Nuclear Weapons and Chernobyl Disaster

Presented by: POOJA GOYAL(500802514) RUPANI GARG(500802515)

NUCLEAR WEAPONS
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion The first nuclear weapons were created by the United States, and Albert Einstein Manhattan Project.

Special Theory of Relativity

In 1905 Albert Einstein discovered that a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter. However Bombs were not in his mind because even he considered himself a pacifist. Wouldnt fight in a war no matter the cause of it

Position Changed

In 1933 the charismatic Hitler rose to power causing a great fear and hatred for him among the Jewish people including Einstein who changed his position on fighting. In 1938 Germany was able to split an uranium atom and was getting more aggressive. Physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Winger became concerned with the recent aggression by Germany but had no influence with those in power. Leo and Eugene consulted with Einstein and they wrote a letter to Roosevelt with his signature The first letter Einstein stated the Germany is pursuing the interest of an A bomb and we should do the same.

The Briggs Committee

FDR formed a committee of people to start studying uranium chain reactions after Germany Invaded Poland in 1939. Lyman James Briggs was in charge of this committee. According to Leo, Eugene, and Einstein Progress was moving to slow and prompted two more letters in March and April of 1940 Both letters stated that the progress of The Briggs Committee was moving to slow, and again stated how much interest the Germans had taken in building the bomb including the holding of mines that had uranium preserved for other countries

Need for Greater Speed

The

Briggs Committee had taken too long and put great concern among Einstein, Leo, and Eugene, because the Germans were advancing further. Finally in 1941 the British Confirmed that an atomic bomb could be built for war by 1943. Immediately following the report accelerated pace was taken by the Briggs Committee to create a bomb. In August of 1942, 10 months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Bomb project became known as the Manhattan Project.

Einsteins Greatest Impact

Einstein

consulted with a number of groups working on the bomb, but people didnt trust him and he was unable to work with them full time on the project. He worked with Vannevar Bush The atomic bomb could have been built without the letters Einstein wrote, but it was the USs early work on the A Bomb that allowed them to win the war against Japan before Russia could enter. As a result of Einsteins early theories and of his urgent letters to FDR the US was able to produce

The Result of His Earlier Relativity work

In history of warfare,only two nuclear weaponshave been detonated offensively both near the end of World War II The first was detonated on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device codenamed "Little Boyon the Japanesecity of Hiroshima. The second was detonated three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan

TYPES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

These are basic types of nuclear weapons. 1.Atomic Bombs or Atom Bombs 2.Hydrogen Bombs 3.Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs

Atomic Bombs
This produces its explosive energy through nuclear fission reactions alone though their energy comes specifically from the nucleus of the atom. In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is assembled into a supercritical mass . GUN METHOD - The amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another IMPLOSION METHOD- by compressing a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its original density.

how a nuclear bomb works

Hydrogen Bombs /thermonuclear weapons

These are also called combined fission /fusion weapons. This produces a large amount of its energy through nuclear fusion reactions. They rely on fusion reactions between isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium). Only six countriesUnited States, Russia, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, France and Indiahave conducted thermonuclear weapon tests. All weapons that use fusion require a fission bomb to provide the energy to initiate the fusion reactions. Thermonuclear bombs work by using the energy of a fission bomb to compress and heat fusion fuel.

Types of thermonuclear weapons

Boosted Fission Weapons Staged Radiation Implosion Weapons The Alarm Clock/Sloika (Layer Cake) Design Neutron Bombs

Boosted Fission Weapons

In these weapons a few grams of a deuterium/tritium gas mixture are included in the center of the fissile core. When the bomb core undergoes enough fission, it becomes hot enough to ignite the D-T fusion reaction which proceeds swiftly. This greatly accelerates the fission rate in the core, thus allowing a much higher percentage of the material in the core to fission The first boosted weapon test was Greenhouse Item (45.5 kt, 24 May 1951), an oralloy design exploded on island Janet at Enewetak The boosting technique is most valuable in small light-weight bombs. Tritium is a very expensive material to make, and it decays at a rate of 5.5% per year, but the small amounts required for boosting (a few grams) make its use economical.

Staged Radiation Implosion Weapons

This class of weapons is also called "Teller-Ulam" weapons. In the Teller-Ulam design by placing a fission bomb and fusion fuel (tritium, deuterium, or lithium deuteride) in proximity within a special, radiation-reflecting container. The fusion reactions occur in a package of fusion fuel ("the secondary") that is physically separate from the fission trigger ("the primary"), thus creating a two-stage bomb (the fission primary counting as the first stage). X-rays from the primary are used to compress the secondary through a process known as radiation implosion. The secondary is then ignited by a fission "spark plug" in its center . The energy produced by the fusion second stage can be used to ignite an even larger fusion third stage. Multiple staging allows in principle the creation of bombs of virtually unlimited size.

The Alarm Clock/Sloika (Layer Cake) Design

It was first devised by Edward Teller in the United States,"Alarm Clock". Later in the Soviet Union hit upon it and dubbed it the "sloika" design. Finally it was developed by the British. It uses a spherical assembly of concentric shells. In the center is a fission primary made of U-235/Pu-239, surrounding it is an (optional) layer of U-238 for the fission tamper, then a layer of lithium-6 deuteride/tritide, a U-238 fusion tamper, and finally the high explosive implosion system. The first test of this concept was a device designated RDS-6s on 12 August 1953

Neutron Bombs

Enhanced radiation (ER) warheads", are small thermonuclear weapons in which the burst of neutrons generated by the fusion reaction is intentionally not absorbed inside the weapon, but allowed to escape. This intense burst of high-energy neutrons is the principle destructive mechanism. The U.S. has developed neutron bombs for use as strategic anti-missile weapons, and as tactical weapons intended for use against armored forces

Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs

The idea of the cobalt bomb originated with Leo Szilard who publicized it in Feb. 1950. The Co-60 fallout hazard is greater than the fission products from a U-238 blanket. A "salted" nuclear weapon is reminiscent of fission-fusionfission weapons, but instead of a fissionable jacket around the secondary stage fusion fuel, a non-fissionable blanket of a specially chosen salting isotope is used (cobalt-59 in the case of the cobalt bomb).

Effect of Nuclear Weapons

The energy released from a nuclear weapon comes in four major categories: Blast 40-60% of total energy Thermal radiation 3050% of total energy Ionizing radiation 5% of total energy Residual radiation (fallout) 5-10% of total energy

PROS
Economic Enviromental Portability and productivity Peaceful use

ECONOMIC
Net external Costs are much cheaper than other form of production. As of 2005 Nuclear power was: - the cost of coal -1/5 the cost of gas

Efficiency
Ave rage the rmale ffic ie nc y35% - Co mparable to Co al,NaturalGas Equivale ntto : - 1780lbso fc o al - 17,000c ubic fe e to fNaturalGas - 149gallo nso fo il -

Portibality and productivity

Wide range of uses Various military and civilian applications Relative large amount of energy produced per land area Lowest impact on environment No combustion thus zero emission of green house gases ---only external product is steam Water used for cooling can be interchanged with the ecnvironment

Peaceful use
There has been great advances in medicinal use of isotopes and radiation techniques. Food and Agriculture The use of isotopes and radiation techniques in agriculture for increase agricultural production, improve food availability and quality, reduce production costs and minimize pollution of food crop. One major on-going advancement is Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), that helps in large scale food irrigation and biological control of pests. Human Health One very common application of nuclear energy, is in the treatment of cancer - radiotherapy. Small amounts of radioisotope tracers are used for diagnostic and research purposes. These techniques have helped in monitoring the levels of toxic substances in food, air and water.

Nuclear energy can also be used in industries for processing and sterilization of various products by means of radiation

CONS

Waste storage Accidents National Security Ease of peaceful usage to weapons programs

Waste Storage
U

235 and Pu 239 half lives are:

U235 = 7.13 10

8 4

years years

Pu239 = 2.411 10

Waste Storage

Store in cool dry place Radioactive indefinitely Difficult to store Has deadly Radiation

US Nuclear Storage sites

Yucca Mountain
Federal Government Storage Facility deep underground Extremely low water table reduces chance of contamination Specialized transportation system providing increased safety Advanced casing system to prevent seepage Desert conditions

Safety

Always potential for meltdown

Human

error, Mechanical Failure

Materials are still fissile after thousands of years In the past there have been many accidents but few that caused environmental contamination

National Security
Waste storage sites, Plants, various aspects of transporting fissile material are targets to hostiles Not enough is being done to protect these sites

Disasters

Chernobyl- worst nuclear accident Three mile island worst US nuclear accident Dimitrovgrod in 1996 Most recently Fukushima (Japan) in 2011

Where is Chernobyl?

-In Northern Ukraine -10 miles away from Belarus -80 miles North of Kiev

What happened?
Saturday, April 26, 1986: -Reactor #4 was undergoing a test to test the backup power supply in case of a power loss. -The power fell too low, allowing the concentration of xenon-135 to rise. -The workers continued the test, and in order to control the rising levels of xenon-135, the control rods were pulled out.

What happened? contd

-The experiment involved shutting down the coolant pumps, which caused the coolant to rapidly heat up and boil. -Pockets of steam formed in the coolant lines. When the coolant expanded in this particular design, the power level went up. -The rods melted and the steam pressure caused an explosion, which blew a hole in the roof. A graphite fire also resulted from the explosion. -To save money, the reactor was constructed with only partial containment, which allowed the radiation to escape. 13%-30% of the material escaped.

Immediate Impact

- 203 people were hospitalized immediately. 31 of them eventually died. Most of these people were workers in the plant or local firefighters. - winds from the Black Sea carried the radiation for miles in the following days. Scandinavian detectors picked up on the abundance of radiation, but the Soviet government denied everything.

West and Northwest Winds carried radiation

The Clean Up

Liquidators

These were firemen who helped put out the fires and helped clean up the radiation Most did not realize the dangers of radiation. Many later died from radiation, because they didnt wear protection. An estimated 8,000-20,000 to date have died (20% from suicide) United States supplied Specifically designed to enter reactor core and help build the sarcophagus

Robots

Clean Up

Approximately 300,000 to 600,000 liquidators were involved in the cleanup of the 30 km evacuation zone around the plant in the years following the meltdown.

70% of total fallout fell on Belarus 20% of Belarus land area was evacuated 130,000 Belarusians evacuated 2.5 million Belarusians affected

Impact on Belarus

Evacuation

-Following the accident hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated and between 1990 and 1995 an additional 210,000 people were resettled.

People evacuated: -May 2-3 (1 week later) 10 km area (45,000 people) -May 4 30 km area (116,000 people) -50,000 people from Pripyat, Ukraine were evacuated 2 days after the accident.

Containment

Cement sarcophagus built in the months after disaster 5,000 tons of sand thrown on top of reactor core

Belarus after Chernobyl

Abandoned city in southern Belarus

Effects of Radiation

 Belarusian

Effects of Radiation

doctors identify the following effects from the Chernobyl disaster on the health of their people:
100%

increase in the incidence of cancer and leukemia 250% increase in congenital birth deformities 1,000% increase in suicide in the contaminated zones

Chernobyl

AIDS--the term doctors are using to describe illnesses associated with the damage done to the immune system

The Children of Belarus

Children were much more affected by Chernobyl and the radiation, due to their weaker immune systems. 1991-92 sickness rate among children almost tripled Threat to gene poolfewer children being born. The following problems have increased in Belarusian children:
heart

and circulatory diseases, malignant tumors, and disorders of the nervous system, sensory organs, of the bone, muscle and connective tissue system

http://studiohousebooks.co.uk/chernobyl/Pictures/pictures.html http://studiohousebooks.co.uk/chernobyl/Chernobyl/chernobyl.html

Children contd
It

was estimated that 1 out of every 4 infants in Belarus will develop thyroid abnormalities. normal rate of thyroid cancer would be only one in 1 million. the immediate aftermath of the disaster, had the authorities supplied the children with preventive potassium iodine, it would have prevented many of the thyroid cancer cases.

The In

Thyroid cancer
The thyroid gland is the most vulnerable organ to radiation in the human body. Normally, this is a rare disease, with only 1 case per year being reported in Belarus before the Chernobyl accident. Thyroid cancer can take 10-30 years to show its effects. There has been a 2,400% increase in the rates of thyroid cancer in Belarus since 1986. In the Homyel region of Belarus, the region closest to Chernobyl, there has been a 100-fold increase in thyroid cancer.

Belarusian Landscape

Pripyat River in Belarus

Abandoned road in Belarus

The Land of Belarus

25% of the country's farmland and forest contaminated at a dangerous level 10% of the land is unusable 1% of the entire land in Belarus was uncontaminated Forests ruined Many animals are dying as well from the radiation

The Land contd

Plutoniums half life is 24,400 years. The 30-km radius has been expanded into a 70-km radius, covering a portion of southern Belarus. Forest/brush fires have spread the radiation through the air.

http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/DOCREP/004/Y2795e/y2795e08.htm

Other problems

Food & Water MilkFarmers have to watch the radiation level in milk. FishCannot be eaten, as water absorbs radiation and fats concentrate it Radioactive Floods every spring Lives ruined Suicide and depression Even healthy people were traumatized
http://www.spacedaily.com/images/chernobyl-airview-bg.jpg http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/local-effects/agriculture.effects.html

Chernobyl Today

The plant have been shut down by Ukraine. (Dec. 2000) The cement sarcophagus is falling apart, due to the quick emergency construction of it. The UN estimates that up to 9 million people have been affected directly or indirectly by the fallout. The full consequences will be seen for at least another 50 years.
www.calguard.ca.gov/ ia/Chernobyl-15%20years.htm www.balticuniv.uu.se/ space/catch_news27.shtml

Hundreds of abandoned towns Land still very contaminated Most of budget goes towards medical facilities Over the next 30 years, Belarus will have spent a total of $235 billion on dealing with radiation. Many areas will forever be radioactive. The present value of resources spent from the republican budget since 1991 amounts to about 20% of the 2001 GDP Belarus depends on most of its electrical power from Russia. Radiation is still a problem, especially in children
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?development/workshops/training_chernobyl0103.html

Belarus today

Living in the contaminated zone in Belarus today

People must change their clothes twice a day, and may not walk in the woods for more than two hours a month. Radiation level charts are printed in the newspapers and dictate decisions such as whether children can be allowed out to play. People are told to wash food at least five times in clean water, but nobody is told where this clean water is to be found. Cattle are not supposed to graze in areas where the grass is less than 10cm high so their mouths will not touch the earth. Most people find it impossible to follow these nearly impossible instructions, so they simply give up trying. There are also housing shortages in Belarus and the rest of the ex-Soviet Union. This is a problem because people have a hard time moving out of the contaminated zone, since there are no other places to live.

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