Introduction

Chernobyl disaster piqued my interest in an unusual manner. Back when I was in 6 th grade, I used to
play a lot of PC games. One such game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007). I was gaming
hard during Christmas vacation and there’s this particular mission named “All Ghillied Up”. The
mission was tense and playing it as a kid induced nightmares back then. The mission was set in
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Pripyat and that’s the first time I came across it.

I can never forget the iconic quote by Capt. MacMillan (in-game character),

“Look at this place... Fifty thousand people used to live in this city. Now it's a ghost town...
I've never seen anything like it. Move.”

As a kid, I didn’t understand what Chernobyl or Pripyat was but during my high school I read more
about it and in 2019, I even watched the HBO series based on the disaster. This disaster speaks
volumes on greed and gigantomania.

This presentation aims to cover the Chernobyl Disaster in layman terms.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat, also known as Pryp'yat' or is a ghost city in northern Ukraine, near the Ukraine–Belarus
border. Named after the nearby river Pripyat, the town was founded on 4 February 1970 as a type of
closed town in the Soviet Union, to serve the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially
proclaimed a city in 1979 and had grown to a population of 49,360 by the time it was evacuated on
the afternoon of 27 April 1986, the day after the disaster.

Access to Pripyat, unlike cities of military importance, was not restricted before the disaster, as the
Soviet Union deemed nuclear power stations safer than other types of power plants. Nuclear power
stations were presented as achievements of Soviet engineering, harnessing nuclear power for
peaceful projects. The slogan "peaceful atom" was popular during those times.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP), officially the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant,
located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, 16.5 kilometers north-west of the
city of Chernobyl, 16 kilometers from the Belarus–Ukraine border. Reactor 4 was the site of the
Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and the power plant is now within a large restricted area known as the
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Both the zone and the former power plant are administered by the State
Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management. The three other reactors remained operational
after the accident but were eventually shut down by 2000, although the plant remains in the process
of decommissioning as of 2021. Nuclear waste clean-up is scheduled for completion in 2065.
RBMK

Before moving on we need to understand how an RBMK works. We all have learnt in 12 th grade that
a typical Nuclear reactor requires moderator, control rods, coolant, pressure vessel, steam generator
and a containment, other than the fuel. Moderators like Graphite/Heavy water slows down neutrons
released from fission in-order to cause more fission. Control rods are either inserted or withdrawn
from the core to control the rate of reaction or even halt it. These are made with neutron-absorbing
materials such as Cadmium or Boron. Coolant circulates through the core to ensure heat transfer. A
pressure vessel is usually a robust steel vessel containing the reactor core and moderator/coolant,
but it may be a series of tubes holding the fuel and conveying the coolant through the surrounding
moderator. The high-pressure primary coolant hence formed is used to make steam for the turbine
by a steam generator. The structure around the reactor and associated steam generators which is
designed to protect it from outside intrusion and to protect those outside from the effects of
radiation in case of any serious malfunction inside, is the Containment. It is typically a metre-thick
concrete and steel structure.

The Soviet-designed RBMK (reaktor bolshoy moshchnosty kanalny, high-power channel reactor) is a
water-cooled reactor with individual fuel channels and using graphite as its moderator. It is also
known as the light water graphite reactor (LWGR). It was designed over 1964-66 and is very different
from most other power reactors. It is a rather unusual design as it uses graphite as its moderator,
and was designed for plutonium production—but was also used extensively for electrical generation.
The combination of graphite as a moderator and light water as coolant is unique to this reactor as no
other reactors in the world use both.
The Fateful Midnight – 26 April 1986, 01:23:40

On 25 April, prior to a routine shutdown, the reactor crew at Chernobyl 4 began preparing for a test
to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps
following a loss of main electrical power supply. This test had been carried out at Chernobyl the
previous year, but the power from the turbine ran down too rapidly, so new voltage regulator
designs were to be tested.

A series of operator actions, including the disabling of automatic shutdown mechanisms, preceded
the attempted test early on 26 April. By the time that the operator moved to shut down the reactor,
the reactor was in an extremely unstable condition. A peculiarity of the design of the control rods
caused a dramatic power surge as they were inserted into the reactor.

The interaction of very hot fuel with the cooling water led to fuel fragmentation along with rapid
steam production and an increase in pressure. The design characteristics of the reactor were such
that substantial damage to even three or four fuel assemblies would – and did – result in the
destruction of the reactor. The overpressure caused the cover plate of the reactor to become
partially detached, rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time
were only halfway down. Intense steam generation then spread throughout the whole core (fed by
water dumped into the core due to the rupture of the emergency cooling circuit) causing a steam
explosion and releasing fission products to the atmosphere. About two to three seconds later, a
second explosion threw out fragments from the fuel channels and hot graphite. There is some
dispute among experts about the character of this second explosion, but it is likely to have been
caused by the production of hydrogen from zirconium-steam reactions.

Two workers died as a result of these explosions. The graphite (about a quarter of the 1200 tonnes
of it was estimated to have been ejected) and fuel became incandescent and started a number of
fires, causing the main release of radioactivity into the environment. A total of about 14 EBq of
radioactivity was released, over half of it being from biologically-inert noble gases.

About 200-300 tonnes of water per hour was injected into the intact half of the reactor using the
auxiliary feedwater pumps but this was stopped after half a day owing to the danger of it flowing
into and flooding units 1 and 2. From the second to tenth day after the accident, some 5000 tonnes
of boron, dolomite, sand, clay, and lead were dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an
effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.

The 1991 report by the State Committee on the Supervision of Safety in Industry and Nuclear Power
on the root cause of the accident looked past the operator actions. It said that while it was certainly
true the operators placed their reactor in a dangerously unstable condition (in fact in a condition
which virtually guaranteed an accident) it was also true that in doing so they had not in fact violated
a number of vital operating policies and principles, since no such policies and principles had been
articulated. Additionally, the operating organization had not been made aware either of the specific
vital safety significance of maintaining a minimum operating reactivity margin, or the general
reactivity characteristics of the RBMK which made low power operation extremely hazardous.
Immediate Impacts of the Disaster

The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever
recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were
released into the air for about 10 days. This caused serious social and economic disruption for
large populations in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Two radionuclides, the short-lived iodine-
131 and the long-lived caesium-137, were particularly significant for the radiation dose they
delivered to members of the public. Most of the released material was deposited close by as
dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia,
and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe.

The casualties included firefighters who attended the initial fires on the roof of the turbine
building. All these were put out in a few hours, but radiation doses on the first day caused 28
deaths – six of which were firemen – by the end of July 1986. The doses received by the
firefighters and power plant workers were high enough to result in acute radiation syndrome
(ARS), which occurs if a person is exposed to more than 700 mGy within a short time frame
(usually minutes).

Common ARS symptoms include gastrointestinal problems (e.g. nausea, vomiting),

headaches, burns and fever. Whole body doses between 4000 mGy and 5000 mGv within a
short time frame would kill 50% of those exposed, with 8000-10,000 mGy universally fatal.
The doses received by the firefighters who died were estimated to range up to 20,000 mGy.

The next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining three reactors
could be restarted, and the damaged reactor shielded more permanently. About 200,000
people ('liquidators') from all over the Soviet Union were involved in the recovery and clean-
up during 1986 and 1987. They received high doses of radiation, averaging around 100 mSv.
Some 20,000 liquidators received about 250 mSv, with a few receiving approximately 500
mSv. Later, the number of liquidators swelled to over 600,000, but most of these received
only low radiation doses. The highest doses were received by about 1000 emergency workers
and onsite personnel during the first day of the accident.

The plant operators' town of Pripyat was evacuated on 27 April (45,000 residents). By 14
May, some 116,000 people that had been living within a 30-kilometre radius had been
evacuated and later relocated. About 1000 of these returned unofficially to live within the
contaminated zone. Most of those evacuated received radiation doses of less than 50 mSv,
although a few received 100 mSv or more.
Chernobyl Today

The damaged reactor was initially covered in a giant concrete sarcophagus, to stop more radioactive
material escaping. In 2016, the New Safe Containment shield was put in place - the largest moveable
steel structure ever built, acting as a giant hangar over the entire nuclear power plant. Within it,
workers are still busy keeping the site safe. They monitor radiation, and eventually plan to dismantle
the concrete sarcophagus and remove the nuclear fuel.

Tourists have even returned - although they are kept out of the most radioactive sites. Every year
tens of thousands now visit, often to see the haunting ruins of abandoned towns. Opposite the old
nuclear site, a new power plant has started generating clean power. Solar panels produce enough
electricity to power 2,000 apartments. It’s a project that is as much about symbolism as economics.
For the people of the area, it is a sign of recovery and new growth.

That recovery is most evident in the natural world. Although animals and plants inside the exclusion
zone still show some effects of radiation, life is finding a way to adapt. For example, frogs living
inside the exclusion zone are darker than those outside, which may give them extra protection
against radiation. In fact, parts of the exclusion zone have become a haven for biodiversity.
Researchers have seen brown bears, lynxes, European bison and boar in growing numbers. An
unexpected side effect of evacuating people from the area has been to create a wildlife sanctuary,
where species can live untouched by human activity.
Conclusion

Chernobyl nuclear disaster is the worst nuclear disaster in the mankind history which had
positive effect on the public opinion about the potential danger that nuclear energy holds.
This nuclear disaster showed just how expensive mistakes when working with nuclear reactor
can be, and forced governments using nuclear energy to search new, much safer types of
nuclear reactors, and to increase nuclear power plant’s safety measures to its possible
maximum. Debates are still running whether the cause for this nuclear disaster lies in the
inexperienced crew or is the design of the reactor solely to blame although is most likely both
combined. UN estimates that the number of victims because of contamination of nearby areas
will be couple of thousands more than what’s known yet.

Some very tangible practical benefits have resulted from the Chernobyl accident. The main
ones concern reactor safety, notably in eastern Europe. (The US Three Mile Island accident in
1979 had a significant effect on Western reactor design and operating procedures. While that
reactor was destroyed, all radioactivity was contained – as designed – and there were no
deaths or injuries.)

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. Certainly the
safety of all Soviet-designed reactors has improved vastly. This is due largely to the
development of a culture of safety encouraged by increased collaboration between East and
West, and substantial investment in improving the reactors.

Modifications have been made to overcome deficiencies in all the RBMK reactors still
operating. Increase in population increases total energy needs and therefore demand for this
type of energy grows, which unlike other traditional non-renewable energy sources almost
doesn’t emit dangerous greenhouse gases and new nuclear power plants had proven to be
very safe and reliable and what’s even more important ecologically acceptable. But as did
Chernobyl example show, mistakes in dealing with nuclear reactor are very expensive and
therefore maximum safety measures must be whole time on, the crew must be highly trained
and the nuclear reactor design must be very safe. Also there always must be option what to do
in case things get wrong. Only by satisfying these conditions we can prevent new nuclear
disasters and ensure safe working principle of nuclear power plants which are in this moment
satisfying about 16 % of the world energy needs.

Chernobyl disaster was a good example to learn lessons from, and they have been really
learned and nuclear power plants have become places with maximum safety measures.
 References

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49943057_The_Chernobyl_Accident_and_its_Conseque
nces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-
accident.inca

Chernobyl — How It Happened: MIT OCW (YouTube)

Books

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam
Higginbotham

Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Plokhy, Serhii

Chernobyl 01:23:40 - The Incredible True Story of the World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster by Andrew
Leatherbarrow Elizabeth Petrey