DISASTER CASE STUDY

PRESENTED BY:

DEEP GAJJAR (18BT01016)

ANUJ PATEL (18BT01050)
NISARG PATEL (18BT01060)
HARSH RADADIYA (18BT01070)
NISHANT RANA (18BT01076)
SHAIL SHAH (18BT01083)
 CHERNOBYL
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant  is a closed nuclear power
plant near the abandoned city of
Pripyat in northern Ukraine, 16.5
kilometers (10 mi) northwest of
the city of Chernobyl, 16
kilometers (10 mi) from
the Belarus–Ukraine border, and
about 100 kilometers (62 mi)
north of Kyiv. It was cooled by an
engineered pond, which is fed by
the Pripyat River about 5
kilometers (3 mi) northwest from
its juncture with the Dnieper.
The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear
accident that occurred on Saturday 26th of 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.
It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and
was caused by one of only two nuclear energy accidents
rated at seven—the maximum severity—on
the International Nuclear Event Scale.
• The accident started during a safety test on an RBMK-
type nuclear reactor, which was commonly used
throughout the Soviet Union. The test was a simulation
of an electrical power outage to aid the development of
a safety procedure for maintaining reactor cooling water
circulation until the back-up electrical generators could
provide power. This gap was about one minute and had
been identified as a potential safety problem that could
cause the nuclear reactor core to overheat. It was hoped
to prove that the residual rotational energy in a turbine
generator could provide enough power to cover the gap.
Three such tests had been conducted since 1982, but
they had failed to provide a solution. On this fourth
attempt, an unexpected 10-hour delay meant that an
unprepared operating shift was on duty.
• During the planned decrease of reactor power in
preparation for the electrical test, the power
unexpectedly dropped to a near-zero level. The
operators were able to only partially restore the
specified test power, which put the reactor in a
potentially unstable condition. This risk was not made
evident in the operating instructions, so the operators
proceeded with the electrical test. Upon test
completion, the operators triggered a reactor
shutdown, but a combination of unstable conditions
and reactor design flaws caused an
uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction instead.
 DISASTER DAY
25th April 1986

• 01:00 The preparation for the test

• 13:47 Lowering of the reactor power halted at 1,600
MW
• 14:00 The ECCS was isolated
• 23:10 The power reduction resumed
 26th April 1986

• 24:00 Operation shift change

• 24:28 Power level is now 500 MW and kept decreasing
to 30 MW
• 24:40 The operator withdrew some control rods
• 01:00 Power had risen to 200 MW
• 01:03 Connecting the fourth main cooling pump to the
left loop of the system 200 MW
• 01:07 Connecting the fourth main cooling pump to the
right of the loop system -
• 01:19 Increased feed water flow to the steam drums
and removed more control rods
• 01:23 The test was started
• 01:23:10 Automatic rods withdrawn from the core
• 01:23:21 Two groups of automated control rods were
back to the core
• 01:23:30 Power kept increasing
• 01:23:40 Emergency button pushed
• 01:23:44 Power is at 300000 MW
• 01:23:48 1st thermal explosion
• 01:23:55 2nd explosion
 HUMAN ERRORS
• Isolation of the emergency core cooling system
• Unsafe amount of control rods withdrawn
• Connection of the four main cooling pumps to the right
and left of the system
• The operator did not have a good mental model of the
system itself
• No confirmation of cues obtained from the system
• Many missed signals before the accident
 AFTER EFFECTS
• Explosion releases 190 tons of radioactive gasses into
the atmosphere
• Fire started that had last 10 days
• 31 people died in 3 months of radiation poisoning
• 134 emergency workers suffered from acute
radiation sickness
• 25,000 rescue workers died since then of diseases
caused by radiation
• Cancer afflicts many others
• Increased birth defects
The disaster also affected the environment like,

• The soil became infertile.

• The ground water

became polluted.

• It had a severe impact on

crops.

• The surrounding air remained polluted for many

years.
 RECOMMENDATIONS
• Have proper Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for
both normal and emergency situations
• Have scheduled trainings and practices for normal and
emergency situations
• Always have a reactor expert on site
• Have operators confirm any cues from the system
before making hypothesis or take action
• Have a team work kind of environment such that every
body is involved
THANK YOU