Perhaps the most infamous nuclear disaster occurred in the USSR (currently Ukraine) at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26th, 1986. At about 1 AM the core of reactor four experienced a catastrophic explosion as a result of a sudden and uncontrolled power increase. The explosion ignited a graphite moderator and released radioactive fuel and core material into the atmosphere[1]. The power increase was caused by a scheduled experiment intended to test emergency core cool-down procedures.
The Chernobyl disaster released four hundred times more radioactive material than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of WWII[2]. The fallout from the disaster significantly contaminated an estimated 100,000 km2 of land in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine[3]. The area surrounding the reactor was not evacuated for over 36 hours after the explosion which has caused serious human health problems. In Belarus, the rate of congenital birth defects increased by 40% in the six years following the disaster[4]. Today, the city of Pripyat remains an untouched and chilling reminder of the danger of nuclear disasters.
(Composed by Dan Kervick, Edited by Ivan Basurto)
References
- Medvedev, Zhores A. (1990). The Legacy of Chernobyl (Paperback. First American edition published in 1990 ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-30814-3.
- “Facts: The accident was by far the most devastating in the history of nuclear power”. Ten years after Chernobyl : What do we really know?. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 21 September 1997. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
- Marples, David R. (May–June 1996). “The Decade of Despair”. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 52 (3): 20–31.
- Marples, David R. (1996). Belarus: From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe. Basingstoke, Hampshire: MacMillan Press.