Unit 4

Man-Made Disasters

1 (a). Read the wiki article in group,

Anthropogenic hazards or human-made hazards can result in the form of a human-made

disaster. In this case, anthropogenic means threats having an element of human intent, negligence,
or error; or involving a failure of a human-made system. It results in huge loss of life and property. It
further affects a person's mental, physical and social well-being. This is opposed to natural
disasters resulting from natural hazards, however they often combine.

Types are defined by the causes or hazards, which are basically two: social and technological.
Living aside social ones (disorders and riots, acts of terrorism, genocides and wars), we will consider
technological ones, which encompass: industrial hazards (including chemical toxic (oil) spills, mining
and dam accidents, explosions in plants and power stations, etc.), structural collapse (of bridges and
buildings), power outrage or blackouts, fires and explosions, hazards connected with radiation and
dumping hazardous materials (e.g. ocean dumping), infrastructural hazards (human stampedes,
events on the roads and in tunnels) and transport hazards (connected with trains, aviation, sea and
river transport as well as spaceships).

1 (b). Copy the scheme Human-made hazards below on the blackboard and complete trying not
to look in the text.
Human-made
hazards

Social Technological
hazards hazards
 2. Look at the photos and describe them, then match them to the description of the accident they
depict.

5
6
4

a. Mines are the most

common culprits of geo-
physical hazards triggered by
humans. Earth Scientist, Dr.
Christian Close, PhD
estimates that 50% of all human triggered earthquakes recorded globally are induced by
mines.

b. A damaged seawater intake pump sits outside the Fukushima plant, testimony to the
frantic efforts to control the fuel decay heat last March after power was lost to the cooling
system.

c. Traffic backed up into Dover after a fire in the Channel Tunnel closed the railroad link between
England and France. 

d. The South Korean jetliner that crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport

was flying far too slowly to reach the runway and began to stall just before the pilot
gunned his engines in a futile effort to abort the landing, the National Transportation
Safety Board said Sunday.

e. A ground-rattling explosion Thursday at a chemical plant in Louisiana ignited a

blaze that killed one person and injured dozens of others, authorities said. Witnesses
described a chaotic scene of towering flames and workers scrambling over gates to escape the plant.

f. Like a set of falling dominoes, sections of a major bridge collapsed into the Tubul River near the tiny seaside fishing
village of Tubul following earthquake in Chile. 

Which of the depicted accident struck you most? Discuss in pairs.

3 (a). Read the text and correct the statements below.

10 Worst Man Made Disasters of All Time
Mankind has frequently created catastrophes that devastate the environment and taken lives. The
10 worst man-made disasters of all time are difficult to determine with so many blunders.
However, excluding the loss of life resulting from war, terrorism or transportation disaster, this
list includes the incidents that have had the most affect on people and the environment.

1. London’s Killer Fog

With the advent of industry, London’s population was accustomed to seeing foggy,
pollution laden air. In 1952 however, this pollution took a tragic turn. This winter, the
weather was cold and residents burned more coal in their fireplaces to alleviate the
chill. The smoke laced with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot, and left London
encased in a black cloud of near total darkness and killed over 12,000 people.

2. The Al-Mishraq Fire

Another of the 10 worst man-made disasters of all time was the Al-Mishraq fire on
June 24, 2003. This fire at an Iraqi sulfur plant burned for about a month releasing
sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide can kill people by causing
respiratory problems and also creates acid rain which destroys crops.
3. The Nuclear Power Plant Explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine

On April 26th 1986, the Chernobyl Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
had a major meltdown which resulted in the atmospheric release of radioactive
material four hundred times more radioactive than Hiroshima. Since the accident
there have been countless children with birth defects, a sickening increase of
cancer sufferers and many other health issues as well. It is estimated that the
disaster could result in nearly 100,000 fatal cancers, and the area won’t be safe
for any activity, including farming for up to 200 years.

4. The Kuwait Oil Fires

The Gulf War oil spill is the largest oil spill in history making it one of the 10 worst
man-made disasters of all time. In 1991, following the invasion of Kuwait, Hussein
sent men in to blow up the Kuwait oil wells. They managed to set over 600 ablaze
and these burned for over seven months. The oil spill that resulted from the fires
caused considerable environmental damage.
5. The Destruction of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes at one point in time. However, in
the 1960’s, the Soviet Union diverted the waters from the rivers that fed the lake
to irrigation projects. The sea has now shrunk by 90 percent and the salt and
sandstorms that the devastation created kill plant life and have negative
consequences for hundreds of miles around.

6. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

On March 24, 1989, the American oil tanker the Exxon Valdez collided with the
Bligh Reef. This created an oil spill with far reaching consequences in the Prince
William Sound in Alaska. Over 11 million gallons of oil spilled over nearly 500 miles
polluting the coastline. Over a quarter million birds were killed and countless
other wildlife. Over 11,000 people aided in the clean up process.

7. Dioxin Pollution

On July 10, 1976 in Meda, Italy, a reactor in the ICMESA chemical company
exploded. This led to a toxic cloud of dioxin being released into the atmosphere.
Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man. While no one died as a
direct result of the accident, many children were affected by the serious skin
disease chloracne from the accident.

8. The Love Canal

In the 1940’s a strange smell enveloped the area around the Love Canal near
Niagara Falls. Residents also began to notice an odd seepage leaking into their
yards and people began to fall ill. In addition, many women began to have
miscarriages and give birth to babies with birth defects. Upon inspection, it was
discovered that there was over 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste buried below
the surface of the town by a local company.

9. The Union Carbide Gas Leak

On the night of December 2, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal,
India began to leak methyl isocyanate gas and other poisonous toxins into the
atmosphere. Over 500,000 were exposed and there were up to 15,000 deaths at
that time. In addition, more than 20,000 people have died since the accident from
gas-related diseases.
10. The Three Mile Island Nuclear Explosion

In Harrisburg, PA on March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor
experienced a partial core meltdown. While little radiation was released from the
accident thanks to a working containment system, this accident became the
rallying call for fears about the nuclear power industry. Livestock deaths,
premature deaths and birth defects have been attributed to the nuclear melt-
down.

Man can have a devastating effect on the environment and the 10 worst man-made disasters of all time
have had a negative effect on the environment for decades afterwards. Frequently these disasters are
related to poor industrial oversight within developing countries. However, even with regulation a
catastrophe can strike.

1. In London, 1952, the killer fog was composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and dust.
2. In Al-Mishraq, the fire in the plant which was releasing nitrogen dioxide in the
atmosphere for a year caused skin cancers and acid rains in the area.
3. As a result of an explosion in Chernobyl, the chemicals were released, which threaten
200,000 estimated victims of respiratory diseases in the nearest 100 years.
4. During the Gulf War in 1991 the oil was purposefully spilled over the territory of
Kuwait. The oil was burning a year afterwards.
5. The Aral Sea was drained because of building a power plant on its shores. Its basin has
shrunk by 70% by now.
6. The oil spill in 1989 happened through the collision of the oil tanker with another sea
vessel. The coastline was polluted in the area of 200 miles and 150, 000 birds were killed.
7. In the dioxin accident in Italy a reservoir with the chemical burnt. Having been released
in the air, it caused serious respiratory problems with children.
8. In Love Canal, 1940 there was an explosion which resulted in air and water pollution by
21, 000 tons of radioactive waste.
9. In Bhopal India, 1984 in the plant an explosion released carbon dioxide into the air,
which polluted the land. People were not injured.
10. In Hurrisburg, PA in 1979 The Three Mile Island Nuclear plant there was a partial
reactor explosion which released much radioactivity.
3 (b). What disaster is the described with the flowing words and expression? Not looking in the
text, try and reproduce the essence of the accident setting aside its time and place.

1. pesticide plant, to leak methyl isocyanate, gas toxins, exposed, gas-

related diseases.

2. collide with reef, far reaching consequences, pollute the coastline,

wildlife, aid in the clean up process.

3. a partial core meltdown, working containment system, rallying call for

fears livestock deaths, premature deaths

4. pollution laden air, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, soot, encased in a

black cloud.

5. a major meltdown, release of radioactive material, children with birth

defects, increase of cancer sufferers.

6. a reactor exploded, a toxic cloud of dioxin, affected by skin disease,

chloracne.

7. oil spill, to blow up oil wells, to set ablaze

8. to release sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, to cause respiratory

problems, to create acid rain, to destroy crops.

9. to divert the waters from the rivers, irrigation projects, sandstorms,

devastation, kill plant life, to have negative consequences.

10. smell enveloped the area, odd seepage leaking to have miscarriages toxic
industrial waste.
4. Unfortunately, it happens that human-made accidents are often combined with natural
disasters or may be triggered by them. The Fukushima meltdown is an example of it. However
some set aside the acts of elements as an immediate culprit. Read the text and discuss as a class
the issues indicated below.

A Strategy to Prevent the Next

Fukushima

Background

There was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I

Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. It is the largest nuclear disaster
since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and only the second disaster (along with Chernobyl) to measure Level 7 on
theInternational Nuclear Event Scale.

The plant comprised six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric (GE) and maintained by
the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). At the time of the earthquake, reactor 4 had been de-fueled and reactors 5
and 6 were in coldshutdown for planned maintenance.[8] Immediately after the earthquake, the remaining reactors 1–3 shut
down automatically and emergency generators came online to power electronics and coolant systems. However, the
tsunami following the earthquake quickly flooded the low-lying rooms in which the emergency generators were housed. The
flooded generators failed, cutting power to the critical pumps that must continuously circulate coolant water through
a Generation II reactor for several days to keep it from melting down after shut down. After the pumps stopped, thereactors
overheated due to the normal high radioactive decay heat produced in the first few days after nuclear reactor shutdown
(smaller amounts of this heat normally continue to be released for years, but are not enough to cause fuel melting).

As workers struggled to cool and shut down the reactors, several hydrogen-airchemical explosions occurred. It is estimated
that the hot zirconium fuel cladding-water reaction in each reactor produced 800 to 1000 kilograms of hydrogen gas, which
was vented out of the reactor pressure vessel, and mixed with the ambient air, eventually reaching explosive concentration
limits in units 1 and 3, and due to piping connections between units 3 and 4, unit 4 also filled with hydrogen, with the
hydrogen-air explosions occurring at the top of each unit, that is in their upper secondary containment building.
There were no deaths caused by radiation exposure, while approximately 18,500 people died due to the earthquake and
tsunami. Future cancer deaths from accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima are predicted
to be extremely low to none.

On 5 July 2012, the Japanese National Diet appointed The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation
Commission (NAIIC) submitted its inquiry report to the Japanese Diet, while the government appointed Investigation
Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company submitted its final
report to the Japanese government on 23 July 2012. Tepco admitted for the first time on October 12, 2012 that it had failed
to take stronger measures to prevent disasters for fear of inviting lawsuits or protests against its nuclear plants.

Among the most striking elements of the catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in
Japan were the hydrogen explosions  that destroyed the upper parts of some of the reactor
buildings. The hydrogen was released by a metal called zirconium in the overheated core.
Since that accident researchers have been looking at a variety of ways to prevent a repetition. At
the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit utility consortium, scientists think they have
zeroed in on one strategy: replacing some of the zirconium with a ceramic.

Zirconium is used not for its strength or for its resistance to heat or its price but because it is
nearly transparent to neutrons, the subatomic particles that are released from the nucleus when an
atom is split and go on to split other nuclei in a chain reaction.

Zirconium has always been known to release hydrogen when overheated, and that gas will burn
or explode at a variety of concentrations, making it particularly troublesome. And under some
circumstances, the fire cannot be extinguished with water.

The most prominent use of zirconium at nuclear reactors is in making the long metal tubes that
hold the pellets of uranium fuel. In a boiling water reactor of the type that melted down at
Fukushima Daiichi, each group of zirconium tubes, called a fuel bundle or assembly, sits inside a
so-called channel, a tall metal box that is open at the top and bottom so that fuel can flow
through.

Forty percent of the zirconium in the core is in those channels, said Christine King, the director
of nuclear fuels and chemistry at the research institute. During an accident, she said, operators
hope they can buy “coping time” to stave off the release of hydrogen from the channels.

That expression is widely used by nuclear scientists to refer to how long the reactor can cope
with problems like a loss of electrical power, which led to the meltdown at Fukushima. “A few
hours can make a big difference,’’ she said.

The institute, with $800,000 in research funds from the Energy Department, is looking at the
feasibility of using silicon carbide in place of the zirconium. That is the ceramic that nuclear
engineers use for the “pebble bed” type of reactor: the ceramic wraps around the fuel so that it
cannot get hot enough to melt, and the ceramic will not burn.

It would be easier to persuade the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve its use in the
reactor’s channels than in the fuel itself, they say.
Another potential use that could win early approval is using silicon carbide in the four-bladed
control rod that is inserted between the channels to choke off the flow of neutrons when it is time
to shut a reactor down.

Among the challenges is to manufacture the channels, which are about 10 feet long, in such a
way so that they will not easily shatter or deform as they are heated, which could block the
functioning of the control rods.

Beyond the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, scientists working toward a solution on replacing
zirconium will need to convince reactor owners, who will be reluctant to introduce anything new
that could go wrong.

In normal operation, the existing fuel, with the zirconium fuel and the zirconium channels,
performs nearly perfectly, said Kurt Edsinger, director of nuclear fuels at the institute.
1. What triggered the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown?
2. Why did the workers of the plant fail to prevent the explosion?
3. Did the meltdown cause deaths in the adjacent territories? Are any fatal predictions?
4. What was the fatal role of zirconium in the meltdown?
5. What is “coping time” for the reactor? Why is this term widely used by scientists?
6. What substitution of zirconium is offered as zeroing in on the prevention of the meltdown?
7. How can silicon carbide be used in control rods?
8. What is the basic challenge in introducing the new material with reactors?

5. Watch the slide presentation “Man-made Disasters”. Work in two groups, A and B. Without
looking up the presentation again, Group A chooses a man-made disaster and its representative
puts on the blackboard its features and the representative of Group B puts down on the
blackboard preventative measures to avoid it. The winner is the group which gives the most
exhaustive list.

6. Look through the pictures of the dam accident in Sayanoshushenkaya Power Plant. Make a
subsequent report about the event using the comments to the photos.

7. Watch the fragments “Toxic sludge in Hungary” and “Explosion of the derailed train
carrying crude oil in Quebec”
(a) Fill the gaps in the following video scripts.

Toxic Sludge in Hungary

This is the same just one hundred miles off the Hungarian capital Budapest. People dead,
villages______________, and ecological disaster____________. All it seems because of
a_____________. A ______holding a huge ________of ____________burst. _______suggest a
million cubic metres____________, the equivalent of four hundred Olympic swimming pools. It
was up to __________deep in places. Residents were terrified and forced to run to___________.
These escaped the red ___________from an _______plant, apparently ________four and six
more are__________. They report of survivors being ______________and of others having
serious____________. The material is also slightly ____________and inhaling its ______can
cause__________. A state of emergency is now being _________and disaster units are now
desperately trying to stop the sludge from ___________the Danube. Right now water of
Europe’s major _________is under real _______.
Quebec Oil Train Explosion

At least one passing has _______ and several others are _______after a _______carrying crude
oil _______into enduring fireball in a small Canadian town. The driverless train _____and
crashed into the streets of Lac-Megantic sending ______ hundreds of feet into the air, ______
cars and _________up to thirty buildings. Around 1,000 people were ________from their homes
and local media said that between __________ people are still missing. Four of the seventy three
pressurized ________ blew up when the train _________ the rails sending locals scrambling for
safety. “It was rock as it leapt, there were big balls of fire above the café, we jumped over the
railing, because the street just in a time it took to cross the street, the street was filled with fire, it
was a river of fire.” Huge clouds of thick black _______ were still rising form a Quebec
province several hours after the disaster. The police fear that the ___________ will rise.

(b) Organize a panel discussion of the following:

1. Why is the sludge so dangerous? Could it just drown?

2. What were the immediate aftermaths of the sludge? What are the long-term aftermaths?
3. What is the reason of explosion in Quebeq? Why do you think the train was driverless?
4. What are possible aftermaths of this explosion? What consequences for the environment
can this accident have?
5. Is it likely that the death toll will rise?
6. Could these catastrophes have been prevented? How? Express your own opinion.

8. Make a short photo presentation of a recent man-made disaster according to the following
scheme using:

 place and date

 event (accident)
 reasons
 aftermaths
 preventative measures.