Chernobyl Disaster

Saurabh Bhavsar
Ameya Borwankar
Akshay Chaubal
Rohan Chaukulkar
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
 There were four reactors

 Reactor type was RBMK-1000

 Capacity of each reactor was 1 GW

What was it ?
 Nuclear accident in the Reactor 4 of the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine

 Worst Nuclear disaster in history in terms of

the amount of radioactive material released

 30 people died including 28 from radiation

exposure.
Reactor Schematic
Reasons for the failure
 Flawed reactor design and Corruption

 Inadequately trained personnel

 Lack of proper regard for safety

Improper Design
 The reactor was designed such that it needed coolant even when not
actively operating.
 The reactor had a dangerously large positive void coefficient
(measurement of how the reactor responds to increased steam formation
in the water coolant). Chernobyl's RBMK reactor, however, used solid
graphite as a neutron moderator to slow down the neutrons, and neutron-
absorbing water to cool the core. Thus neutrons are slowed down even if
steam bubbles form in the water.
 When the rods are initially inserted into the reactor, the graphite ends
displace some coolant. This greatly increases the rate of the fission
reaction, since graphite is a more potent neutron moderator. Thus for the
first few seconds of control rod activation, reactor power output is
increased, rather than reduced as desired. This behavior is counter-
intuitive and was not known to the reactor operators.
 Co-current flow versus cross flow
 Lack of secure containment
Reactor Schematic
Corruption
 It was a design requirement that the rotational momentum of
the steam turbine, as it spun down, could be used to
generate electricity to run the cooling water pumps to bridge
the power gap.
 The test had not been completed successfully by March
1984 when the unit was brought into commercial operation
ahead of schedule and celebrated as a "labour victory".
 Under pressure, the director of the Chernobyl station Viktor
Bryukhanov signed an acceptance document in order to
declare that works planned for that year had been fulfilled.
Had he not done so, thousands of workers, engineers and
his own superiors would have lost bonuses, awards and
other extras. Records were falsified to hide this fact.
Reactor Schematic
Inadequately Trained Operators
 The day shift had been instructed in advance
about the test and was familiar with procedures. A
special team of electrical engineers was present
to test the new voltage regulating system.
 Delay
 The night shift was not prepared to carry out the
experiment
 But it was still carried out
 The operators seem to have been unaware of the
xenon poisoning
Reactor Schematic
Lack of proper regard for safety
 Switching off emergency cooling system
 Use of higher than safe cooling water flow rate
 Manual removal of control rods
 Disabling of the automatic shut down system
 A combustible material had been used in the
construction of the roof of the reactor building and the
turbine hall
 The readings of another dosimeter were dismissed
under the assumption that the new dosimeter must
have been defective.
Sequence of events
 Excessive insertion of control rods
 Excessive removal of control rods even more than
the operating levels
 Commencement of the test at low levels of power
generation
 Excessive water flow rate used
 Experiment started
 Rise in temperature
Sequence of events
 SCRAM started
 Displacement of coolant due to control rods
 Excessive temperature
 Fracture of fuel rods
 Control rods stuck
 Reactor thermal output 30 GW (10 times
normal)
Sequence of events
 Sudden increase in steam pressure
 Bursting of cooling water pipes
 Reactor Lid blown off
 Explosion of either hydrogen or the
graphite
Fallout
 Workers made to stay trying to pump water into
the reactor
 Smoke and steam carry the radioactive material
 Firefighters not told that reactor had blown up
so they too had radiation exposure
 Cloud of radioactive material that scattered the
material (about 10 tons of it)
Fallout
 An authoritative multi-agency study ( including IAEA and
WHO) published in 2006 quantified the effects. Overall
some 56 people were killed or have subsequently died,
including the 9 children from thyroid cancer - which could
have been avoided.
 Among some 600,000 workers exposed in the first year,
the possible increase in cancer deaths "due to this
radiation exposure might be up to a few percent. This might
eventually represent up to four thousand fatal cancers in
addition to the approximately 100,000 fatal cancers to be
expected due to all other causes in this population."