The Russian Woodpecker: 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).

On April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a catastrophic meltdown that emitted radioactive material into the atmosphere, killing 31 people.

In comparison to John Gaddis, May’s book has more social and domestic view on the Cold War. Gaining statistics and knowledge of the individuals that lived

On Saturday, 26 April 1986 a reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant near Pripyat, Russia has a sudden power surge which caused mass damage. The Power Plant tried for immediate

Labor camps, executions, and starvation killed millions of Ukrainians. "The Ukrainian genocide remains largely unknown. After 76 years, the blood of the victims still cries for truth, and the guilt of the perpetrators for exposure”." Ukraine was the last place anyone would have expected a famine. Ukraine was known for their various foods and supply. "The Ukraine is the richest province of the Russian empire.... The soil is a black loam.... I think I have never seen such deep plowing as these peasants give their ground." who would have thought that in just a matter of time millions of people would die of starvation in Ukraine because of one man's orders. (Perloff,

When the tsunami caused by the Tohoku earthquake caused the reactors to automatically shut down, build-up of hydrogen pressure began inside, and would eventually cause an explosion. The reactors, at the same time, were overheating, and the facility had tried to cool it off with local water. This did not prove to be successful, and the extreme heat, mixed with the high air pressure, set off a series of explosions. The explosions, along with steam leaks from the reactors, sent radiation all over the surrounding area. This had caused the government to issue a twelve mile evacuation radius around the power plant, and no-one was allowed into the area. Today, some parts of Fukushima are opening back up, and are being deemed safe to live in, five years after the

2. (Relevancy)After spending most of my life in the Ukraine, and learning about my country’s history as a kid, there is one event that caught my attention and has always stuck with me to this day

Most people believe that Chernobyl contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. This explosion caused social and economic problems in the Soviet Union. Stated in an issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Chernobyl led to “…efforts of environmental groups to puncture the official silence surrounding the disaster was what led, indirectly, to the birth of glasnost during Gorbachev’s tenure and the collapse of the totalitarian containment vessel.” Multiple individuals believe that the Soviet’s reasoning for not protecting the citizens of Ukraine is that they have a “…deeply entrenched propensity for secrecy and mendacity and its general disregard for the health and safety of its citizens.” As a result of glasnost, which is a Soviet policy of being open with their public, individuals could see how the USSR was handling the disaster in the Ukraine. Several documents were hidden away but with the coming of glasnost the “curtain of secrecy” had been removed and the secrets of Chernobyl had been released. By obtaining these documents individuals are now able to see how the Soviet Union tried to cover up Chernobyl and how unprepared they were to help innocent civilians. Therefore, many believe that Chernobyl was a major contributing factor in the fall of Soviet Communism. President Gorbachev stated “…the Chernobyl accident was a more important factor in the fall of the Soviet Union than Perestroika…” Chernobyl is suspected to be the major downfall of the Communist government. The Soviet Union was “robbed of the opportunity to keep news of the accident from reaching the public, secrecy quickly became a massive liability that undermined Soviet citizens’ faith in their government.” With the Soviet people not having faith in their government, the people started to stray from the government causing the USSR to

There are currently 442 active nuclear power reactors worldwide according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Of all of the reactors worldwide, 14 have been classified as accidents where the public has been exposed to radiation. The most devastating of these incidents was the core meltdown of reactor 4 at Chernobyl, better known as the Chernobyl disaster.

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

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 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

The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).