Chernobyl Essay

Love Canal and Chernobyl are two different environmental disasters that share many similarities, yet have their differences too. Love canal is located in Niagara Falls, New York and is the site of a seventy-acre landfill. This landfill caused a major environmental pollution disaster that affected hundreds of people. Toxic waste began to invade homes, backyards, and playgrounds. Two hundred and forty-eight different chemicals were found buried beneath this community. Eight-hundred families had to relocate. (Softschools.com). Chernobyl is located in Ukraine, this natural disaster was the explosion of reactor number four, and occurred while under maintenance check. This explosion let out two-hundred times the amount of radiation than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Seven Million people were affected, and three-hundred and fifty thousand people were forced out of their homes and relocated. This explosion damaged sixty-three thousand square miles of land (friendsofchernobyl.org). It is important to realize although differences are present, both Love Canal and Chernobyl had similar effects on humans and the land. Many people suffered from these disasters, and had to change their lifestyles because of the effects done to the land.

On April 26, 1987, unit number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, releasing mass amounts of potent radiation. A mass evacuation was conducted, moving hundreds of thousands of residents out of the area. The large amounts of radiation traveled into the atmosphere and over time made its way back to the surface, impacting the wildlife. Multiple studies have been conducted regarding specifically what impact the radiation has had on the local and international wildlife. These experiments were conducted in the CEZ as well as other countries in the Europe continent. They tested whether there is a correlation between the population of animals and the amount of radioactivity in the environment that was being tested. Some of the animal

April 26, 1986: A nuclear power plant explodes in Chernobyl, Ukraine, which resulted in the releasement of large amounts of radioactive particles into the open air. Because of this catastrophic event, civilians and workers in the vicinity of the radiation were exposed to such particles. In subsequent events of the explosion, many measures were and are being taken to prevent (or at least curtail) the spread of the nuclear radiation. Almost immediately after the disaster, emergency workers poured sand and boron from helicopters onto debris from the reactors. Officials blockaded the area within 18 miles of the reactor from everyone except those with official business concerning the accident. Weeks after the incident, the Soviet government cut down and buried trees nearby the destroyed power plants, and built a structure called a “sarcophagus.” The sarcophagus is a concrete building that was constructed in May of 1986, which was considered to be a “temporary fix” by the Soviet government. Since the original sarcophagus was structurally unsound due to its hasty construction and long-term exposure to radiation, construction of a new one began in 2006, and when finished, the building will be slid onto the old

Have you ever Imagined the world ending When it exploded it was the worst nuclear disaster to happen ever. The results of chernobyl were not the best the radiations were airborne for 10 days. They drank cow's milk and if the cows ate the grass then the people that drank the milk would get cancer. The only way the people got cancer from cow's milk was if the cows had ate the radioactive grass. At the time 2 died right away and 28 the following week from cancer 19 died about a year later because of them drinking the milk that the cows ate the radioactive grass. The radiations detected by nearby countries. The nearby people had to move away

In 1986, a nuclear accident caused widespread radiation throughout Chernobyl, which is located in Ukraine. Radiation poisoning was rampant for many years, and effects can still be seen in neighboring country Belarus. However, the study released showed that the amount of wildlife currently in Chernobyl meets and may even exceed that seen in uncontaminated nature reserves in Belarus.

Several radioisotopes were released during the nuclear reactor explosion and unfortunately; due to their long half-lives they are still present today and will be present for a long time to come. Due to these extremely long half-lives it means that these dangerous radioactive isotopes will remain present within Chernobyl for many, many years. This is evident as many people now can still detect this radiation within Chernobyl, with fairly significant readings and not only in Chernobyl but in other parts of Russia and the eastern parts of Europe. As a result Chernobyl it’s self is inhabitable for human life, as a matter of fact it is illegal if you try to access the area without permission from higher authorities. The accident has caused a very

This of course wasn’t their biggest problem. They needed to find the fuel that had escaped from the reactor in order to avoid another massive chain reaction. This was a huge problem due to the extreme amounts of radioactivity inside the sarcophagus. They didn’t have the money for robots, so they sent in the Soviet Army. 3400 men were used on “roof runs” in which they’d go and collect samples from the roof of the reactor. During these missions soldiers could be subjected to 20 Rankin’s of radiation. Many people who have worked at Chernobyl have died from sudden heart failure. The Russian government denies that this has anything to do with their work at Chernobyl, but their have been too many deaths related to heart failure for it not to be.

"After Chernobyl, thousands and thousands of people, if not millions, were given a death penalty and had to pay the price..." (Wladimir Klitschko). On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Power Station in Pripyat, Ukraine, was running low power tests when the reactor overheated leading to an explosion and radiation releasing into the atmosphere. Despite this being one of the most serious nuclear disasters in world history, causing great harm to the earth and life around it, we now know more about the dangers of nuclear energy than ever before. It is very important that we continue to strengthen our regulations to make nuclear energy a safe, reliable energy source.

The accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukrainian produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. The accident, which occurred on April 26, 1986, was the worst nuclear power accident in history. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, slowing its expansion for a number of years, while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive.

On the 11th March 2011, following a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Pacific, a fifteen meter tsunami hit Honshu, the main island of Japan, killing over 19,000 people and damaging the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Over the following days while workers worked to contain the accident days the crippled Nuclear Power Plant released dangerous nuclear isotopes into the atmosphere resulting in the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in April 1986. Experience from the

“The Chernobyl catastrophe clearly shows that it is impossible to provide protection from the radioactive fallout using only national resources. In the first 20 years the direct economic damage to Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia has exceeded 500 billion dollars. To mitigate some of the consequences, Belarus spends about 20% of its national annual budget, Ukraine up to 6%, and Russia up to 1%. Extensive international help will be needed to protect children for at least the next 25 to 30 years, especially those in Belarus because radionuclides remain in the root layers of the soil. (Yablokov, 325)”

Nuclear power plants being so defenseless and having such a high rate for accident. The words accident and contamination flashed, in her head, like a weather bulletin. It was a regular day the kids had left for school and Shina was just straightening up around the house. She heard a loud weird siren coming from the nuclear power plant. One of the nuclear cores had over heated and the town was being evacuated. Chernobyl “suffered the worst accident, “on April 26, 1986, the reactor blew like a ton of dynamite sending the “top of the reactor” in to the air, and containments “buried” in the “biosphere for days” (Lewis 25). The containments buried in the air, which was harmful to people’s health. The contamination in the air would spread to other places, and cause damage

Radiation affected the animals of Chernobyl. All of the animals were affected by radiation in some way one of the ways is they would go blind. Scientists tested some of the animals and found that there where higher levels of radiation in female animals. Scientist worry that the animals in Chernobyl will roam and contaminate other areas. We can’t help the animals in Chernobyl because they are in such high radiation there is no way to help. The dead animals bodies are also contaminated by radiation. People still hunt them but soon realize that their meat is to radioactive to eat. Scientists have tested to see if animals can handle more radiation than humans, they proved that animals can tolerate radiation better than humans. Some of the birds mutations are overgrown beaks or their wings are different sizes. One thing that scientists found out is that a spider’s web is also radioactive. Mammals and birds are more affected than other animals. Fish and insects are less affected by the radiation. Smaller animals are in more danger than bigger animals. Some animals are healthy and don’t seem to be affected at all. The streets of Chernobyl became forests. Some scientists say

This energy was compared with hundreds of pounds of TNT and this explosion blew the top of the reactor away (Lewis 25). Immeasurable amounts of radioactive were released into the atmosphere and it spread through Eastern Europe (Lewis 25). The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was very poorly designed and its reactor operated in improper way (Howstuffworks). This is kind of technological disaster that several things went wrong such as “systems fail, humans err, designs prove faulty, and engines misfire” (Erikson 2). As a result of this accident, 31 people died from radiation, 200 people had hospitalized and 135,000 people were evacuated from 30 kilometers of Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Lewis 26). Soviet Union science researchers estimated that of the people who lived around Chernobyl nuclear power plants in the next 70 years from the accident, only 14,000 people would die naturally and hundreds of people would die as cancer from nuclear radiation (Lewis 27). However, another estimate stated that 15 million people out of 100 million people would as cancer by affecting the radiation (Lewis 27). This accident also affected national energy policies, agricultural communities of the Soviet Union (Lofastedt 2). Agricultural products were infected with radioactive and it also gave bad affect to people who eat those products (Erikson 3). This toxic radiation

A. Since the first major nuclear accident recorded in 1952, more than 33 serious incidents at nuclear stations have been identified worldwide. Within the history of nuclear power, the three major nuclear accidents are the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima; the Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania, U.S.was safely contained overall whereas Chernobyl and Fukushima resulted in large damage to the surrounding area as well as discharge of radioactive content from the plant.(1)The Chernobyl incident in northern Ukraine resulted in the death of 28 plant workers as a result of thermal burns and radiation exposure in the first four months following the accident, while Chernobyl was found to be responsible for about 7,000 cases of thyroid cancer within individuals under 18.(2) In the event of a nuclear accident, the main concern is the release of radioactive material, most likely from a nuclear core meltdown and a breach in the containment of nuclear substances. These concerns have led to the utilization of procedures following an accident; evacuation from the area of the incident to prevent contamination, taking shelter in ventilation-closed areas to avoid radiation, disposal of contaminated products as well as use of proper medical procedures.(3)