been fined or fired. Consequently, lead to an unnecessary pressure on the personnel, which in turn increased the probability of making incorrect

The Chernobyl power plant had been in operation for two years without the capability to ride through the first 60-75 seconds of a total loss of electric power. The station managers wished to correct this at the first opportunity. This may explain why they continued the test, even when serious problems arose, and why the requisite approval for the test was not sought from the Soviet nuclear oversight regulator. (Gale 22-25)