Chernobyl Disaster

Jordyn Wyatt

OSH 591
Section 1-Introduction

It was April 26, 1986, the unthinkable happened to a Nuclear Power Station in Pryp’yat,

Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster went down in history because of the radiation that escaped from

the explosion. This explosion had a lot of counter parts that led up to the accident. This all started

with an experiment that was not designed properly which led to a massive explosion. (The

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2005) (Workers shut down the reactor’s power-regulating

system and its emergency safety systems, and they withdrew most of the control rods from its

core while allowing the reactor to continue running at 7 percent power. These mistakes

were Compounded by others, and at 1:23 AM on April 26 the chain reaction in the core went

out of control. (The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2005)) There were two deaths

immediately after the first explosion occurred. This had to be the workers that were trying to shut

down the reactor. (Several explosions triggered a large fireball and blew off the heavy steel

and concrete lid of the reactor. This and the ensuing fire in the graphite reactor core released

large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere, where it was carried great distances

by air currents. (The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2005))

During this time there were thousands that had were evacuated (about

30,000(Blakemore,2019)). The city Pryp’yat, Ukraine tried to cover up what happened, but how

could you cover up something with so much radioactive material in the air. It was best for the

people of the city to evacuate and be safe rather than sorry. Being exposed to immense levels of

radiation is not healthy for your body and can cause a lot of damage if not careful. (Exposure to

very high levels of radiation, such as being close to an atomic blast, can cause acute health

effects such as skin burns and acute radiation syndrome (“radiation sickness"). It can also result

in long-term health effects such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Exposure to low levels of
radiation encountered in the environment does not cause immediate health effects, but is a minor

contributor to our overall cancer risk.( EPA, 2006)) Now, when I think of radiation I think of

what my mom does for a living. She is a radiation therapist (treats cancer patients for a living).

Her patients are exposed to high levels of radiation depending on how severe their cancer is and

how deep it has spread. I know stories from patients who have radiation burns and scares. This is

no joke and should have been taken more seriously rather than trying to cover up what happened.

Deaths did come from this incident, there were about twenty-five deaths from the clean-up crew

during the first three months after the explosion. Most were from radiation sickness and cardiac

arrest. ( The Chernobyl Forum,2016) I wish society was more involved in knowing the dangers

of radiation exposure, but this was the late 1980s, so little research was done during this time.

There was a lot that came about after this explosion and now there are different ways to prevent

this from happening again.

Section 2- Failure Analysis of the Incident

Knowing how and why this incident occurred really makes me scratch my head when

reading the articles. As I stated above there was an experiment that went wrong which caused a

huge chain reaction. This led to a whole mess and caused a lot of problems. This all could have

been fixed with simple steps. Knowing from what I learned in my environmental class taking

cautious steps during clean up is crucial and making sure you save as much as the environment

as you can. The crews with clean up took a lot of precautions and they knew how to properly

stop and slow down the spread of the radiation that had been released into the atmosphere. They

had to use helicopters to pour the substances (sand and boron on the reactor debris (NRC,

2021).
Section 2.1- Diagram of the reactor:

This is a multi-chamber system, meaning there are a lot of parts that are going into the

system. This is why it failed when trying to shut it down. There was no one way to shut the

system during that time because it had multiple parts and once one failed it triggered the next one

to fail and so forth. It caused a major back up which caused the explosion. There was no for any

of the substance to escape properly so, it found a way and caused thousands to evacuate. (World

Nuclear, 2022)
Section 2.2- Photos before and After:

Here is what it looked like after the

Here is the power plant intact. incident

Photo: Photo:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/irish- https://www.theatlantic.com/
embassy-in-moscow-concerned-about-food-safety- photo/2019/06/chernobyl-disaster-
in-wake-of-chernobyl-1.2912769 photos-1986/590878/

Now being able to visually see the disaster it honestly does not look that drastic. Its so interesting

that such a small portion of the plant caused so much damage to the city. The amount of

radiation in that reactor changed Pryp’yat, Ukraine forever. Now being able to break down the

system at hand it very important I understand how make sure nothing like this every happens

again. I will being using a bowtie analysis to break down the system and showing what I would

have done differently.

 Section 2.3- Bowtie Analysis:

Threat Preventive Barrier Top Event Mitigative Barrier Consequence

Having a back Building the

Massive Radiation
up shut down Experiment gone building away
explosion escaped
system wrong from civilians

Understanding the
consequences of
having a nuclear During testing
Have proper power station near have civilians
System
sensors to homes be
fails and know when
somewhere
you can the reactor
safe and not
not save is failing
in harms way
yourself or
others
Loss control
Creating when trying Have homes
Harm to
another room to shut down with hazmat
yourself when
Harming to control the clothing
being exposed
yourself when reactor
being too close
to the reactor

Know how to
do proper There should
evacuation be one way
Having a in and one
You need to put strong way out
distance
protective during
between you
barrier evacuation
and the reactor. This bowtie analysis that was taught in Dr. Wilbanks’s class OSH 546. This
Knowing how to way shows what to do if another event occurred like this and how to
properly properly handle it. I know that this Nuclear power station did learn their
distance yourself lesson and I doubt this will ever happen again.
will cause less
harm
Section 3- Lessons Learned

Understanding what the city looks like after this disaster will help us understand what we

need to do for the future. The lessons that I have personally learned in my four years of school is

our environment is so important. EPA is always going to be one step a head of you no matter

where you work. I am going into the construction industry, and I know for sure that I will be

working alongside EPA. I give props to the students who go into the Environmental side of

Occupational Safety and Health here at Murray State.

With the amount of radiation that came from the explosion it destroyed so much of the

environment around the area. (More than 30 years on, scientists estimate the zone around the

former plant will not be habitable for up to 20,000 years ( Blackmore, 2019)). To know now that

it can be thousands of years until any animals or plants can be in that area again we will be more

careful when creating another reactor. As I said before in the illustrations the reactor had

multiple chambers, so a lot was going on. There should have been a single way for the

experiment to go in and one or more ways for it to escape. There should also be a way to shut

down the system immediately so matter where the experiment was during the time. A sensor

could have been in place to automatically shut down the reactor in time as well.

This entire system was a mess from the beginning to end. The power plant should have

been put somewhere more secluded instead of in a populated area to cause any harm to civilians.

The system of the reactor should have been thought out more and the experiment being

conducted should have had further testing before trying out. Knowing and understanding every

single component in your system at hand is so important and will help you tremendously

throughout your career.

 Section 4- Bibliography

“Backgrounder on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant .” NRC.gov, 2021, www.nrc.gov/reading-

rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/chernobyl-bg.html.

Blakemore, Erin. “The Chernobyl Disaster: What Happened, and the Long-Term Impact.”
National Geographic, National Geographic, 20 May 2019,
www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/2019/05/chernobyl-disaster-what-happened-
and-long-term-impact.

“Chernobyl Accident 1986.” Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World

Nuclear Association, World Nuclear Association, 2022, world-nuclear.org/information-
library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx.

“Chernobyl Disaster.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2005,

www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyl-disaster.

EPA. “Radiation Health Effects.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 2006,

www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-health-effects.

“Frequently Asked Chernobyl Questions.” IAEA, IAEA, 7 Nov. 2016,

www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/faqs.

Gartland, Fiona. “Irish Embassy in Moscow Concerned about 'Food Safety' in Wake of
Chernobyl.” The Irish Times, The Irish Times, 31 Dec. 2016,
www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/irish-embassy-in-moscow-concerned-about-food-
safety-in-wake-of-chernobyl-1.2912769.

Taylor, Alan. “Photos from the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media
Company, 3 June 2019, www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/06/chernobyl-disaster-photos-
1986/590878/.