What Went Wrong With Chernobyl 

In 1986, the unexpected happened in Chernobyl.  Two explosions due to poor construction and maintenance wreaked havoc on Chernobyl and on surrounding populations.  Now, scientists and engineers are able to pinpoint the small errors that led up to this monumental incident, the only incident in the history of commercial nuclear power that caused radiation-related deaths.  

Chernobyl was located about 80 miles north of Kiev, Ukraine and contained four nuclear reactors. All four units had been constructed by 1983 using the RBMK-1000 design and two more units of the same type were being constructed.  Beside the plant, a manmade lake was used for the cooling water needed within these units.  Within 18 miles of Chernobyl, the total population at the time of the accident was between 115,000 and 135,000.

In Chernobyl 4 in the middle of the night on April 26, 1986, a routine test was done to test the emergency water cooling system, making the unit very unstable.  Within seconds, steam as the result of an uncontrolled reaction began to build up as water flowed into the core from a hole in the emergency cooling circuit.  As pressure began to build, the steam blew the roof off of the plant’s reactor.  When the roof blasted off, radiation and chunks of radioactive debris were released into the atmosphere and the surrounding environment.  In fact, according to History.com,  “this explosion released 400 times more radiation than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.”  Seconds later, another explosion released additional fuel causing a fire on Chernobyl 3.  After this, automatic safety systems were turned off before the test so they had not been activated during the explosion.  

From this disaster, according to a study done by the World Nuclear Association, two plant workers and 28 others died of radiation exposure while 350,000 people, including the town of Pripyat, two miles away from Chernobyl, were evacuated to be relocated.  In the following years, the accident at Chernobyl was attributed to 5,000 thyroid cancers that resulted in 15 fatalities.  Still, health effects from Chernobyl remain unclear.  According to a 2005 report from the United Nations that was reported in History.com, “up to 9,000 people could eventually die from cancer deaths linked to radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident.” 

According to Adam Higginbotham, a journalist and author of Midnight in Chernobyl, “There were design flaws, there were decades of ignored warnings of minor failures and discovered flaws, there was human error on the night of the accident itself . . . . And it was this chain of events that really went back 10 to 20 years that ultimately resulted in the accident. . .”  Besides the operator's poor decisions, they had no policies or proper education they were given on manning the plant.  Operators had not been made aware of the characteristics of RBMK models that made low power operation dangerous and did not know what margins needed to be maintained.  In addition, issues in the design of control rods caused a great power surge when they were inserted into the reactor, causing rapid steam production and an increase in pressure.  While the boron in these control rods slowed down reactions, the rods were tipped with graphite that sped up reactions.  If the staff at Chernobyl had been better trained, if the Soviets had not been so adverse to spending money, and if minor design flaws had been improved upon and fixed, it is possible that the explosion at Chernobyl could have been easily prevented.  

Works Cited:

Britzky, H. (2021, February 12). What really happened the night of the Chernobyl disaster, according to a new Army podcast. In Task & Purpose. Retrieved from https://taskandpurpose.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-army-doomsday-clock-podcast/

Chernobyl Accident 1986. (2022, February). In World Nuclear Association. Retrieved from https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx

History.com Editors. (2021, April 23). Chernobyl . In History. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/chernobyl

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day 26 April. (n.d.). In United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/observances/chernobyl-remembrance-day/background