Kinley
Kinley
Mr. De groot
English 7th
March 5, 2024
Chernobyl
The radiation was in the air everywhere; making people evacuate quickly and taking all their belongings, and all you hear is shouting and screaming loud sirens and buses. There were many deaths that day and you never know if some can make it through the sickness, but you know 31 people might have died from this very day. The town of Pripyat was made for the people that had the luxury, but when the explosion happened the beautiful town of Pripyat was destroyed with radiation. The Reactor 4 explosion at Chernobyl caused a major impact on natural ecosystems and people.
The cause of the explosion was created by major design fails. The design fail was related to low energy power. According to Chernobyl-World Nuclear Association, “The design characteristics of the reactor were such that substantial damage to even three or four fuel assemblies would – and did – result in the destruction of the reactor.” This means the design of the reactor had a bad design with lack of care and safety things. The builders might have built the reactor so fast that they did not notice the many mistakes that had been made in the design. After the explosion, the officials considered the sarcophagus was a very quick fix to stop the radiation going all over in the air. A sarcophagus is a big concrete box that has no openings if it is used right. The sarcophagus was made of concrete to keep the radioactive air out of the ecosystem. The sarcophagus is still strongly built up today and keeps the air clear in that area.
There was a big amount of deaths after the explosion, but from radiation sickness too. Surprisingly there were only 2 workers killed by the explosion of Reactor 4. There were 30 operators killed within the next three months, as well as twenty-eight firemen and emergency clean-up workers after the explosion due to the radiation sickness. Radiation sickness is where you get all the radiation in your oxygen and that is all you are breathing it can cause to get sick and sometimes die. The design failure did cause some emergency problems that they should’ve put into the build.
(Chernobyl-World Nuclear Association
Frequently asked Chernobyl questions)
The Chernobyl disaster had a major impact on the people. There was a lot of radiation exposure with people and helpers. The workers were picked up within seconds to minimize their radiation exposure. Most of them died, but the nurses and doctors were very busy and harmed by the radiation. For example, when the firemen were immediately brought to the hospital after touching bricks which were highly radioactive, after touching the bricks their hands were burned immediately There was also a huge amount of radiation on their uniforms and equipment since they were right next to the building; The doctors had to take off their uniforms and brought them all the way to the basement (The uniforms still are very radioactive and dangerous to go near them). The doctors didn’t know how radioactive the clothes were so when they touched them with their bare hands they were immediately exposed to the radiation and most of them died. The radiation would cause health effects like cancer and more illnesses. One of the radioactive areas from the explosion today is in Ukraine called “The Red Forest.” They named it this because the high radiation levels changed the colors of the leaves red. The radiation levels of the Red Forest is 800 microroentgens and the areas to be safe are 0 - 50 microroentgens. For just being in the Red Forest for 2 seconds you may get radiation sickness due to the levels of radiation.
The officials immediately evacuated the area after finding out what the explosion was. The whole town of Pripyat (population 49,360), that lay just three kilometers from the power plant, was fully evacuated 36 hours after the incident. Sixty seven thousand people were immediately evacuated from their homes and were relocated. (This is a real story from a kid that lived in Pripyat, Ukraine.) There was a kid that lived in Pripyat and asked his parents when they said pack quick “Where are we going?” The parents said to him “We are going on a little trip,” but without knowing they were never coming back. In total 200,000 people are believed to be relocated to a new home. After the area was cleared out and safe to go back and visit some of the people that were evacuated went back to live in their homes. There was a lot of death in the explosion from the radiation, but only just from the explosion were two workers killed by the reactor 4. There were 30 operators killed within the next three months, as well as twenty-eight firemen and emergency clean-up workers after the explosion due to the radiation sickness.
( Frequently asked Chernobyl questions) (Chernobyl: Disaster, Response & Fallout)
According to “Backgrounder on Chernobyl,” “The designing of the reactor systems properly on the drawing board during construction correctly maybe might’ve not caused the explosion and some other problems. For maintaining proper procedures and controls for normal operations and emergencies' ' If they designed the reactor correctly they would have not had as many problems as they had and could have resolved the problems without having the explosion. The discussion among the officials and the U.S. NRC after the explosion was about safety measures that the builders and officials should’ve gone over during construction. The reactors at Chernobyl were very high-powered reactors; the reactors used graphite to help maintain the huge chain reaction and cooled the reactor’s core with lots of water. Since the accident, the other three Chernobyl reactors, and an additional Russian RBMK and both Lithuanian RBMKs have permanently shut down just in case they had another explosion and release more radiation in the air. All of these reactors had similar designs, so just to be safe if the officials and builders didn’t go over the safety measure they shut them down.
The Nuclear power plant in Chernobyl caused not only a major impact on natural ecosystems, but the people that were staying in the area. This was a very major problem and it took a lot of help and time to get people out of the area and to make it safe again.
World Nuclear Association. Chernobyl-World Nuclear Association, World Nuclear Association, Apr. 2022, www.world-nuclear.org/press/press-statements.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
"Background on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant." U.S. NRC, U.S NRC, 1 Mar. 2022, www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/chernobyl-bg.html. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.
International Atomic Energy Agency. Frequently Asked Chernobyl Questions, International Atomic Energy Agency, 2003-2005, www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/faqs.
A&E Television Network. Chernobyl: Disaster, Response & Fallout, A&E Television Network, 23 Apr. 2021, www.history.com/topics/1980s/chernobyl.
"Red Forest." Youtube.com. WION. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/slqQXLJGtdY/maxresdefault.jpg. accessed on 21 March, 2024.
"Where was Affected." Reddit.com. Reddit. https://i.redd.it/gf6nacqr2al81.jpg. accessed on 21 March 2024
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Image from WION