THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER

THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER

-       By Dibya Rashmi

-       Batch(2k19), Deptt. of chemical Engg.

-       BIT Sindri, Dhanbad

April 26, 1986

One of the darkest days of the world was April 26, 1986 when the catastrophic disaster happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine due to the explosion of the Nuclear Power Reactor. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately skilled worker. The resulting steam and fires explosion released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.

What happened?

In 1986, April 26 under the supervision of Anatoly Dyatlov, a deputy chief engineer, a safety issue was being tested without following the main protocols which were necessary while doing the tests. Due to their negligence, the power of the reactor started increasing simultaneously and the rods which were used in the reactors became very hot. Eventually, the scientists decided to put the rods in water to decrease the temperature of rods, but as the rods were very hot, all the water in the tank evaporated resulting immense combination of steam and heat which ultimately led to the explosion of Nuclear reactor and the main core. This successively resulted unleash of the radioactive materials from that core whose radiations scattered into the entire atmosphere.

Effects after the incident:  

That radioactive dust in Chernobyl which causes cancer, scattered around 30 km and in other countries also. The nearest city, Pripyat had to be evacuated due to that incident. After the Chernobyl incident, the population of Pripyat fell to zero and still its population remains zero. Some scientists went there to unfold the radiation level within the atmosphere and found that the radiation level was higher than the most of the scales of the monitors. Radiation breaks the Chemical bonds between DNA due to which the cells are no more instructed, that results into random growing of cells without any instructions that is called Cancer and radiation damages these DNAs.

Environmental Damages:                                  

These radiations conjointly affected the trees, the forest round the power station had become unfruitful that forest is known as The Red Forest. Although after 34 years, the radiation present at the basement of the plant is still present, there is a junk of cement and other residues that is at much radiated, that any one standing at that place, without touching any of the junks can die within 1 hour due to intense radiation. These mass junks are known as elephant's foot and these junks are still actively releasing radiation and these are now packed by a hard shield to avoid the leaking of the radiation. For 10 days following the April 26 explosion, the ruinous Chernobyl reactor continuing to unleash major quantities of radioactive substances. The foremost important radio-isotopes were iodine-131, caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium radioisotopes. Larger than 200 000 km² of Europe were contaminated. Over 70 % of this area lies in the three most affected countries, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine though the radioactive material was distributed inconsistently. As an example, radioactive deposits were larger in areas where it was raining when the contaminated air masses passed. Also, because radioactive strontium and plutonium particles are heavier than many other radioactive elements, they were deposited within 100 km of the collapsed nuclear power reactor. There has been no clear proof of any measurable increase in radiation-induced adverse health effects in European countries. The immediate and short-term effects resulting from heavy fallout exposure include radiation sickness and cataracts and many visionless effects. Long term effects are thyroid cancer, mainly in teenagers and children, and leukaemia among exposed workers. The accident has also had so many psychosocial effects. It was really a non-forgettable catastrophic horror disaster, which affect lots of families in short and long term.

 

That's all about that horror incident.

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