Nuclear Energy: The Cold War And The Chernobyl Disaster

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).

This quote, which I obtained from the newspaper The Guardian’s website, is from Sasha Yuvchenko, a former employee at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. What he didn’t know at the time of the event he was describing was that he had just experienced the worst nuclear explosion in history.

Arjun Makhijani, a prominent researcher for The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, claims that today’s emission rate of carbon dioxide is about nine gigatons annually and that the Earth only has the capability to absorb 3 gigatons annually—thus a problem arises. Furthermore, Makhijani states that about 2/3rds of the carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. With those shocking statistics in mind, fossil fuel’s emission of carbon dioxide is thought to be the leading cause of climate change—which is responsible for irreversible and catastrophic changes to the Earth. Yet, scientist had tremendous difficulty finding a safe, effective, and efficient form of energy supply that will met the great consumption rate. Many prominent scientist suggest that nuclear power is the most plausible explanation and solution to the fuel crisis. However, despite nuclear power having a exponentially lower emission rate, it presents its own hazards and threats—such as the Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island incidents. These accidents have many activists and politicians cautious about the prospect of using nuclear power as a complete alternative to fossil fuels—regardless nuclear plants are responsible for 11% of the energy supplied to the world annually (World Nuclear Association.) What many of the activist and politicians seem to overlook is that fossil fuels are an indefinite energy supply and will quite possible run out within

Progress often drives society toward betterment as a whole and its importance is often emphasized by those who wish to improve the lives of everyday citizens. However, the pursuit of progress can and has had negative consequences, and some of those byproducts have devastated and destroyed lives. A clear example of the dangers of progress is evident when one takes a retrospective glance at the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Gerd Ludwig, a photographer interested in documenting the remains of Chernobyl and the nearby city of Pripyat, magnificently captures the decaying and empty remains of a school library. Once a center of education filled with the faces of children, the Chernobyl disaster resulted in the abandonment of this building. This

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was one of the biggest NPP that was supposed to move Ukraine, the former USSR to advanced stages of development by providing energy. The headquarters was located in Moscow regulated by the USSR Ministry of Energy, or Minenergo. In April 1970, the main stakeholder and director/leader of the Chernobyl NPP was Viktor Bryukhanov, who came from Tashkent the capital of Uzbekistan. He was dismissed from his position after the Chernobyl tragedy and sentenced to ten years in prison. (Zhukova, 2016). There is s lot of confusion with many stakeholders and conflicting interests. The extraordinary nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl happened simultaneously with a genuine debate regarding the information policy that was

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

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

The Chernobyl Disaster was not meant to happen at all, what was supposed to happen was an experiment to see if the reactor’s own electrical needs could be supplied by a freewheeling turbine in the event of a power outage, but the experiment did not go as it was planned. This experiment gone wrong caused so much radiation sickness to the people, which lead to death by sickness, or death by cancer. The people who lived ended up having children with many mutations and disabilities. The Soviet Union wanted to hide the fact this never happened, so they released false information about the disaster to the public not realizing the many after effects this would have on the world, the people and the environment. Nuclear power plants may create a

This report is formed to examine the effects that nuclear energy has brought upon the United States of America. As over the years, local state government as well as the public citizens of America are having sceptical doubts on the long term effects that nuclear energy would bring to the states.

Nuclear power was the world’s fastest growing form of energy in the 1990’s. However, presently it is the second slowest growing worldwide. Considering that nuclear power accounts for eleven percent of the world’s energy supply, one must ask what happened [Nuclear Power]. Why is it that the growth of nuclear power has almost completely stalled? The simple answer is that after meltdowns such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, many people are afraid of nuclear power plants, which causes great opposition to the expansion of the industry. Unfortunately, most people are not well informed about nuclear energy; many do not take the time to view its positives and negatives.

The disastrous meltdowns that cause whole cities to become uninhabitable, as well as leaving families homeless and laborers without jobs, have defined the negative perspective of what people see in nuclear power. However, even after such catastrophes, the pure raw energy output makes nuclear power essential for the future of the human race. As time passes, the world’s energy usage has grown an increasingly massive size every year due to the consumption swell of energy. Despite nuclear plants being a heavily controversial topic internationally, its advantages are very well recognized and it’s causing nuclear plants to slowly become the basis of our growing society.

The world as we know today is dependent on energy. The options we have currently enable us to produce energy economically but at a cost to the environment. As fossil fuel source will be diminishing over time, other alternatives will be needed. An alternative that is presently utilized is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is currently the most efficacious energy source. Every time the word ‘nuclear’ is mentioned, the first thought that people have is the devastating effects of nuclear energy. Granting it does come with its drawbacks; this form of energy emits far less pollution than conventional power plants. Even though certain disadvantages of nuclear energy are devastating, the advantages contain even greater rewards.

Therefore, the U.S. policy toward nuclear power is decidedly a national security issue. But, unfortunately, today in in the United States, the future for nuclear energy is not bright.

Many critics argue that due to the Three Mile Island nuclear incident that occurred March 28, 1979, in Pennsylvania resulted in a reactor meltdown, with no casualties due to a combination of equipment failure and a lack of operators understanding what to do to a faulty reactor. This incident has put the majority public to have safety concerns over not only the operators working in the plants but also the civilians in the surrounding area. Yet since the accident, the United States formed the National Academy for Nuclear Training to improve training the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations which reviews and accredits nuclear utilities’ training programs for all key positions at each plant. In addition, nuclear energy plants have proven the ability to produce clean electricity without greenhouse gas emissions and the reliability due to its increased efficiency and increased power output.