TABLE OF CONTENT

Content Page

1. Introduction 2

2. Nuclear Power plant 2

3. The Effected Zone

4. Chronology of accident

5. Victims of the accident

6. Causes

7. Consequence

8. Precaution and Safety today

9. Reference

1
INTRODUCTION
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster began early in the early hours of Saturday 26 April 1986
within the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. An explosion and fire released large quantities of
radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and
Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is one of only
two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the
Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011)

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Nuclear plants, like plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, produce electricity by
boiling water into steam. This steam then turns turbines to produce electricity. The difference
is that nuclear plants do not burn anything. Instead, they use uranium fuel, consisting of solid
ceramic pellets, to produce electricity through a process called fission.

Nuclear power plants obtain the heat needed to produce steam through a physical
process. This process, called fission, entails the splitting of atoms of uranium in a nuclear
reactor. The uranium fuel consists of small, hard ceramic pellets that are packaged into long,
vertical tubes. Bundles of this fuel are inserted into the reactor. [Gunther Kessler]

At the time of the Chernobyl accident, on 26 April 1986, the Soviet Nuclear Power
Programme was based mainly upon two types of reactors, the WWER, a pressurised light-
water reactor, and the RBMK, a graphite moderated light-water reactor. While the WWER type
of reactor was exported to other countries, the RBMK design was restricted to republics within
the Soviet Union.

The Chernobyl Power Complex, lying about 130 km north of Kiev, Ukraine, and about
20 km south of the border with Belarus (Figure 1), consisted of four nuclear reactors of the
RBMK-1000 design, Units 1 and 2 being constructed between 1970 and 1977, while Units 3
and 4 of the same design were completed in 1983 (IA86). Two more RBMK reactors were
under construction at the site at the time of the accident. Chernobyl power station with these
four reactors combined produced about 10% of total Ukraine’s electricity. To the South-east of
the plant, an artificial lake of some 22𝑘𝑚2 , situated beside the river Pripyat, a tributary of the
Dniepr, was constructed to provide cooling water for the reactors.

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  REACTOR USED

Figure 1: RBMK 1000 reactor

The RBMK-1000 (Figure 1) is a Soviet designed and built graphite moderated pressure
tube type reactor, using slightly enriched (2% 235U) uranium dioxide fuel. It is a boiling light
water reactor, with direct steam feed to the turbines, without an intervening heat-exchanger.
Water pumped to the bottom of the fuel channels boils as it progresses up the pressure tubes,
producing steam which feeds two 500 MWe [megawatt electrical] turbines. The water acts as
a coolant and also provides the steam used to drive the turbines. The vertical pressure tubes
contain the zirconium-alloy clad uranium-dioxide fuel around which the cooling water flows.
A specially designed refuelling machine allows fuel bundles to be changed without shutting
down the reactor. [Yu.A. Izrael]

The moderator, whose function is to slow down neutrons to make them more efficient
in producing fission in the fuel, is constructed of graphite. A mixture of nitrogen and helium is
circulated between the graphite blocks largely to prevent oxidation of the graphite and to
improve the transmission of the heat produced by neutron interactions in the graphite, from the
moderator to the fuel channel. The core itself is about 7 m high and about 12 m in diameter.
There are four main coolant circulating pumps, one of which is always on standby. The
reactivity or power of the reactor is controlled by raising or lowering 211 control rods, which,
when lowered, absorb neutrons and reduce the fission rate. The power output of this reactor is
3 200 MWt (megawatt thermal) or 1 000 MWe, although there is a larger version producing 1
500 MWe. Various safety systems, such as an emergency core cooling system and the
requirement for an absolute minimal insertion of 30 control rods, were incorporated into the
reactor design and operation.

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 The most important characteristic of the RBMK reactor is that it possesses a "positive
void coefficient". This means that if the power increases or the flow of water decreases, there
is increased steam production in the fuel channels, so that the neutrons that would have been
absorbed by the denser water will now produce increased fission in the fuel. However, as the
power increases, so does the temperature of the fuel, and this has the effect of reducing the
neutron flux (negative fuel coefficient). The net effect of these two opposing characteristics
varies with the power level. At the high power level of normal operation, the temperature effect
predominates, so that power excursions leading to excessive overheating of the fuel do not
occur. However, at a lower power output of less than 20% the maximum, the positive void
coefficient effect is dominant and the reactor becomes unstable and prone to sudden power
surges. This was a major factor in the development of the accident. [Neil E. Todreas]

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VICTIMS OF THE ACCIDENT

The facts divide upon the number of victims of the Chernobyl crash. Of course, the
direct victims were mostly the plant workers as well as the firemen, who received deadly doses
of radiation. Most of the direct victims are buried at the Mitino cemetery in Moscow. Each
body is sealed in concrete coffin, because of its high radiation.

Radioactive pollution spread mostly to the nearby town of Pripyat. This town was
erected for power plant workers only 3 km from the nuclear power plant. During the whole day
after the accident, the state officials had not warned the 50 thousand inhabitants about the threat
of radioactive pollution. Neither had they provided them with iodine pills helping against the
radiation. The power plant accident caused the level of radiation to exceed the natural levels
by thousand times. Evacuation of Pripyat took place the day after – on the afternoon of April
27, 1986. The inhabitants were allowed to take only necessary items with them, so as to return
in three days. By the time they were evacuated, they were all exposed to large amounts of
radiation.

Officially, the Chernobyl disaster affected lives of about 600,000 people. Official
documents divide the victims of radiation into several categories. For example, there is the
largest group of 200-240 thousand liquidators – rescuers, soldiers that have done
decontaminating works, firemen as well as police officers. Moreover, there is the group of
about 116 thousand inhabitants of the polluted areas near Chernobyl. Other 220 thousand
people were evacuated later from the polluted territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Still,
around 5 million people continue living in the polluted areas at the moment.

 PRIPYAT – CITY OF GHOSTS

Named after the nearby Pripyat River, Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970 in
northern Ukraine. Built to house the employees of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 4
kilometres away it became the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union. It was officially
proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of roughly 49,400 before being
evacuated in the days following the nuclear disaster in 1986. Pripyat now lies within the
Exclusion zone and remains uninhabited due to the high levels of radiation.

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 Figure 2: Panorama of central Pripyat, spring 1983.
During the evacuation women and children were collected first, but there was a serious
lack of busses in this part of the Soviet Union. The busses thus had to come from other parts
of the country to evacuate all 50 thousand inhabitants of Pripyat. The queue for the busses was
20 km long – which means that when the first bus was leaving Pripyat, the last bus couldn’t
even see the power plant chimneys from the distance away. In less than three hours the city
was empty, and this way it will stay forever.

Figure 3: The population of Pripyat are evacuated (Igor Kostin)

During the evacuation, the people of Pripyat were not allowed to take pets or cattle with
them, this was due to the fact that these animals could have had their furs contaminated with
radioactive dust. Also, to avoid contamination of the environment, Special Forces had to
liquidate every animal in the Chernobyl zone. On May 5th, the evacuation of people living in
the exclusion zone (30 km radius around Chernobyl) was finished. Today, the zone is forbidden
for people to enter, with the exception of ex-residents visiting cemeteries or those with a permit.
Around 100 people (mostly pensioners) live in this exclusion zone and all are all living here at
their own risk. Apart from these inhabitants, there are also around 3000 workers whom are in
special regime and take care of the Chernobyl zone itself. The same quantities of workers are
still working at the Chernobyl power plant, even though it has been completely shut-down since
2000. Besides liquidating the nuclear fuel, these workers also continue with the construction
of the new sarcophagus, planned to be completed in 2017.

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 Figure 4: Pripyat now, a City of Ghosts
Pripyat is now a city of ghosts and despite nobody living there, it has its own grace and
atmosphere. Pripyat did not end like the nearby villages which were buried under the ground
by bulldozers. The villages are commemorated only by boards on the road with their names
and a village map. Pripyat, as well as the whole 30-kilometer restricted zone is guarded by the
Police and Army. Despite this non-stop duty, it did not prevent robbery and plunder, mostly in
1991 after the Soviet Union dissolution when the Chernobyl zone was unwatched. The whole
city of Pripyat is plundered and there isn’t a single flat that has not been visited by thieves,
taking away all precious items to be found.

A military factory (named Jupiter) had been operating in the city until 1997; today it is
even more plundered and destroyed than the majority of flats or schools in the city. The city is
full of contemporary (that is 1980s) writings, signs, books or pictures, mostly with Lenin
motives. Lenin’s statements and portraits are virtually everywhere – in the Palace of Culture,
in the hotel, the hospital, at the police station, as well as in the schools and kindergarten. The
walk around the city is like a trip back to the past, the only difference is that there’s not a single
soul around, not even birds in the sky! One can only imagine the whole picture of the era when
the city was booming. The whole city was erected on a green field soon after the nuclear power
plant was built. Everything is made out of concrete and the houses look the same as in any
other city of the Soviet origin. Some of these buildings have been overgrown with trees and
are barely visible from the road. Chernobyl is a vital example of how Mother Nature can cope
with the work of Man. In just over two decades only ruins remain from the city. There is no
other such place in the world.

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REFERENCES

1. Proliferation-proof Uranium, Plutonium Fuel Cycles: Safeguards and Non-

proliferation, Gunther Kessler, KIT Scientific Publ., 2011.
2. Nuclear Systems: Elements Of Thermal Design, Volume 2, Neil E. Todreas, CRC
Press, 1 Sep 1992 - Science pp 303.
3. Point Sources Of Pollution: Local Effects And It’s Control – Vol. II Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant Accident Case Study, Yu.A. Izrael
4. Pripyat city, CHERNOBYL TOUR OPERATOR ASSOCIATION