Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences

Key Facts

The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the
former Soviet Union, is the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power to
cause fatalities from radiation. It was the product of a severely flawed Soviet-era reactor
design, combined with human error. Much of the underlying circumstances were
particular to the Chernobyl reactor and the Soviet government’s response.
Key differences in U.S. reactor design, regulation and emergency preparedness mean that
an accident like the one that took place at Chernobyl could not occur in the United States.
The reactor built at Chernobyl is a RBMK reactor, which was never built by any country
outside the USSR because it had characteristics that were rejected everywhere outside the
Soviet Union. Chief among these was its inherent instability, especially on startup and
shutdown. Because of the way the reactor used graphite where American reactors use
water, when Soviet operators tried to reduce power the RBMK had a tendency to sharply
increase power production instead. As overheating became more severe, power increased
even more.

Thirty-one people died within a few weeks of the accident from the initial steam
explosion, exposure to radiation and thermal burns, and one due to cardiac arrest.

In 2018, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR) reported that the accident also was responsible for nearly 20,000
documented cases of thyroid cancer among individuals who were under 18 years of age at
the time of the accident in the three affected countries including Belarus, Ukraine and the
Russian Federation. This was due to the high levels of radioactive iodine released from
the Chernobyl reactor in the early days after the accident. Radioactive iodine was
deposited in pastures eaten by cows who then concentrated it in their milk which was
subsequently ingested by children. This was further exacerbated by a general iodine
deficiency in the local diet causing more of the radioactive iodine to be accumulated in
the thyroid.

Both the IAEA and UNSCEAR report that health studies of cleanup workers fail to
provide a direct correlation between radiation exposure and an increase of any other
forms of cancer attributable to radiation exposures. However, the psychological effects of
Chernobyl remain widespread and profound resulting in suicides, alcohol abuse and
apathy.

Most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas received relatively low
whole-body radiation doses, according to a United Nations study published in 2008. The
study found no evidence of increases in solid cancers, decreased fertility or congenital
malformations. However, there is “some evidence of a detectable increase” in leukemia
and cataract risk among workers who received higher radiation doses when engaged in
recovery at the site. Long-term health monitoring of these workers is ongoing.

What Happened

The accident, which occurred at reactor 4 of the plant in the early morning of April 26,
1986, resulted when operators took action in violation of the plant’s procedures.
Operators ran the plant at very low power, without adequate safety precautions and
without properly coordinating or communicating the procedure with safety personnel.

The four Chernobyl reactors were pressurized water reactors of the Soviet RBMK design,
or Reactor BolshoMoshchnosty Kanalny, meaning “high-power channel reactor.”
Designed to produce both plutonium and electric power, they were very different from
standard commercial designs and employed a unique combination of a graphite
moderator and water coolant.

The reactors were highly unstable at low power, due to control rod design and “positive
void coefficient,” factors that accelerated the nuclear chain reaction and power output if
the reactors lost cooling water.

These factors all contributed to an uncontrollable power surge that led to Chernobyl 4’s
destruction. The power surge caused a sudden increase in heat, which ruptured some of
the pressure tubes containing fuel.

The hot fuel particles reacted with water and caused a steam explosion, which lifted the
1,000-metric-ton cover off the top of the reactor, rupturing the rest of the 1,660 pressure
tubes, causing a second explosion and exposing the reactor core to the environment. The
fire burned for 10 days, releasing a large amount of radiation into the atmosphere.

The Chernobyl plant did not have the fortified containment structure common to most
nuclear power plants elsewhere in the world. Without this protection, radioactive material
escaped into the environment.

After the accident, the crippled Chernobyl 4 reactor was originally enclosed in a concrete
structure that was growing weaker over time. As of November 2018, it is now encased in
an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus which is expected to last 100 years or more.

Officials shut down reactor 2 after a building fire in 1991 and closed Chernobyl 1 and 3
in 1996 and 2000, respectively.
Dealing with the Consequences

Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl 4 reactor contained about 190 metric tons of
uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. An estimated 13 to 30 percent of this escaped
into the atmosphere. Contamination from the accident scattered irregularly, depending on
weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and western scientists indicate that Belarus
received about 60 percent of the contamination. A large area in the Russian Federation
south of Bryansk also was contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.

Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36
hours of the accident. In 1986, 115,000 people were evacuated. The government
subsequently resettled another 220,000 people.

However, the United Nations study found significant shortcomings in the Soviet Union’s
implementation of countermeasures. “In the first few weeks, management of animal
fodder and milk production (including prohibiting the consumption of fresh milk) would
have helped significantly to reduce doses to the thyroid due to radioiodine,” according to
the study. “There is no doubt that a substantial contributor to the excess incidence of
thyroid cancer has been exposure to radioiodine released during the Chernobyl accident.”

While the Soviets’ initial countermeasures were deemed inadequate, over the next few
years the government implemented extensive measures to protect the public. These
measures included:

1. to decontaminating settlements

2. removing substantial amounts of food from human consumption

3. treating pasture

4. providing clean (i.e., noncontaminated) fodder to farm animals.

“In part because of the countermeasures taken, the resulting radiation doses were
relatively low … and should not lead to substantial health effects in the general
population that could be attributed to radiation exposure from the accident,” the study
concluded. The average radiation dose in “contaminated areas” was about equivalent to
that from a computed tomography scan, according to the study.
A Safety Comparison with the U.S.

A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) identified two important
differences between the conditions that led up to the Chernobyl disaster and the U.S.
nuclear energy program:

The first key difference is in how the plants are designed and built. All U.S. power
reactors have extensive safety features to prevent large-scale accidents and radioactive
releases. The Chernobyl reactor had no such features and was unstable at low power
levels.

Second, federal regulations require extensive emergency preparedness planning for all
U.S. nuclear energy facilities. NAS cited three factors:

Stringent emergency preparedness plans. Even with the Chernobyl reactor’s poor
design, officials could have averted many radioactive exposures to the population with an
effective emergency response. Key personnel at all U.S. power reactors work with
surrounding populations on an ongoing basis to prepare for an orderly and speedy
evacuation in the unlikely event of an accident.

Alert and notification. Chernobyl plant operators concealed the accident from
authorities and the local population, and thus the government did not even begin limited
evacuations until about 36 hours after the accident. In the United States, nuclear power
plant operators are required to alert local authorities and make recommendations for
protecting the public within 15 minutes of identifying conditions that might lead to a
significant release—even if such a release has not occurred. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission posts resident inspectors at every nuclear power plant site to ensure the
plants are following federal safety requirements.

Protecting the food chain. Since authorities did not promptly disclose details of the
Chernobyl accident, many people unknowingly consumed contaminated milk and food.
This would not be the case in the United States. As it did following the Three Mile Island
nuclear accident in 1979, the federal government would carefully monitor and test food
and water supplies that potentially could become contaminated. Under existing federal
programs and regulations, the government would quarantine and remove from public
consumption any unsafe food or water. In addition, after the accident at the Fukushima
Daiichi reactors in Japan in March 2011, the U.S. strengthened protections of the public
from contaminated milk and food by conducting specialized training and drills with
farmers and agricultural producers.
Currently resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing. In 2011,
Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction.