Chernobyl Informative Speech Essay

At 1:00 A.M. on 25 April, the command was given to start reducing power to the station. “This could not be done quickly because the xenon gas that came from the radioactive decay of uranium 135 absorbed neutrons. If not allowed to decay, which it did in a few hours, it could accelerate the decline in the reactor’s activity and close it down altogether.” (Read p.59) Twelve hours after the start of the power reduction, the reactor had reached half-power, and generator number 7 was switched off. The number 8 generator would be next, but there was a slight risk that the decrease in water supply to the reactor or the start up of the auxiliary generator would signal an emergency to the system sensors that would automatically start the emergency core cooling system. If this happened, the reactor would be flooded and it would be closed down. Dyatlov had the emergency system disconnected so that the test could continue uninterrupted. After the this system was disconnected, the test was ready to proceed, which was to reduce power in the number 8 generator and take it off line, all the while keeping the reactor on low power. As the order was given, a call came in from the power grid dispatcher in Kiev saying that the power that the number 8 generator produced was needed until 11 P.M., which meant that the test had to be postponed. (Read, 1993)

The disaster had more of an effect on eastern Europe’s nuclear experimentation and use but “While no-one in the West was under any illusion about the safety of early Soviet reactor designs, some lessons learned have also been applicable to Western plants” (World Nuclear Association). Since the Chernobyl disaster was majorly caused by human error and under qualified scientists, to work with nuclear reactors today you need to be insanely qualified. Since the accident, Soviet-designed reactors’ safety has improved greatly, even in smaller ways. Automatic shutdown mechanisms now work faster, and other safety mechanisms have been sped up. Even new equipment has been installed such as automated inspection equipment. Several scientist and reporters have even said an accident like Chernobyl is virtually impossible with today’s technology (World Nuclear Association).

At 4 a.m., the plant failed on the non-nuclear section. A mechanical or electrical failure prevented water to flow to the steam generators that remove heat from the reactor core. This caused the secondary plant’s turbine generator and reactor to shut down which quickly made the pressure of the primary system increase. The primary system was the nuclear portion of the plant. In order to

Two days later on November 12th, after all the up-keep was taken care of on the reactor, they tried to start it up again. They were unsuccessful in starting up the reactor, and further investigation revealed a slurry blocking any passage through the pipelines which lead to the reactor. However, slurries were a very common thing during shutdowns. They form when methyl mercaptan reacts with other stagnate chemicals in the pipeline, forming a blockage. To clear this slurry, operators began pumping hot water through the piping to try and break it up. By noon on November 13th, operators deemed they had cleared the slurry. During the hot water pumping, a valve was accidentally left opened, which allowed roughly 2,000 pounds of water to flow into the methyl mercaptan feedline and storage tank. This

The electrical failure caused the operator to not know that the valve was still open, which led to cooling water pouring out of the valve and caused the reactor core to overheat. As a result of all of these things, the instruments that the operators read to know what was happening provided confusing information. The operators could not tell how much coolant was in the reactor core because they didn't

The main reason for the mishap is by now well recognized (Petryna 1). However, initially the Chernobyl catastrophe baffled the minds of people in the 20th century and definitely left the people of Ukraine disordered while living in anxiety. Now, without question, the public knows that the accident at Chernobyl was the result of a disastrous combination of ignorance from the Ukrainians and complacency from the Soviets in control of Ukraine at the time. As according to American physicist and Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, “…the Chernobyl disaster tells us about the deficiencies of the Soviet political and administrative system rather than about problems with nuclear power." The immediate basis of the Chernobyl accident was a mismanaged electrical-engineering experiment (Rhodes "Chernobyl", PBS). While, the indirect source of the calamity was an industrial malfunction of a Soviet made nuclear-based machine. Ironically, the Chernobyl accident occurred during a test run, which was conducted to improve plant safety. This accident proved once more what experienced control engineers have all learned: that a process must be understood before it can be controlled. (Liptak “Control Global”). Engineers with no familiarity of reactor physics were interested to see if they could draw electricity from the turbine generator of the Number 4 reactor unit to run water pumps during an emergency, when the turbine was no longer being driven by the reactor but was

Summer march 28, 1979 reactor number 1 was shutdown for refueling while reactor number 2 was running at 97% power. The problem which caused the main event to follow was a blockage in the filtration system, the filtration was normally cleaned with air pressure. When the air pressure wasn’t working they decided just to use the force of the water. The force of the water caused a valve to leak which then caused the feed water and booster pumps to turn off. This stopped the whole process of the nuclear reactor, with that happened the steam in the reactor had nowhere to go with the decay heat increasing. All this caused

The disaster took place on April 1986, and was caused by inexperienced staff. When the power plant had to undergo a special test, to make sure that sufficient amount of cooling water would be supplied to the reactor in case of a power outage. However, the test had been delayed, because the national grid required the power output more than the expected time. Hence, the test was postponed after midnight where the night shift had to come. The night shift had little experience about such a test as most of them were electrical engineers rather than nuclear. On the other hand, the night shift had to perform the test before the grid needed the power again, otherwise they would have all been fined or fired. Consequently, lead to an unnecessary pressure on the personnel, which in turn increased the probability of making incorrect

April 25, 1986 was a normal day at the Chernobyl power plant. For weeks, the workers had been planning a routine shutdown to coincide with a test of nuclear reactor four. They were trying to determine how long the turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following any loss of main electrical power (“Chernobyl Accident 1986”). This test was needed to verify that the cooling process on the reactor stayed in place even with no power because if

On January 3, 1961 at 9:01 PM the United States experienced what any believe the be the first nuclear reactor accident in world history (Adams, 1996). The US Army had commissioned a small reactor prototype to be built in the Idaho desert that surround Idaho Falls. They believed that they were isolated enough that they could conduct experiments with a small reactor that would mimic the conditions of the site they wished to have the reactor on while also allowing for a safety zone for the people in the nearby town. The reactor was a small three rod affair that did not have the shielding or the safety measures that would come in response to this accident (Stacy, 2000, 144).

The causes of the accident was quite complex. In brief, it began with a closed bypass valve, which stopped the water flowing to the secondary main feed water pumps, once the steam generators could not receive water, they stopped and the reactor emergently shutdown. Control rods were inserted into the

Steam accumulated inside the reactor was no more utilized by the turbine and there was a spike in temperature of the nucleus of the reactor. Indeed, even the helper pumps were closed down for cleaning and this was the reason as why there was no water in the plant’s reactor. The engineers in the controller room quickly close the auto safety valve, however the administrators didn't understand that the help valve was blocked and it was not shut. They imagined that the core is protected by looking at the marker of emergency assistance valve in the controller room. Here the mishap happens, the administrators by eluding the pointer missed to weigh the genuine issue in the reactor. Because of the opening of emergency assistance valve, the cool water in the reactor spilled out through valve and this heated the plant and made reactor hotter. The water dripped from the open valve spilled into an adjacent building discharging radioactive gasses. Following a few hours' main pumps was worked to put water in the reactor and the reactor started to cool down. Later it came to realize that hydrogen air pockets were shaped on the interior of the plant. If it is exposed to the air, an expansive blast can happen and resulting in many deaths in Three Mile

his led to the melting of the fuel and a drastic increase in radioactivity within the reactor coolant.This also resulted in leaks in the coolant system, which led to small amounts of radiation escaping into the environment.[7]

Countless nuclear power plant accidents have been occurring quite frequently since its invention. Some accidents have even been underestimated,

Nuclear power is a useful resource, but it can also be dangerous in certain cases. March 28, 1979 is an example of one of these situations. On that date, the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant in Pennsylvania experienced the “worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States” (Three Mile Island, 2014). Located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the plant, as seen to the left, had originally been built to locally provide electricity and power. For five years, the first pressurized water reactor located there had functioned properly after being “entered into service in 1974” (Three Mile Island Accident, 2001). The second unit, known as the TMI-2, began operating late December 1978,