Chernobyl



On April 26 1986 the Chernobyl disaster was an uncontrolled nuclear power accident in Reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union).It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Without a containment building it caused a powerful explosion that released a significant amount of core material, resulting in a death toll of 56 as well as estimated 4,000 additional cancer fatalities among 600,000 people exposed to elevated doses of radiation.

=Causes of Chernobyl Accident= It is thought that the reason for the accident is the unexperienced staff. The normal, experienced staff at the plant were planning a test on reactor #4. The test was complicated but they were trained enough to perform it. The first thing working against them is that another power plant on the circuit went down, so Chernobyl was producing more power than usual to compensate. Then the day staff never got to the test. No-one ever told the night time staff not to do it, so they tried to perform the test. Things started getting our of control. They tried to use an emergency shutdown mechanism that failed. Now they had an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Because the staff didn't have the right Geiger counters, they knew the radiation levels were high, but didn't know the true danger they were in. They stayed for about 3 days after the explosion trying to pump water into the reactor to control it. They died weeks later from radiation poisoning. That is what is said to have caused the chernobyl disaster.

Effects of the Chernobyl Disaster
There were many effects on people from all over. Many people who were at the plant trying to get the situation under control died from radiation poisoning within a few weeks of the accident.The people hired to clean up the chernobyl accident also had similar problems as they did not have proper protection. Now this plant and surrounding towns are abandoned and no-one can enter without permission from the government. This disaster shows just how bad the effects of a nuclear disaster are. Groundwater radiation was almost at an unsafe level all over Russia. Many other countries were effected when clouds of radioactive smoke traveled to their country and then fell and caused them radiation problems. This disaster is something everyone should learn from. There may be even more negative effects of the chernobyl disaster that we don't know about yet. ====

Links
www.world-nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html

www.chernobyl.info/

villageofjoy.com/chernobyl-today-a-creepy-story-told-in-pictures/

news.nationalgeographic.com/.../0425_060425_chernobyl.html