CHERNOBYL

DISASTER
Class presentation to Prof. N.B. Singh for CA

Name: DRISTIE KALITA

Class: MSc CHEMISTRY
Paper code: MCE 201
 Introduction
 The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986
in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR.

 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 other being the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.

The day before the Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant
 plant consisted 4 reactors of the RBMK-1000 design
 RBMK (reaktor bolshoy moshchnosty kanalny, high-power channel reactor) is a water-cooled
reactor with individual fuel channels and using graphite as its moderator.
 Produced 10% of Ukraine’s electricity
 Construction began in 1970s
 units 1 and 2 being constructed between 1970 and 1977, while units 3 and 4 of the same design
were completed in 1983
 two more RBMK reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the accident
 to the southeast of the plant, an artificial lake of some 22 sq. kms , situated beside the river
Pripyat, was constructed to provide cooling water for the reactors
Reactor Plant Scenario
 As the reaction occurs , the uranium fuel becomes hot
 The water pumped through the core in pressure tubes removes the heat from the
fuel
 The water is then boiled into steam
 The water turns the turbines
 The water is then cooled
 Then the process repeats
What happened?

Saturday, April 26, 1986

 Reactor 4 was undergoing a test to test the backup power supply in case of a power loss
 The power fell too low, allowing the concentration of xenon-135 to rise
 The workers continued the test, and in order to control the rising levels of xenon-135, the control
rods were pulled out
 The experiment involved the shutting down the coolant pumps, which caused the coolant to
rapidly heat up and boil
 Pockets of steam formed in the coolant lines. When the coolant expanded in this particular
design, the power level went up
 All control rods were ordered to be inserted. As the rods were inserted, the became deformed
and stuck. The reaction could not be stopped
 The rods melted and the steam pressure caused an explosion, which blew a hole in the roof. A
graphite fire also resulted from the explosion
 To save money, the reactor was constructed with only partial containment, which
allowed the radiation to escape

 This dispersed large amount of radioactive particulate and gaseous debris

containing caesium- 137 and strontium-90 which are highly radioactive reactor
waste product
Reasons for the accident
Workers’ lack of physical knowledge of reactor physics and engineering, as well as
lack of experience and training
• 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
Insufficient communication between the safety officers and the operators in
charge of the experiment
Disabled all safety systems
Poor quality (typical Soviet craftsmanship)
• Rushed design
• Lot of corners cut to meet the deadline
The reactor after the explosion
After the explosion, most of
the plant is still standing.
Some might think from this
picture that the disaster
wasn’t all that bad, but what
makes the Chernobyl disaster
the worst in the history is the
sheer volume of radioactive
materials that’s spewed
across the European
continent

Reactors No. 4 and No. 3 after the disaster

Immediate Impact

231 people were hospitalized

immediately due to acute
radiation sickness
31 of them eventually died.
Most of these people were
workers in the plant or local
firefighters.
 Long term impact
International spread of radioactivity
The nuclear meltdown provoked a radioactive cloud which floated over Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
and Moldova and over the European part of the Republic
Radioactive release
Highly radioactive compounds that accumulate in the food chain, such as some isotopes of iodine
and strontium are particularly dangerous
All of the noble gases, including Krypton and Xenon , contained within the reactor were released
immediately into the atmosphere by the first steam explosion
 Residual radioactivity in the environment
Levels of radioactivity (particularly radioiodine: I-131,radiocaesium: Cs-137 and radiostrontium: Sr-
90) in drinking water were cause of concern during the weeks and months after the accident
Bio-accumulation of radioactivity in fish were significantly above guideline maximum levels for
consumption
 Health effects

• Large increase in the incidence of thyroid cancers among the children and
adolescents due to release of high levels of radioactive iodine
• Leukaemia and non-thyroid solid cancer
• Cataracts
• Cardiovascular disease
• Mental health and psychological effects
• Reproductive and hereditary effects and children’s health
What has been done to reduce exposure in the
contaminated areas?
 The Soviet and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) authorities introduced a
wide range of short and long term environmental countermeasures to mitigate the
accident’s negative consequences:
 Decontamination of settlements in contaminated regions
 Exclusion of contaminated pasture grasses from animal diets
 Application of Cs-binders , such as Prussian blue, to prevent contamination of milk and
meat
 Restrictions-
 On public and forest worker access as a countermeasure against external exposure
 Restricted collection of firewood by the public to prevent exposures in the home and
garden when the wood is burnt and the ash is disposed off or used as a fertilizer
THANK YOU!