The Chernobyl
Disaster
D.Gopinadh
K . SAI KUMAR
2200031312@gmail.com
2200031359@kluniversity.in
ABSTRACT
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed
reactor design that was operated with inadequately
trained personnel.
The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least
5% of the radioactive particles into the environment,
spread in many parts of Europe. Two Chernobyl plant
workers died due to the explosion on the night of the
accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks
as a result of acute radiation syndrome.
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects
of Atomic Radiation has concluded that, apart from some
5000 thyroid cancers resulting in 15 fatalities, there is no
evidence of a major public health impact attributable to
radiation exposure 20 years after the accident.
Some 350,000 people were evacuated as a result of the
accident, but resettlement of areas from which people
were relocated is ongoing. On 24 February Ukraine
informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that
Russian forces had taken control of all facilities at
Chernobyl.
KEYWORDS
Chernobyl, Radiation, Cancer, Accident, Explosion.
INTRODUCTION
The Chernobyl disaster also called the Chornobyl
disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26
April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the
north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is
one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at the
maximum severity on the International Nuclear
Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima
nuclear disaster in Japan. The initial emergency
response, together with later decontamination of the
environment, involved more than 500,000 personnel
and cost an estimated roughly US$68 billion in
2019, adjusted for inflation.
the accident occurred during a safety test meant to
measure the ability of the steam turbine to power the
emergency feedwater pumps of an RBMK-type
nuclear reactor in the event of a simultaneous loss of
external power and major coolant leak. During a
planned decrease of reactor power in preparation for
the test, the operators accidentally dropped power
output to near-zero, due partially to xenon
poisoning. While recovering from the power drop
and stabilizing the reactor, the operators removed a
number of control rods which exceeded limits set by
the operating procedures. Upon test completion, the
operators triggered a reactor shutdown. Due to a
design flaw, this action resulted in localized
increases in reactivity within the reactor. This
resulted in rupture of fuel channels, leading to a
rapid decrease in pressure which caused the coolant
to flash to steam. This decreased neutron absorption,
leading to an increase in reactor activity, which
further increased coolant temperatures. This process
resulted in steam explosions and melting of the
reactor core.
BACKGROUND
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, On April 26, 1986, - A
routine 20-second shut down of the system seemed to be
another test of the electrical equipment. But seven
seconds later, a surge created a chemical explosion that
released nearly 520 dangerous radionuclides into the
atmosphere.
A sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test
destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at
Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. The
accident and the fire that followed released massive
amounts of radioactive material into the environment. Figure 1
Emergency crews responding to the accident used
helicopters to pour sand and boron on the reactor debris.
The sand was to stop the fire and additional releases of
radioactive material; the boron was to prevent additional The meltdown and explosions ruptured the reactor
nuclear reactions. core and destroyed the reactor building. This was
immediately followed by an open-air reactor core
fire which lasted until 4 May 1986, during which
airborne radioactive contaminants were released
which were deposited onto other parts of the USSR
and Europe. Approximately 70% landed in Belarus.
The fire released about the same amount of
radioactive material as the initial explosion. After
the initial accident, a 10kilometre radius exclusion
zone was created 36 hours after the accident, from
which approximately 49,000 people were evacuated,
primarily from Pripyat. The exclusion zone was later
increased to 30 kilometres and an additional 68,000
Figure 2 people were evacuated.

The accident occurred during a safety test meant to

measure the ability of the steam turbine to power the
emergency feedwater pumps of an RBMK-type nuclear
reactor in the event of a simultaneous loss of external
power and major coolant leak. During a planned decrease
of reactor power in preparation for the test, the operators
accidentally dropped power output to near-zero, due
partially to xenon poisoning. While recovering from the
power drop and stabilizing the reactor, the operators
removed a number of control rods which exceeded limits
set by the operating procedures. Upon test completion,
the operators triggered a reactor shutdown. Due to a
design flaw, this action resulted in localized increases in
reactivity within the reactor. This resulted in rupture of
fuel channels, leading to a rapid decrease in pressure
which caused the coolant to flash to steam. This
decreased neutron absorption, leading to an increase in
reactor activity, which further increased coolant
temperatures. This process resulted in steam explosions
and melting of the reactor core.
Following the reactor explosion, which killed two
engineers and severely burned two more, a massive
emergency operation to put out the fire, stabilize the
reactor, and clean up the ejected radioactive material
began. During the immediate emergency response,
237 workers were hospitalized, of which 134
exhibited symptoms of acute radiation syndrome.
Among those hospitalized, 28 died within the
following three months, all of whom were
hospitalized for ARS. In the following 10 years, 14
more workers, 9 who had been hospitalized with
ARS died of various causes mostly unrelated to
radiation exposure.
 References

[1] “wikipedia,” 2022 09 20. [Online]. Available:

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

[2] [Online]. Available:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
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[3] [Online]. Available: A.A. Abagyan, V.G. Asmolov,

A.K. Gusikova et al., the information on the
Chernobyl accident and its consequences, prepared
Figure 3 for IAEA, At Energ. 3(5):1986..

[4] [Online]. Available: R.M. Barkhudarov et al.,

Chernobyl's health effects to the general population are Characterization of Irradiation Levels of the
uncertain. The official death toll directly attributed to Population in the Controlled Areas within the First
Chernobyl that is recognized by the international Four Years after the Chernobyl NPP Accident,
community is just 31 people. In Ukraine, 6,000 children Institute of Biophysics, Moscow, 1994..
are born every year with genetic heart defects. The most
widely cited studies by the World Health Organization [5] [Online]. Available:
predict an eventual 4,000 fatalities in Ukraine, Belarus https://worldnuclear.org/information-
and Russia. library/safety-andsecurity/safety-of-
plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx.
CONCLUSION
[6] [Online]. Available:
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in https://www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyldisast
1986 was a tragic event for its victims, and those most er.
affected suffered major hardship. Some of the people who
dealt with the emergency lost their lives. Although those
exposed as children and the emergency and recovery
workers are at increased risk of radiationinduced effects,
the vast majority of the population need not live in fear
of serious health consequences due to the radiation from
the Chernobyl accident. For the most part, they were
exposed to radiation levels comparable to or a few times
higher than annual levels of natural background, and
future exposures continue to slowly diminish as the
radionuclides decay. Lives have been seriously disrupted
by the Chernobyl accident, but from the radiological
point of view, generally positive prospects for the future
health of most individuals should prevail. Major
accidents in nuclear reactors are rare, but the
consequences are catastrophic. There are many causes of
nuclear accidents, but their main cause is often human
error due to misinterpretation of the warning signals of an
accident.