University Of Karachi

Department of History
(EVENING)
Topic
“Sociological Impact of Nuclear Power”

Course Code : 401.

Course Title : Mass Communication.

Class : B.A (Hons).

Seat No : EH1960064,EH1960037.

Submitted by : Syed Mohsin Mehdi &

Muhammad Hassan Shaikh.

Submitted to : Miss. Sadia Baqar.

 Sociological Impact of
Nuclear Power
Introduction
In 1938 Germany while people trying to convince people about the superioty of his race, Jewish
chemist lise Meitner and her colleagues Otto Hahn and fritz Strassman make a scientific
discovery that will change the world nuclear fission but they didn’t thought that what they had
invented and what it can do?

Nuclear Fission
An atom is small about 0.000000001 meters and atoms all energy is stored in the nucleus but if
we bombard a neutron on nucleus of a radioactive material such as Uranium, Plutonium, Radon,
Radium etc. can split its nucleus releasing the 200 times the energy of the original neutron that
been used to bombard it but it doesn’t stop there it releases two extra neutrons and those collides
with other nucleus atoms and boom it’s a chain reaction creating radiation and heat.

Race for the First Nuclear Weapon

But the problem is while nuclear fission has the potential to produce energy. The German
scientist who discover it but no doubt it also has the potential to make a powerful weapon and
soon the Nazi government takes over the research hoping to develop the first atomic bomb in
response to terrifying threat, world renowned scientist Albert Einstein writes a letter to the
president Roosevelt conforming that a weapon using technology would be very bad in August
1939. They must beat the Germans to it. In result U.S.A set up their research in Manhattan
making a team of all industrial, Scientific and financial might with support of U.K and Canada.
There aim was to develop a nuclear weapon before Hitler. By July1945 they have ready for the
test at Los Alamos in New Mexico. One month later bomb makes it divesting wartime debut on
August 1945, First at Hiroshima and two days later at Nagasaki.

Nuclear Power Generation

After the World War II comes to an end. The scientist at Manhattan Project thought to use the
nuclear technology for a peaceful spin-off and the nuclear power is born. But there’s a huge
downside to working with atomic energy, any exposure to radioactive material in small doses
could cause cancer down the line or the large doses can kill you outright. But in early 1950’s the
power generation was limitless so scientist were trying use it in many more ways like in
agriculture, medication, etc. Then in 1954 USSR also started to develop a powerful power plant
Bosnich near Moscow.
Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
Windscale Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
Then in 1957 U.K also developed the first nuclear reactor namely Windscale but in same year it
collapsed and leaves about 15 tons of radioactive fuel melted in the core. The British government
downplays the seriousness of the incident and head of U.K Atomic Energy Authority Sir William
Penny takes this massive incident as industrial mistake and stated it as a “Industries, like
individuals, must learn from their mistakes, We’ll learn from this one.”

Kyshtym Nuclear Power Plant disaster

In the late afternoon of 29 September 1957, residents of the Chelyabinsk district within the
Southern Urals noticed unusual bluish-violet colors within the sky. The regional press speculated
about polar lights appearing exceptionally far south. However, within a couple of days, a slew of
state activity became evident round the military area that housed the nuclear facility “Mayak.”
Peasants were required to slaughter their livestock, bury their crops and plow their farmland.
Quite 20 villages, comprising over 11,000 people, were evacuated and completely demolished.
No official statement was given about any of those orders, but everybody could find out for
themselves that a serious accident had happened at “Mayak.”
“Mayak” was established in 1946, and by 1949 it had produced the primary Soviet nuclear
bomb. After this first success, Moscow demanded ever more bombs, and allowed ever less time
to form them. “Mayak” delivered. But it paid a price. As results of disregarding basic safety
standards, 17,245 workers received radiation overdoses between 1948 and 1958. Dumping of
radioactive material into the nearby river from 1949 to 1952 caused several breakouts of
radiation syndrome in villages downstream. Residents of the world were thus conversant in the
invisible dangers coming from the key site.
This time, however, radioactivity descended on people and places with none obvious pattern. So
what had happened? The cooling system of a cistern containing radioactive material had failed.
And no-one had noticed. The waste began to heat up, eventually exploding at a temperature of
350 degrees Celsius. The 160-ton concrete cover burst, flinging 20 million curies of material into
the sky, where it had been scattered by the wind. It settled over a neighborhood of 20,000 square
kilometers, home to 270,000 people.
It was impossible to stay information about the disaster from leaking out, a minimum of within
the surrounding area. The Western world, though, came to listen to about it only in 1976, when
Soviet emigrant Zhores Medvedev first revealed some facts about the catastrophe. The CIA had
known about it long before; by 1960 its network of informants and aerial spy photos had
provided it with a transparent picture of what had happened. Those documents were later
published, but long kept far away from the general public so as to not put the image of the
emerging nuclear industry in danger or cause people to ask questions on questions of safety at
the US government’s own Hanford nuclear site. Indeed, government laboratories even put out
statements downplaying Medvedev’s accounts of the seriousness of the Kyshtym incident.
Moscow, of course, was delighted.

Thus, the Kyshtym disaster also tells a story about the Cold War’s occasional absurdities—the
CIA actually helped the Soviet Union keep its first nuclear catastrophe a secret until 1989.
Chernobyl Power Plant Disaster
On the morning of April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power Plant in Ukraine (formerly a
neighborhood of the Soviet Union) exploded, creating what many consider the worst nuclear
disaster the earth has ever seen.
Even after a couple of years of scientific research and government investigation, there are still
many unanswered questions on the Chernobyl accident — especially regarding the long-term
health impacts that the large radiation leak will wear people who were exposed.
The Chernobyl plant used four Soviet-designed RBMK-1000 nuclear reactors — a design that's
now universally recognized as inherently flawed. RBMK reactors were of a pressure tube design
that used an enriched U-235 uranium dioxide fuel to heat water, creating steam that drives the
reactors' turbines and generates electricity, according to the earth Nuclear Association.
In most nuclear reactors, water is additionally used as a coolant and to moderate the reactivity of
the nuclear core by removing the excess heat and steam, according to the earth Nuclear
Association. But the RBMK-1000 used graphite to moderate the core's reactivity and to remain
endless natural action occurring within the core. Because the nuclear core heated and produced
more steam bubbles, the core became more reactive, not less, creating a positive-feedback loop
that engineers ask as a "positive-void coefficient.
The explosion occurred on April 26, 1986, during a routine maintenance check, consistent with
U.N. Scientific Committee on the consequences of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Operators
were planning on testing the electrical systems once they turned off vital control systems, going
against the security regulations. This caused the reactor to succeed in dangerously unstable and
low-power levels.
Reactor 4 had been pack up the day before so as to perform the upkeep checks to safety systems
during potential power outages, consistent with the atomic energy Agency (NEA). While there's
still some disagreement over the particular explanation for the explosion, it's generally believed
that the primary was caused by a more than steam and therefore the second was influenced by
hydrogen. The surplus steam was created by the reduction of the cooling water which caused
steam to create up within the cooling pipes — the positive-void coefficient — which caused a
huge power surge that the operators couldn't pack up.
The explosions occurred at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, destroying reactor 4 and initiating a booming
fire, consistent with NEA. Radioactive debris of fuel and reactor components rained over the
world while fire spread from the building housing reactor 4 to adjacent buildings. Toxic fumes
and mud were carried by the blowing wind, bringing fission products and therefore the inert gas
inventory with it.
The blasts killed two plant laborers — the first of a few specialists to bite the dust inside hours of
the mishap. For the following a few days, as crisis teams attempted urgently to contain the fires
and radiation releases, the loss of life moved as plant laborers capitulated to intense radiation
disorder.
The underlying fire was smothered by around 5 a.m., yet the subsequent graphite-energized fire
took 10 days and 250 firemen to quench it, as per NEA. Be that as it may, harmful outflows kept
on being siphoned into the air for an extra 10 days.
The greater part of the radiation delivered from the bombed atomic reactor was from splitting
items iodine-131, cesium-134, and cesium-137. Iodine-131 has a generally short half-existence
of eight days, as per UNSCEAR, yet is quickly ingested through the air and will in general
restrict in the thyroid organ. Cesium isotopes have longer half-lives (cesium-137 has a half-
existence of 30 years) and are a worry for a considerable length of time after their delivery into
the earth.
Clearings of Pripyat started on April 27 around 36 hours after the mishap had happened. At that
point, numerous occupants were at that point grumbling about spewing, migraines and different
indications of radiation disorder. Authorities shut off an 18-mile (30 km) region around the plant
by May 14, clearing another 116,000 inhabitants. Inside the following hardly any years, 220,000
additional occupants were encouraged to move to less polluted zones, as indicated by the World
Nuclear Association.

Effects on Norms
After the Chernobyl disaster the people provoked and demand the complete shutdown of nuclear
power as for the weapon and as well as for the power generation. So the investor took back there
investment from the nuclear power which pressurized the governments to shut down there
nuclear generation and go back on fossil fuel generation.
But much before this disaster UNO had already passed a treaty to avoid these types of disaster
but after this disaster many states signed this treaty. To avoid this type of incidents in future.

Non- Proliferation Treaty

The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of atomic
weapons and weapons innovation, to advance collaboration within the quiet employments of
atomic vitality and to advance the target of accomplishing atomic demilitarization and general
and complete demobilization. The Treaty speaks to the most restricting duty during a multilateral
deal to the target of demobilization by the atomic weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968,
the Treaty went into power in 1970. On 11 May 1995, the Treaty was broadened inconclusively.
A sum of 191 States has joined the Treaty, including the five atomic weapon States. A bigger
number of countries have approved the NPT than another arms restriction and demilitarization
understanding, an indication of the Treaty's importance
The Treaty is considered the cornerstone of the worldwide nuclear non-proliferation regime and
an important foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. It had been designed to stop the
spread of nuclear weapons, to further the goals of nuclear disarmament and general and complete
disarmament, and to market cooperation within the peaceful uses of atomic energy

To further the goal of non-proliferation and as a confidence-building measure between States

parties, the Treaty establishes a safeguards system under the responsibility of the International
nuclear energy Agency (IAEA). Safeguards are wont to verify compliance with the Treaty
through inspections conducted by the IAEA. The Treaty promotes cooperation within the field of
peaceful nuclear technology and equal access to the present technology for all States parties,
while safeguards prevent the diversion of fissile material for weapons use.

Conclusion
In summarized way we can say nuclear reaction is useful in chemistry but in practical life it can
bring the mass destruction to the world we see the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that how
the nation did got destroyed in seconds but after the formation of U.N.O in 1945. The norms
thought world peace would be made but it never happened but it get more worse when it started
the race of mass destruction weapon like hydrogen bomb was being tested by the USSR and
U.S.A in 1952-1963. This caused number of people with cancer and different medical problems.

Opinion
In my opinion, nuclear power should on be used for the generation of power which could fulfill
the needs of the state and the nuclear reactor should be handled with extreme care so we can
avoid the incidents that took place in the past. It should not be used as weapon because it could
endanger the lives of uncountable norms.