The Chernobyl Disaster And The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Nuclear explosions are always a tragedy for the people and for the environment of the Earth. The consequences of the nuclear accident might stay for a long time harming the environment if the actions taken were wrong. Unfortunately, some accidents connected with nuclear power happened in the world and in some cases the consequences are remaining until this time. To find out which government’s reaction was the rightest, I will compare accidents like Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. I will see which government took the actions, which helped reduce the danger of the accidents. By comparing the amount of deaths and victims, I will understand which government protected the people better. The reaction time is also important, depending

Uranium is most notably recognised for its radioactivity however, when compared with other radioactive elements, Uranium has quite slow rate of decay (Pappas, 2015). U-235, an isotope of Uranium, can be used in a fission bomb due to the fact that when its nucleus splits it releases substantial amounts of energy. The most infamous example of how uranium has been used in this way is the atomic uranium bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by the U.S in 1945 (Atomic Heritage Foundation, n.d.). Furthermore, the same properties that allow uranium to be used in a bomb, are valued in the world of nuclear energy. Nuclear power stations use energy from uranium to produce electricity and this production accounts for approximately 11 percent of the

Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island — all known as major nuclear power disasters. Nuclear power might be a good source of power, but in the long run it can be a real hazard and should be banned. If we rely on nuclear power to be our primary power source, it will cause major problems to humans and the environment. Nuclear power is hard to dispose of, expensive to run, and the reactors can easily be disrupted and cause the release of massive amounts of radiation.

“No one in the United States has become seriously ill or has died because of any kind of accident at a civilian nuclear power plant.” says Joe Barton. This is a highly controversial topic where there are many conflicting opinions. Some people believe that these plants are too dangerous to exist while other think that they are the edge of tomorrow. When analyzing it from a purely statistical and analytical standpoint, nuclear energy is clearly worth the possible risks they pose.

Uranium is a dense radioactive metal that is used in nuclear reactors. It is found in nature and has two large isotopes, U-235 and U-238. The energy that is produced in nuclear reactors is from the splitting or fission of the U-235 atoms. It releases energy in most cases in the form of heat; U-235 is the main splitting isotope of uranium. Uranium enriched is required to be in light water reactors, which allows controlled nuclear reaction.

Nuclear power plants produce a lot of energy but the power plant is also potentially, extremely dangerous. There is 100 nuclear power plants that are in use in the United States of America as of now. Although when there is an accident, the power plants release a lot of radiation. The radiation hurts the environment, including living things. Since nuclear power plants are not entirely safe and still have flaws, they can lead to disastrous events like the Chernobyl accident. The accident led to about 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancers according to the Greenpeace Organization. The Union of Concerned Scientists has created solutions in making nuclear reactors safer. They have sent recommendations to the owners of the power plants to tell them what they should do to make sure there will not be anymore nuclear accidents. So far, with these regulations, there have not been any accidents in the U.S. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has made a more promising solution by regulating the radionuclide emissions and the removal of high level radioactive waste that the power plants are producing. However with these regulations, there is still are still possibilities of nuclear accidents and the release of radiation caused by the power plants. Nuclear power plants need to be safer to help the environment and to prevent numerous deaths.

What is Nuclear power, and how does it work? Nuclear power is contained in atoms, this energy can be produced as heat from a chain reaction in a radioactive element called Uranium. It works by being controlled by control rods so the radiative power is creating heat that we use as energy.

After considering both sides of advantages and disadvantages about nuclear energy, people are thinking and trying to make life better. The purpose of supporting nuclear is because it can produce energy without fossil fuel and it will not produce any bad effects of environmental chemical such as carbon dioxide. On the other side, people are against nuclear because it is not safe enough and if unpredictable incident happens to the industry they need to make appropriate decision quickly and as soon as possible. Both sides of people have own purpose to make world safer to live usefully.

Fukushima represents a catastrophe that had world wide implications for the nuclear power sector. On March 11, 2011, following a major earthquake, a 15 m tsunami hit the coast of Japan. This natural disaster caused a great deal of damage to the surrounding areas, but had a particularly dangerous effect on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. In response to the initial earthquake, the operating units at Fukushima were automatically shutdown (Hindmarsh, 5). The 15 m tsunami, which hit the plant, flooded it under several meters of water. This combined caused the entire plant to suffer a complete power blackout. It was not believed that the plant would lose all power, nor that a tsunami of such size could occur (Hindmarsh 28). Resulting from the loss of power, existing cooling functions for the reactors were shut down also and as a result, fuel in the core was damaged, and radioactive material was released into the environment (Hindmarsh 12). Charles Perrow's Normal Accident Theory (NAT) proposes "a framework for characterizing complex technological systems such as air traffic, marine traffic, chemical plants, dams, and especially nuclear power plants according to their riskiness" (“Normal Accidents” 5). Perrow suggests that systems that are highly complex and tightly coupled create the environment for ‘normal accidents’ to occur; that is, accidents that are inevitable (“Normal Accidents” 88-89).

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

There are currently over 435 commercial nuclear power reactors operable in 31 countries, and about 70 more reactors are under construction. According to World Nuclear Organization, fourteen of them have been classified as accidents where the public has been exposed to large amounts of radiation. The most devastating of these incidents was the core meltdown of reactor 4 at Chernobyl, better known as the Chernobyl disaster. Today, I am going to tell three things about the Chernobyl. First, I am going to tell you what the Chernobyl disaster was. Second, why the explosion happened. Lastly, what the Chernobyl was after the explosion.

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

Fukushima was the second worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world. TEPCO reported that 300 tons of contaminated water had leaked from a storage tank into the ocean. Cod and pollock are important because of their global demand. Japanese cod has tested positive for radiation contamination a number of times since the Fukushima disaster, not only in the Fukushima area, but in many other areas too. 70% of domestic product comes from the Pacific Ocean. This has led to a lot of negative information circulating through Japanese society and a shortage of positive information (or at least an indifference to it. Negative information is known to have a stronger impact on consumers than positive. Very few people are aware of the Japanese government’s

The most recent major incident with nuclear power took place in Fukushima. Some people believe that the explosion of nuclear reactor the tragedy is similar to the detonation of a thermal nuclear device and this is a common misunderstanding: nuclear reactor cannot possibly explode in the way atomic bomb does because the reactors utilize only slow neutrons. After the Chernobyl disaster, with improvements in emergency procedures and plant designs, the fission process can now be effectively moderated. When the Fukushima reactors were hit by the tsunami, the fission reaction was shut off successfully. However, the real problem is that even if the fission process has been shut off, the core still must be continuously cooled because the naturally

Uranium is a silvery radioactive metal that consists of 99% uranium- 238 and 1% uranium- 235. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissionable fuel (a fuel that can sustain a chain reaction). Uranium-235’s chain reaction is controlled using neutron. The heat generated by the fuel is used to create steam to turn turbines and generate electrical power. Uranium is an important element because it provides us with nuclear fuel to generate electricity in nuclear power stations. Uranium if formed by