Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Creates Dead City On Today's History, April 26, 1986
JAKARTA - On April 26, 1986, suddenly there was a surge of electricity during the test of the reactor system in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union. The accidents and fires that followed released large amounts of radioactive material into the environment.
Citing from History, the Chernobyl reactor is located in the settlement of Pripyat, about 65 miles north of Kyiv in Ukraine. Built in late 1970s on the banks of the Pripyat River, Chernobyl has four reactors, each capable of generating a thousand megawatts of electric power.
On the evening of April 25, 1986, a group of engineers began electrical engineering experiments on the Unit 4 reactor. The engineers, who had little knowledge of reactor physics wanted to see if the reactor turbine could run an emergency water pump with inertia.
As part of a poorly designed experiment, the engineers cut off the reactor's emergency safety system and the power regulating system. Next, they added to this carelessness with a series of faults: the reactor was running at a power level so low that the reaction became unstable, which then gave up too much control of the reactor in an attempt to restart it.
The reactor output then increased to over 200 megawatts but proved increasingly difficult to control. However, on the morning of April 26 at 1:23 a.m., the engineers continued their experiments and turned off the turbine engine to see if inertia spinning would drive the reactor's water pumps.
In fact, it doesn't quite power the water pump. And without cooling water, the power level in the reactor spikes. To prevent damage, the operator reinserts all 200 control rods into the reactor at once.
The control rod is intended to reduce backlash but has a design flaw. The design flaw caused detonation that detonated heavy steel and the concrete cover of the reactor.
This produces steam by an uncontrolled reaction. In the explosions and fires that ensued, more than 50 tonnes of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere, where it was carried away by air currents.
The accident killed 30 operators and firefighters within three months, and several further deaths later. Apart from the operator who died, other people reportedly died at the time from acute radiation syndrome (ARS).
Initially diagnosed in 237 people on-site and only involved in cleaning. However, there were another 134 confirmed cases outside the reactor area. Of these, 28 died from ARS in the weeks following the event.
Meanwhile, more than 19 workers died between 1987 and 2004. But their deaths cannot always be attributed to radiation exposure. Apart from suffering from ARS, some of the exposed people reported thyroid cancer.
In addition, there were cancer patients who were children at the time, most likely radioactivity. In addition, large parts of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and their surroundings are polluted to various degrees.
Rise up as a tourist spot
According to a World Nuclear report, in the last two decades, areas whose inhabitants were evacuated in 1986 were rebuilt. The main resettlement project is in Belarus.
In July 2010, the Belarusian government announced that it had decided to resettle thousands of people in 'contaminated areas' that had been affected by the Chernobyl explosion. The Decree of the Council of Ministers of Belarus resulted in a new national program during 2011-2015 and until 2020 to reduce the impact of Chernobyl and return the area to normal use with minimal restrictions.
The project's focus is on developing economic and industrial potential in the Gomel and Mogilev regions where 137 thousand people were relocated. The initial infrastructure requirements were the repair of gas lines, drinking water, and electricity supply.
Meanwhile, the use of local wood will be prohibited. Schools and housing will be provided for specialist workers and their families ahead of broader socio-economic development.
Overall, around 21.484 shelters are planned to be connected to the gas network in the 2011-2015 period. Meanwhile, around 5.600 contaminated or damaged buildings have been demolished.
More than 1.300 kilometers of roads were built and ten new sewerage works and 15 pumping stations were built. The cost of the work is estimated at USD 2.2 billion, divided fairly evenly over 2011 to 2015.
In 2011, Chernobyl was also officially declared a tourist attraction with many visitors. In 2015, the results of a major scientific study published showed that mammal populations in the exclusion zone - including the 2162 square km Polessian State Radiation Ecological Reserve in Belarus - thrive, despite soil contamination.
"Long-term empirical data show no evidence of a negative effect of radiation on mammal abundance", said the report.
Other studies have concluded that the environmental impact of the crash was on much greater biodiversity and species abundance. The Chernobyl exclusion zone is now a sanctuary for wildlife due to the absence of humans.
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