AskEssays.com - Discover essay samples

Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown

4.9 of 5.0 (166 reviews)

Contains
901 words
Category
History

Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 1
Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 2
Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 3
Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 4
Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 5
Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown Page 6
The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Analysis of the Chernobyl Meltdown

On April 1986, Soviet's Union Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded

letting out a massive amount of radiation that would debate of all

Russian citizens for hundreds of years to come. At exactly 1:21 am. on

April, 1986 inChernobyl, a city near the Pripiat River the No. 4

reactor exploded and released thirty to forty times the radiation of

the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombing. The exact causes of the explosion

are not known , however scientists and researchers, under thorough

investigation, have uncovered possible causes to the explosion.1 The

main reason why the explosion occurred was that, the operators of the

plant were attempting to conduct an experiment with the emergency

cooling system turned off, they made six fatal errors which sealed

everyone's fate. Soviet officials clamed that if the technicians,

would have avoided at least one of those mistakes, then the plant

could have been saved.

The technicians began the test one day before the explosion.

They started reducing the reactor's power level so they could run the

turbine experiment. However in order for the plant to run at lower

power they had to turn off the automatic control system, which powered

all emergency limitations that the plant should make in case it goes

out of control. Turning of the cooling system was an unnecessary

action and though it did not cause the explosion, it made the

consequences more fatal. Just then the operator's receive a call from

the local grid controller in Kiev, who needed the power and asked the

technicians to stop lowering it, at what they obeyed. Once that was

done the reactor was running with out the cooling system , which was a

very serious mistake. At 11:10 p.m. the grid controller said he no

longer needed the power, and the operators returned to reducing the

power. At twenty minutes past midnight the operators forgot to set the

regulator properly, it was the second fatal error. Because of the

incorrect regulator settings the reactor's power crashed to 30 MW from

1,000 MW which is too low for the test. At that point the operators

would have abandoned the experiment, but they attempted to rescue it,

for the next time they would be able to conduct would be in one year

only. The senior authorities who had ordered the test would have been

furious and would have found out the regulator problem. So the

operators decided, to pull out the stops to restore the reactor's

power.2 Their third fatal mistake, was the pulling out of control

rods. The plant's rule was to have thirty in at all times however they

left all but six. By 1:00 Am the power risen to 200 MW, which was

still to low for the experiment, however the operators continued. In a

few minutes they made their fourth fatal error, by turning on two

extra pumps to join the six that wee already cooling the core. This

procedure under such low power caused a massive steam disorder. Their

fifth fatal error was the turning off of the automatic shut off, which

would turn off the reactor. At 1:23 a.m. on Saturday April 26, the

workers began the actual experiment. They made their sixth error, by

turning off the last safety system. It took the shift manager thirty

seconds to realize what was happening and shouted at another operators

to press button AZ-5 which would driven all the control rods back into

the core, but because the rods were melted from serious heat they

didn't fit properly into the core. As the manager gloomy eyed looked

down at the control panel several loud banging noises were heard.

Immediately the one thousand tone roof of the reactor blew off sky

high, and brought down the giant two hundred tone refueling crane onto

the core, destroying more cooling systems and 30 fires spread around

the plant. Finally the over-heating and steam build up caused a second

explosion which destroyed the reactor and part of the building. The

graphite began to burn ferociously once exposed to air, as core

reached temperatures as high as 2,800o F a massive amount of

radioactive dust was let out into the air which was picked by winds

and carried thousands of miles into every direction. As well, previous

to the testing the technicians, drew up plans, but did not discuss

them with physicists or nuclear safety staff at the plant. Though they

send experiment plans to the designers of the plant, the designers

never got a chance to take a look and never issued any authority or

made any confirmation. All soviet officials were certain that the

explosion occurred not because of the plant, but ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 901 words of 1801.

Keywords: how was the chernobyl meltdown stopped, chernobyl analysis

Similar essays


Origins of Communism

Throughout the history of the modern world, man has sought out the perfect government. An invincible system of order. And in our search for this ideal system, the idea of holding property in common has been a reoccurring thought. From early Christian communities to modern Marxist states, socialism and more specifically, communism has had an imp...

62 reviews
Download
Somalia

is a nation in eastern Africa. It is situated on the coast of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, along the projection land known as the Horn of Africa. The region was famed in ancient times for its frankincense and myrrh, fragrant substances derived from trees. Modern came into being in 1960, with the union of the former colo...

154 reviews
Download
D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy

When on D-Day-June 6, 1944-Allied armies landed in Normandy on the northwestern coast of France, possibly the one most critical event of World War II unfolded; for upon the outcome of the invasion hung the fate of Europe. If the invasion failed, the United States might turn its full attention to the enemy in the Pacific-Japan-leav...

71 reviews
Download
Influence Of Chinese And Irish

The Laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad The Chinese and Irish laborers answered strongly when asked to help build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts. During the long process the immigrant workers encountered harsh weather and living and working conditions. Their work produced the Great Iron Trail...

104 reviews
Download
Early african societies hist

Early african societies - hist The beginning of time has always played a major role in history. The beginning of time explains the reasons for each and every creature, plant, and unexplainable phenomena that have occurred on this earth. Chapter one of World History: A Topical Approach primarily explains to the reader the different arguments that...

178 reviews
Download
Brief Look at Jewish History

The Jews are a people with a multitude of dilemmas. From the Israelite tribes to the prosperous modern day Israel , bigotry towards the Jews has been greatly evident. The Jewish race has acted as Escape Goat for many crisis throughout history including the black plaque which swept across Europe in the 14th century. The establishment o...

116 reviews
Download
Exploration Motives For

Exploration - Motives For Until the late 1400\'s, Europeans did not know the existence of the two American continents ( North and South America ). To the European explorers, exploring the other side of the Atlantic was like exploring an entire different world, hence the name- the New World. In 1492, Christopher Columbus unknowingly discovered th...

21 reviews
Download
The Fall of Communism in Russia

The Reasons for the fall of Socialism/Communism and the Troubles of Starting the New Democratic System in the Russian Federation "Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky." Boris Yeltsin (b. 1931), Russian politician, president. Remark during a visit to the U.S. Quoted in: Independent (London,...

189 reviews
Download
The Rise of Japanese Militarism

Japan?s political journey from its quasi-democratic government in the 1920?s to its radical nationalism of the mid 1930?s, the collapse of democratic institutions, and the eventual military state was not an overnight transformation. There was no coup d?etat, no march on Rome, no storming of the Bastille. Instead, it was a political...

98 reviews
Download
D-day

What day in your life was the most important? One of the most important days during World War II was . Don't be mistaken by the word it did not all happens in just one day but many days. was just a code name for the day that Operation Overload started. is very well known for the beginning of the end of the war in Europe and Hitler's rule ove...

187 reviews
Download
Israel 3

ISRAEL Israel is a small country in southwestern Asia known as the Middle East. It has the density of 528 per square mile, and the elavation of 3,963 above sea level on the highest point, mount Meron. On the eastern shore is the Mediterranean Sea. Israel was founded in 1948. It's pupose was to be a homland for Jews from all around the wo...

28 reviews
Download
Great Wall of China

In the year 221 B.C.E., there was a great ruler over the Ch'in kingdom in China, named Shih Huang Ti. Shih was power hungry and wanted more land so he gathered his army and captured the surrounding kingdoms. As the ruler of so many kingdoms he became "the first emperor" of China. Shih showed his tyranny when he burned all history books to insur...

207 reviews
Download
The Dairy of Lady Murasaki

Early in history, the male gender has been the dominant force. The male aristocracies has been responsible for producing the writing, arts, and architecture, ?which is traditionally consider to be humanity?s historical legacy.? However, the ?silence voice? will not remain silent, because historians have sought them out. Due to the...

120 reviews
Download
French and indian war

French and Indian War The victory of the English in the French and Indian War initiated a series of actions that eventually caused the American Revolution. These actions consisted of England not allowing the colonists to move westward, starting to heavily enforce the Navigation Laws, and issuing new laws to pay the war debt. After th...

85 reviews
Download
Atsisiųsti šį darbą