Chernobyl, Ukraine – Nuclear Power Plant MeltdownEssay Preview: Chernobyl, Ukraine – Nuclear Power Plant MeltdownReport this essayChernobyl, UkraineNuclear Power Plant MeltdownThe accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukrainian produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. The accident, which occurred on April 26, 1986, was the worst nuclear power accident in history. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, slowing its expansion for a number of years, while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive.

Chernobyl, Ukraine ᾋ Nuclear Power Plant MeltdownA report presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency on April 23, 1985, concludes:
The plant exploded more than five times in two separate incidents and killed more than one-sixth of the entire plant area, resulting in destruction in the surrounding area.

Russian National Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is on fire. The nuclear reactor suffered the fissile material at 8.8,000 feet (4.872 m) under Chernobyl, and 1,300 feet (800 m) into the ground.

In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency on March 27, 1986, the Ukrainian National Security Service said:
The reactor may be closed when it no longer provides electricity to the country.

The U.S. Department of Energy, in response to a request that Congress take action to end “over-investment in nuclear power”;

This article concerns an article in the May 12, 1986 issue of the NRC about the Chernobyl disaster, which was published by Greenpeace, a U.S.-funded international environmental journalism organization. The article reports on the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.[/p>

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This paragraph was added in 2003.

This article was changed through the 2011 NRC Bulletin by an additional editor.

This article was changed through the 2011 NRC Bulletin by an additional editor.

This document is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s annual report on the probability of human climate change.

This document is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s annual report on the probability of human climate change.

This document has been reproduced here in part with permission from the American Geophysical Union, National Climatic Data Center’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Science Foundation, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. More information about this page can be found on www.geoengineering.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Climate_Report.pdf

Chernobyl, Ukraine ᾋ Nuclear Power Plant MeltdownA report presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency on April 23, 1985, concludes:
The plant exploded more than five times in two separate incidents and killed more than one-sixth of the entire plant area, resulting in destruction in the surrounding area.

Russian National Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is on fire. The nuclear reactor suffered the fissile material at 8.8,000 feet (4.872 m) under Chernobyl, and 1,300 feet (800 m) into the ground.

In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency on March 27, 1986, the Ukrainian National Security Service said:
The reactor may be closed when it no longer provides electricity to the country.

The U.S. Department of Energy, in response to a request that Congress take action to end “over-investment in nuclear power”;

This article concerns an article in the May 12, 1986 issue of the NRC about the Chernobyl disaster, which was published by Greenpeace, a U.S.-funded international environmental journalism organization. The article reports on the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.[/p>

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This article is part of the Climate Change Report series and a companion work in Climate & Energy News. You will automatically be redirected to the latest climate news update when your subscriptions close. To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” link below

This paragraph was added in 2003.

This article was changed through the 2011 NRC Bulletin by an additional editor.

This article was changed through the 2011 NRC Bulletin by an additional editor.

This document is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s annual report on the probability of human climate change.

This document is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s annual report on the probability of human climate change.

This document has been reproduced here in part with permission from the American Geophysical Union, National Climatic Data Center’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Science Foundation, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. More information about this page can be found on www.geoengineering.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Climate_Report.pdf

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was one of the largest in the USSR. It was located just outside of the town of Pripyat, about 18 km northwest of the town of Chernobyl. The plant was only 16 km from the border between the Ukrainian and Belorussian republics and roughly 110 km north of Kiev, the capital and largest city of Ukraine. Construction of the plant began in the 1970s, with reactor No. 1 commissioned in 1977, followed by No. 2 (1978), No. 3 (1981), and No. 4 (1983). Each reactor had an electricity-generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts, and the four together produced about 10 percent of Ukraines electricity at the time of the accident. Two more reactors (No. 5 and No. 6, also capable of producing 1,000 megawatts each) were under construction at the time of the accident. On the morning of April 26, 1986, reactor No. 4 was operating at very low capacity (6 to 7 percent) during a planned shutdown. Plant personnel intended to monitor the performance of turbine generators, which supplied electric power for the plants own operation, during a changeover from standard to a backup source of power. The reactors design made it unstable at low power, and the operators were careless about safety precautions during the test. After a sudden power surge, two explosions destroyed the reactor core and blasted a large hole in the roof of the reactor building. Radioactive debris moved up through this hole to heights of 1 km.

An estimated 100 to 150 million curies of radiation (primarily radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium) escaped into the atmosphere before cleanup crews were able to bring the fires under control and stabilize the situation two weeks later. Prevailing winds carried the radioactivity northwest from the plant across Belorussia and into Poland and Sweden, where heightened radiation levels detected on April 28 first brought the accident to the worlds attention. Subsequently, from May 1 to 5, wind patterns shifted so that the bulk of radioactivity was carried more directly north and northeast, over Belorussia and southwestern Russia.

After the explosion, firefighters and other workers arrived on the scene in an attempt to contain the blast. To reduce emissions, the team bombarded the reactor with 5,000 metric tons of shielding material consisting of lead, boron, sand, and clay. A second concrete foundation was constructed under the reactor to prevent contamination of groundwater. Finally, workers erected an enormous concrete-and-steel shell over the damaged reactor to prevent radioactive materials, including gases and dust, from escaping.

Soviet officials placed the death toll at 2 (both workers killed during the explosion at the No. 4 reactor) but by mid-August changed the figure to 31, caused from acute radiation exposure during the cleanup. The No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, in fact, were returned to service in November 1986 and the slightly damaged No. 3 unit was restarted in December 1987.

More than 100,000 people were evacuated

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