The catastrophe that occurred in Chernobyl changed how the world views nuclear energy. The meltdown devastated the surrounding environment leaving it largely uninhabitable. Not only did this accident affect the surrounding area, but the carnage spread well away from the reactor. This catastrophe showed the country that changes in emergency preparedness was necessary. Not only that, but, this showed really how little mankind understood about nuclear power. This disaster also changed how countries around the world looked at nuclear energy, and the risk it possesses.
Nuclear energy is the process of using the natural decay of certain elements to produce heat that can be converted into usable mechanic energy. Traditional energy production processes and methods of burning fossil fuel plants are limited by the natural reserves of these resources. Fossil fuels are a product of the fossilization process that converts organic matter such as prehistoric plants and vegetation into hydrocarbons. That process requires missions of years to occur. Unfortunately, that means that the available reserves are finite and not capable of being increased.
In addition, burning fossil fuels produces pollutants that can negatively affect the environment and seriously endanger life. Conversely, nuclear energy is not depended on scares resources and does not generate pollution (McGill n.p.) There are positives and negatives with any energy source that mankind chooses to use. Coal emits pollutants that contribute to climate change, whereas hydropower can disrupt rover flows and place man-made obstacles in the way of life surrounding the river. However nuclear energy, some have claimed, is the more hazardous and dangerous source of energy and can cause irreversible damage if not taken care of properly.
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Nuclear power is the only energy source that has the capability of killing a whole area of the world and could make it uninhabitable for centuries. Thus, the more important con about nuclear reactors is that they can suffer from meltdowns than can and will cause severe damage not only to use but to the physical environment that it surrounds (McGill n.p.).The most substantial benefits of nuclear energy are that it does not contribute directly to polluting the environment and that it eliminates the reliance on foreign nations for their oil. The most substantial risks associated with nuclear energy were recently seen in Japan. When Nuclear reactors in nuclear power plants get destroyed, they act almost like an atomic bomb. They may threaten the life and welfare of everyone in their vicinity by releasing radioactive isotopes into the environment (McGill n.p.)
On April 26, 1986, operator error caused two explosions at Chernobyl unit four of the nuclear power station in the former Soviet Union. This was a direct byproduct of the cold war isolation and the instability of any and all security. The reason this incident stands out among all other nuclear reactor accidents is due to the amount of radiation emitted into the atmosphere. However, this didn’t dismantle the nuclear business as you might think. Rather, it prompted more safety measures to prevent any events like this one to ever happen again (McGill n.p.)
The Chernobyl power plant is located roughly 81 miles north of Kiev, Ukraine and around 12 miles south of the Belarus. It was comprised of four reactors, reactor one and two were completed in 1977 and reactor three and four were completed in 1983. A lake was made south of the reactors alongside the Pripyat River to provide a cooling source. The environment surrounding the plant is wooded and wasn’t highly populated. Within an eighteen-mile radius of the plant, the entire populace was around one hundred and twenty thousand (McGill n.p.).
About one hundred and forty people were reported having radiation illness along with the death of thirty workers at the plant. And it compromised the health of millions of people who lived in places where soil pollution was high. Also, almost a million people who took part in any sort of clean up were exposed to radiation and their condition was consistently checked by medical professionals. Due to the amount of radioactive material released, similar disasters’ effects aren’t confined to the site, but rather can reach far past the country where the accident occurred.
Meaning, something like this has international consequences and therefore all countries must be alert and ready for these types of hazards (McGill n.p.). The accident that damaged the number four reactor killed thirty workers and firemen that helped with the aftermath within a couple of months, along with many other casualties later. One person died immediately and another died in the hospital due to the injuries he sustained. However, the silent killer, as seen in Barefoot Gen, was radiation. Nearly two hundred and fifty people who cleaned up the carnage were identified having acute radiation syndrome. Twenty-eight people died due to their exposure to radioactive fallout.
And twenty more died within the following seventeen years, however, their deaths could not be linked to radiation. As the radioactive material spread through the air, the nearby population was affected. Large amounts of adolescents soon developed thyroid cancer directly due to iodine fallout. Furthermore, a considerable amount of Russia and Ukraine and surrounding locations were affected by the radiation (Kuo 15-19). To put out the fire and stop further destruction, mainly stopping any more escape of fission material, sand was used to encase the reactor. Following the sand to further enclose the reactor, it was additionally entombed in a solid sarcophagus to prevent any other radioactive leakage.
To decrease radioactive pollution, one square mile surrounding the plant was deforested. And later the three remaining reactors started up again. The Soviet Union then revealed what had happened in August of that same year (McGill n.p.). Following the accident, an eighteen-mile boundary surrounding the reactor was shut down, the only people allowed near the reactor were individuals probing what remained of the reactors looking for answers. More than two hundred thousand civilians had to relocate due to the pollution. The town of Pripyat that housed many plant workers were evacuated in a matter of days after the incident (McGill n.p.).
In the aftermath of the largest nuclear disaster in the world, Chernobyl caused a huge shift in the way nuclear power and safety is perceived. This incident instilled fear into the minds of the general population that every nuclear reactor is a bomb waiting to go off. Rationally, people said they didn’t want nuclear reactors anywhere near them. As a result, the growth of nuclear power nearly stopped, but in the coming years, people began to realize that the location of the reactor didn’t matter, and the destruction is capable of spreading across the globe.
That led the International Atomic Energy Agency to create provisions on nuclear energy like peer reviews, upgrades in safety measurements, and global recognized International Atomic Energy Agency standards to ensure a catastrophe like this will never happen again (Kyne 22-23). The USSR thought they were able to handle the disaster until they asked the world health organization to access the damage done to the environment and the health of those affected. Following, the International Chernobyl Project was created to managed visits to the afflicted areas to completely record the radioactive damage and ways to help.
The questions put forth by the International Atomic Energy Agency asked many questions which displayed how little they understood and how worried they were. The World Health Organization started the International Project on the Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident which provided twenty million dollars to help the poor now crumbled USSR, mostly provided by Japan. Then in October of 1991, the World Health Organization began studying the effects of ionizing radiation. They learned more about how damaging it is and started to become increasingly worried for the affected countries.
As years passed multiple organizations became involved in helping with the Chernobyl disaster, like the Red Cross helping those affected and many others that helped sustain research (Sanders 45-47). People also came to realize that no matter how well a reactor is made and how carefully it is watched over, nuclear disasters can still occur. A good example of this is the Fukushima power plant accident. On March 11th, 2011, an earthquake occurred causing a 15-meter tsunami to devastate three nuclear reactors.
This damaged the cooling and power supply, practically disabling them and the cores began to heat up. Within the next few days each core almost completely melted leading to radioactive material to be released. This shows that no matter how safe a reactor might seem, it is always possible that some outside force or anomaly will cause damage. The International Atomic Energy Agency, along with many others, began to plan for how to respond to nuclear accidents. There also has to be a plan to deal with the masses of people who would need to be relocated in the event of something like this, temporally or permanently. The most important thing the Chernobyl accident has taught us is that facts are what saves lives.
There were numbers of cases where precise numbers of resources were being spent unnecessarily because the populous was in economic distress and resettlements by panicked people (Blakers 10-12). Safety systems have failed is various of different ways. To truly see where the most mistakes were made we must look back on when man first discovered this kind of technology. First the exigencies of war certainly caused some failures, like in the United States’ attempt to beat Germany in devolving the nuclear bomb, the first reactor and plant was working for less than two years after the possibility of controlled nuclear energy was discovered, when relativity very little was known about correctly harnessing this type of energy.
Next, Ignorance and carelessness about proper care and disposal of radioactive materials were definitely factors in the overall failure of safety protocols. Risks posed to the public health were monitored and otherwise managed according to pre-nuclear knowledge, despite a growing realization of the destructive power and gapless knowledge about the consequences of radioactive material. This shows how far mankind has come in their understanding, with every mistake we give ourselves an opportunity to learn something we did not previously know (Kuo 30-34).
The Chernobyl disaster was arguably the worst in history, a meltdown caused by human error that led to the contamination of hundreds of thousands of people and killing thousands causing widespread panic. The efforts to help and aid affected countries was sporadic and uncoordinated, leading to wasted time and resources and more suffering. After tragedy struck, the nuclear power industry almost collapsed, and few new reactors were being produced. However, we don’t give up, we needed to find answers.
Within the coming centuries, numerous factors along with a new generation of minds revived the prospects of nuclear power. So, organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency strived for greatness. And through trial and error mankind has learned many valuable lessons. Most importantly, we have learned that accurate and precise information is an effective tool to help relieve panic and misled efforts to help. If a disaster like Chernobyl or Fukushima ever happens again the world will be ready to respond as best it can.
References
- World Nuclear Association: Chernobyl Accident
- National Center for Biotechnology Information: The Chernobyl Accident—Lessons Learned for the 21st Century
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: Nuclear Power and the Environment
- World Nuclear Association: Thorium
- OECD Nuclear Energy Agency: The Nuclear Data Portal
