The Mystery of Chernobyl Disaster : What was happened

 

After the second world war a lot of money was invested by Soviet Union in making of the Nuclear Power Plant which was one in the Chernobyl one. Its official name was Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Powere Plant but was later renamed as Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Even though its name was so, it was built 16 km away from the small town of Chernobyl. 

Design:

• It had four nuclear reactor.
• It was one of the most advanced nuclear power plant of the Soviet Union established their.
• They all were of the design RBMK 1000.
• The first two reactor's operation was started in 1977.
• The third started in 1981.
• The fourth one started in 1983.
• The every reactor produced 1000 MV of energy and all four together can produce the 1/10 of total electricity need of whole Ukraine.

The disaster occurred in the 4rth power plant at the time of safety routine test. To push the water in pipes. The water needs to run constantly that was possible by the every minute supply electricity every minute. If the electricity went off the their were backup diesel generators, but they also need a time of 1-2 minutes to start. For this 1-2 minute their was a need of additional power source to ensure it working. To find the solution of this problem the makers of the plants said that the electricity for the extra time can be obtained by the leftover steam in the turbines. For this same a test was going on on the night of 26 April 1986. 

Their were many test done before but in the reactor number 4 the tests were never being successful. The workers had hope that this would all compete this night. The test was delayed from 25 april to 26th April because of some reasons.

The workers were instructed to produce the electricoty from 1600 MV to 700 MV butwhile taking the rods inside the electricity began producing of just 30 MV. The Shift Supervisor instructed the workers to take the control rods out but the electricity began producing was near 200 MV. The instructor then further said to speed up the reaction and then 8 rods were left out of the 211 in the reactor. This was a violation of the rule as it was clearly stated that on any condition there should not less than 15 rods in the reactor. 

The reaction began to speed up and the water which was acting as a coolant in the reaction began turning into steam and further then contributing to the speeding of the reaction.

The Xenon present in the reactor was slowing down it but the Xenon also evaporated that led further more speeded up of the reaction. This all resulted in excessive power surge and then immediately the control rods were made to go inside the reactor to slow it down. 

Their was a major mistake in the reactor which is that the body of the control rod was made up of the Boron but the tip was made up of the Graphite which acts as the moderator in the reaction. This made the reaction to speed up and cause a blast. The core started to melt and the 1000 ton of lid placed above the reactor blows up making the reactive metals to release in the atmosphere. 

Due to this blast 2 people were killed instantly, 100+ radioactive elements and 192 tonnes of Uranium went in the atmosphere.

Due to the fire alarms fire fighters came who thought that it was a normal fire but because it was caused by graphite. This all made the helicopters to come and drop clay, sand, and boron. Later the fire fighters starve to death and release of cancer. One of the helicopters blasted and 4 died in the blast.

Even though the fire was stopped a large amount of heat was escaping through the plant. There was a huge highly reactive water reservoir below the reactor. If the heat escaped to the reservoir and the water will instantly be converted to steam their will again a blast. 

To control this their was a need of real life heroes who would dive in the reservoir and drain the water out. The heroes come to be three Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov. The three dive in the tank and guided by a lamp locate the valves and then open them all. The experts say that if this third blast occurred, it could have killed millions of the people and make whole of European continent uninhabitable for the next 500,000 years. 

The good news was that the three survived. However, due to a heart attack Boris Baranov died but the other two are still alive. Their were more than two lakhs liquidors or people who cleaned the radio active waste of the area. The Soviet Union tried to coverup this all this event but they were unsuccessful. Many countries also blame Soviet Union for this also. The area in the radius of 30 km was made restricted and no one was allowed to enter it. For further security a structure named sarcophagus was made above it but was not for the long term planning. The another structure was placed above it in 2019 and the total cost of the cover was $3 Billion. This time it was made for a long term planning and can last for 100 years. 

The Effects

• According to the report of United Nations 20,000 children got the thyroid cancer.
• The trees near this area due to the exposure of radiation became of the red color and making the forests to be known as the Red Forests.
• The Soviet Union cost 235 Billion dollars to manage the situation.

However the present day situation is well better than any other one.

A post by Devesh