HERNOBYL DISASTER

Pripyat hotel

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident occurred on April 26, 1986. It was the largest nuclear
energy disaster in history. The explosion took place in the fourth block of the Chernobyl power plant,
located only 120 km from the capital of Ukraine Kiev, close to the border with Belarus.

Chernobyl power plant was at that time one of the largest in the world. It was dedicated to a strategic
military program for the Soviet army. The actual crash happened due to a coincidence of several factors.
Beside the fact that the reactor did not have an updated security system, it had a low level of
automation. On the fatal night of April 26, there was an experiment going on, which should have tested
the inertial range of the turbo-generator unit. Overheating fuel caused the destruction of the
generators surface.

At 1:24 AM local time, 40-60 seconds after commencing the experiment, two large explosions took
place. According to some accident investigators, taking off all the absorbing sticks from the active zone
of the reactor, together with the reactors growing power capacity, the crash was unavoidable. It was
recorded that safety systems were shut off or even out of service at the time of the initial explosion and
the explosion of steam and hydrogen blew the 1200 ton cover of the reactor and destroyed the roof.
After a few seconds there came the second explosion. According to several independent studies, while
the first explosion was normal chemical, the second explosion with the burning of the prompt
neutrons, it had characteristics of a nuclear explosion with a yield of 0.3 kilotons (equal to around 300
tons of TNT). According to witnesses the first explosion was followed by a red blaze and the second
explosion had a light-blue blaze, after which a mushroom cloud rose above the reactor.

The nuclear disaster was also a coincidence and the reactor should have been shut down before the
experiment could begin. However, this was postponed by nine hours because of the forthcoming May 1
celebrations and the electricity needed to fulfill the production plan. This delay meant that the
experiment had to be managed by a different shift than the one which prepared it. The night shift
conducting the experiment comprised fewer experienced operators.

AFTER THE DISASTER

Radioactivity started to radiate out of the destroyed and burning fourth reactor of Chernobyl power
plant, which contaminated both the near and far environment. The investigation of Chernobyl disaster
was officially closed with a result that the personnel of the power plant did not follow the necessary
safety regulations. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant was just the beginning of an aftermath that re-wrote not
just the safety rules in nuclear energy, but also the history of mankind. Radioactivity started to radiate
out of the destroyed and burning fourth reactor of Chernobyl power plant, which contaminated both
the near and far environment.

The first step in liquidation of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl was extinguishing the burning reactor
hall and the roof of turbo-generators hall. Special power plant fire department, together with firemen
from the nearby town of Chernobyl, extinguished the fire within three hours after the explosion. Yet, in
the heart of the reactor, graphite was still burning

Firemen who worked at the accident did not know the cause of the fire and thus they just poured water
at the ruins of the reactor. This worsened the situation and several smaller explosions followed,
together with a severe radioactive contamination. To prevent radioactivity from further spreading into
the environment, the reactor was filled with five thousand tons of boron, dolomite, sand, clay and lead
compound - thrown from a helicopter flying above the reactor. These loose materials extinguished the
burning graphite and absorbed radioactive aerosols. Two weeks after the breakdown, Soviet official
bodies decided to conserve the whole crashed block of the power plant into a special sarcophagus
concrete body with its own cooling system.

The explosion at Chernobyl brought up radioactive substances to the altitude of 1.5 kilometer in the air.
In this elevation, wind from the southeast took the radioactive cloud to as far as Scandinavia. The cloud
flew over Scandinavia and then turned back to Ukraine again. During the day of the accident, the
direction of the wind changed to westward. The second contaminated cloud thus flew via Poland to
Czechoslovakia and further to Austria. There, it bounced back from the Alps and flew back to Poland. As
far as we know today, there is no place in the world where the radioactive clouds from Chernobyl were
not present. Contaminated clouds flew all around the world.

The most affected territories were Ukraine and Belarus, which decided to evacuate parts of their
countries forever because of the contamination of the environment. In the process of contamination, a
large role was played by radioactive iodide. This element has a short disintegration half-time and
relatively soon after the accident naturally decomposed to harmless substances. Today, the radioactive
pollution is made up mostly by substances such as strontium and cesium these have a 30-year
disintegration half-time. Thus, they will continue to pollute the close environment for several decades.
Isotope of plutonium and americium will be present at the respective territory probably for several
thousand years. However, they have a negligible radiation affect for the human body.

Disaster
On April 26, 1986, a power output surged during a systems test. An emergency shutdown was
attempted, but the power output spiked even more, which led to an explosion at reactor No. 4 at
1:23am. Two workers died instantly. Further explosions and a fire released highly radioactive material
into the atmosphere. The release of nuclear fallout at Chernobyl was 400 hundred times higher than
that of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Both mechanical malfunction and human error were cited as
the causes of the disaster.

At the time of the disaster, 49,400 people lived in Pripyat. More than 24 hours after the first explosion,
residents were ordered to evacuate, but by this time, many had already suffered varying degrees of
radiation poisoning. They were told that the evacuation wouldn't last long and to leave their personal
belongings. Most of those residents, however, never returned

and their belongings are still there today, reminders of lives interrupted

and forever altered.

Zone of Alienation

Large quantities of radioactive materials were released into the air for 10 days. A large containment
structure known as "the sarcophagus" was built to capture the materials. The structure trapped about
200 tons of nuclear fuel and debris that had melted through the floor and hardened. By May 14, about
116,000 people, who lived within a 19-mile radius of the nuclear plant had been relocated. By July 1986,
there were 28 deaths due to radiation exposure. In following years, 220,000 more people moved into
less contaminated areas and a 19-mile zone of alienation was established. Many settled in Slavutych, a
city built shortly after the disaster for power plant workers and their families. To this day, any business
or residential activities in the zone are strictly prohibited except for monitoring the power plant and
installations to study nuclear safety. Some 3,000 workers are currently employed inside the zone of
alienation, but they do not live there. Workers are regularly monitored for radiation and can only work a
limited number of shifts per week. Workers are needed at the site because the remaining 3 reactors,
although no longer operational, still contain nuclear fuel that needs to be monitored. The site is to be
cleared by 2065.

Some residents, primarily elderly, refused to evacuate the zone or returned illegally. The roughly 500
who still live there today reside in homes with signs that read: "owner of this house lives here."

Guided Tours
Tours of the zone are available. For example, SoloEast Travel books both private and scheduled group
tours. The tours, which cost $140-$160 (not including the fee for mandatory insurance), include a stop
near the Red Forest, a viewing of reactor No. 4 (from a 100 meter distance), and a visit to Pripyat. At the
end of the tour, everyone must be tested for radiation.

Affects Will Last 300 Years

The 200 tons of hardened nuclear fuel and debris remains so radioactive that even today scientists
cannot approach it. Some radioactive elements in nuclear fuel decay quickly; however, cesium has a
half-life of 30 years, and strontium has a half-life of 29 years. According to scientific estimates, it takes
10 to 13 half-lives before economic activity and life can return to a contaminated area. This means that
the total area contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster 15,000 square miles will be affected for the
next 300 years. In 2014, a more secure confinement structure will be completed to replace the hastily
built sarcophagus. The new structure, an 18,000 ton metal arch, will cover both reactor No. 4 and the
1986 structure.

What We Have Learned

The Chernobyl Forum was founded in 2003 to assess the environmental consequences and health
effects of the disaster. In 2005, the forum released a report entitled: "Chernobyl's legacy: Health,
Environmental, and Socio-Economic Impacts." The report confirms that 28 emergency workers died
from acute radiation syndrome, and 15 patients later died from thyroid cancer. The report also
estimates that cancer deaths directly resulting from the incident may reach a total of 4,000 among the
600,000 workers who received the greatest exposure while cleaning up the disaster. In addition, there
have been 4,000 reported cases of thyroid cancer, mainly from people who were children living in the
area at the time of the accident. Scientists believe the children were affected by drinking milk from
contaminated cows. Iodine 131, another radioactive element, can dilute very quickly in the air, but if it is
deposited on grass eaten by cows, the cows then re-concentrate it in their milk. Absorbed into the
body's thyroid gland, Iodine 131 can cause cancer. This was perhaps the greatest lesson learned from
the disaster.

Because of the Chernobyl disaster, we now know to test the grass, soil, and milk for radiation near
nuclear plants. Also, an evacuation of the Chernobyl area was not ordered until more than 24 hours
after the incident. Japanese authorities evacuated 200,000 people from the area of Fukushima within
hours of the initial alert following the meltdown in March 2011. The mistakes and magnitude of the
disaster at Chernobyl has taught the world how to handle the short and long-term effects of nuclear
fallout