Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion : A

Systems Engineering Perspective

 Introduction
26th April 1986, the world witnessed one of its grave disasters,
which took place in Pipryat, USSR, when tons of radioactive
material was leaked into the atmosphere

The reactor #04 at Chernobyl plant exploded due to overheating

mainly caused by the power extraction at shut down stage of the
reactor and improper monitoring of coolant flow into its core

The accident is mainly ascribed to operational failure of the plant

Till date it remains to be the worlds worst Nuclear accident in

terms of cost and casualties.

About 500,000 worked at site being exposed to lethal doses of

radiation and 18 Billion Rubles was spent to atone the damage
Abstract
The Chernobyl Nuclear explosion is mainly
attributed to technical and operational failure,
however an in-depth study reveals that there were
other factors such improper plant design, lack of
coordination among plant staffs and safety facilities

Hence this report with the Chernobyl plant as the

systems of interest will investigate several factors
that played both major and minor role in causing
the explosion in systems engineering perspective

Besides the V- Model we plan to use Risk

Assessment, fault tree diagram and causal loops to
support our observations
 Measure
Causes

Effects

Negligence of the Large scale exposure to

high dosage of
operating procedure Reactor #04
Lack of coordination radiations leading to
Break down cancer
Improper plant
design Discontentment from
Large time delay neighboring nations
between reactor shut Huge loss in terms lives
down and starting of assets and money
backup generator

Enabl
ers