Who lives at the site of the Chernobyl accident. Accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: chronicle and consequences
Chernobyl disaster occurred at 01:23 on April 26: a reactor explosion occurred at the 4th power unit with a partial collapse of the power unit building. In the premises and on the roof started a strong fire. A mixture of the remnants of the reactor core, molten metal, sand, concrete and nuclear fuel spread over the premises of the power unit. During the explosion, it was released into the atmosphere great amount radioactive elements.
Causes of the accident
A day earlier, on April 25, Unit 4 was shut down for preventive maintenance. During this repair, a run-down test of the turbogenerator was carried out. The fact is that if superheated steam is no longer supplied to this generator, it will be able to generate energy for a long time before it stops. This energy could be used in case of emergencies at nuclear power plants.These were not the first tests. The previous 3 test programs were unsuccessful: the turbogenerator gave less energy than expected. The results of the fourth tests were assigned big hopes. Leaving out details, the activity of the reactor is controlled by the insertion and withdrawal of the absorber rods. On Chernobyl nuclear power plant these rods had an unsuccessful design, due to which, when they were abruptly withdrawn, an “end effect” arose - the reactor power, instead of falling, increased sharply.
Unfortunately, such features of the rods were studied in detail only after the Chernobyl disaster, but the operating personnel should know about the “end effect”. The personnel did not know about this, and when simulating an emergency shutdown, that very sharp increase in reactor activity occurred, which led to an explosion.
The power of the explosion is evidenced by the fact that the 3,000-ton concrete cover of the reactor came off, pierced the roof of the power unit, carrying out the loading and unloading machine along the way.
Consequences of the accident
As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, 2 employees of the nuclear power plant died. 28 people died later from radiation sickness. Of the 600 thousand liquidators who took part in the work at the destroyed station, 10% died from radiation sickness and its consequences, 165 thousand became disabled.A huge amount of equipment used during the liquidation had to be written off and left in cemeteries, right on the contaminated territory. Subsequently, the equipment slowly began to go into scrap metal and.
Huge territories were contaminated with radioactive substances. An exclusion zone was created within a radius of 30 km from the nuclear power plant: 270 thousand were resettled in other areas.
The territory of the station was deactivated. A protective sarcophagus was built over the destroyed power unit. The station was closed, but due to a lack of electricity in 1987, it was reopened. In 2000, under pressure from Europe, the station was closed completely, although it still performs distribution functions. The protective sarcophagus fell into disrepair, but there are no funds for the construction of a new one.
April 26 is the Day of Remembrance for those killed in radiation accidents and catastrophes. This year marks 33 years since the Chernobyl disaster - the largest in the history of nuclear energy in the world. A whole generation has already grown up that did not experience this terrible tragedy, but on this day we traditionally remember Chernobyl. After all, only by remembering the mistakes of the past can we hope not to repeat them in the future.
In 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl reactor No. 4, and several hundred workers and firefighters tried to put out the fire, which had been burning for 10 days. The world was enveloped in a cloud of radiation. Then about 50 employees of the station were killed and hundreds of rescuers were injured. It is still difficult to determine the scale of the disaster and its impact on people's health - only from 4 to 200 thousand people died from cancer that developed as a result of the received dose of radiation. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries.
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1. This 1986 aerial view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, shows the destruction from the explosion and fire of Reactor 4 on April 26, 1986. As a result of the explosion and the fire that followed it, a huge amount of radioactive substances in atmosphere. Ten years after the world's largest nuclear disaster, the power plant continued to operate due to an acute shortage of electricity in Ukraine. The final stop of the power plant occurred only in 2000. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik)
2. On October 11, 1991, while reducing the speed of turbine generator No. 4 of the second power unit for its subsequent shutdown and putting the separator-superheater SPP-44 into repair, an accident and a fire occurred. This photograph, taken during a press visit to the station on October 13, 1991, shows part of the collapsed roof of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, destroyed by fire. (AP Photo/Efrm Lucasky)
3. Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, after the largest nuclear disaster in human history. The picture was taken three days after the explosion at the nuclear power plant in 1986. In front of the chimney is the destroyed 4th reactor. (AP Photo)
4. Photo from the February issue of the Soviet Life magazine: the main hall of the 1st power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 29, 1986 in Chernobyl (Ukraine). The Soviet Union admitted that there had been an accident at the power plant, but provided no further information. (AP Photo)
5. A Swedish farmer removes straw contaminated through precipitation several months after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in June 1986. (STF/AFP/Getty Images)
6. A Soviet medical worker examines an unknown child who was evacuated from the nuclear disaster zone to the Kopelovo state farm near Kiev on May 11, 1986. The picture was taken during a trip organized by the Soviet authorities to show how they deal with the accident. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko)
7. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev (center) and his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during a conversation with the management of the nuclear power plant on February 23, 1989. This was the first visit by a Soviet leader to the station since the April 1986 accident. (AFP PHOTO/TASS)
8. Kievans stand in line for forms before checking for radiation contamination after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Kyiv on May 9, 1986. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko)
9. A boy reads an ad on a closed playground gate in Wiesbaden on May 5, 1986, which says: "This playground is temporarily closed." A week after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion on 26 April 1986, the Wiesbaden municipal council closed all playgrounds after detecting levels of radioactivity between 124 and 280 becquerels. (AP Photo/Frank Rumpenhorst)
10. One of the engineers who worked at the Chernobyl NPP undergoes a medical examination at the Lesnaya Polyana sanatorium on May 15, 1986, a few weeks after the explosion. (STF/AFP/Getty Images)
11. Advocacy activists environment railroad cars are marked with dried serum contaminated with radiation. Photo taken in Bremen, northern Germany on February 6, 1987. The serum, which was brought to Bremen for further transport to Egypt, was produced after the Chernobyl accident and was contaminated with radioactive fallout. (AP Photo/Peter Meyer)
12. An abattoir worker puts suitability stamps on cow carcasses in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, on May 12, 1986. According to the decision of the Minister of Social Affairs of the federal state of Hesse, after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, all meat began to be subjected to radiation control. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf/stf)
13. Archival photo dated April 14, 1998. Workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant pass by the control panel of the destroyed 4th power unit of the station. On April 26, 2006, Ukraine marked the 20th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which affected the fate of millions of people, required astronomical costs from international funds and became an ominous symbol of the dangers of nuclear energy. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV)
14. In the picture, which was taken on April 14, 1998, you can see the control panel of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV)
15. Workers who took part in the construction of a cement sarcophagus that closes the Chernobyl reactor, in a memorable photo in 1986 next to an unfinished construction site. According to the Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, thousands of people who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster died from the consequences of radiation contamination, which they suffered during work. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik)
16. High-voltage towers near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant June 20, 2000 in Chernobyl. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
17. The duty operator of a nuclear reactor records control readings at the site of the only operating reactor No. 3, on Tuesday, June 20, 2000. Andrey Shauman pointed angrily at a switch hidden under a sealed metal cover on the control panel of the reactor at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant whose name has become synonymous with nuclear catastrophe. “This is the same switch that can be used to turn off the reactor. For $2,000, I'll let anyone push that button when the time comes," Shauman, acting chief engineer, said at the time. When that time came on December 15, 2000, environmental activists, governments and simple people around the world breathed a sigh of relief. However, for the 5,800 Chernobyl workers, it was a day of mourning. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
18. 17-year-old Oksana Gaibon (right) and 15-year-old Alla Kozimerka, victims of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, are being treated with infrared rays at the Tarara Children's Hospital in the Cuban capital. Oksana and Alla, like hundreds of other Russian and Ukrainian teenagers who received a dose of radiation, were treated for free in Cuba as part of a humanitarian project. (ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP)
19. Photo dated April 18, 2006. A child during treatment at the Center for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, which was built in Minsk after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, representatives of the Red Cross reported that they were faced with a lack of funds to further help the victims of the Chernobyl accident. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)
20. View of the city of Pripyat and the fourth reactor of Chernobyl on December 15, 2000 on the day of the complete shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Photo by Yuri Kozyrev/Newsmakers)
21. Ferris wheel and carousel in the deserted amusement park of the ghost town of Pripyat, next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant May 26, 2003. The population of Pripyat, which in 1986 was 45,000 people, was completely evacuated within the first three days after the explosion of the 4th reactor No. 4. The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred at 1:23 am on April 26, 1986. The resulting radioactive cloud damaged much of Europe. According to various estimates, from 15 to 30 thousand people subsequently died as a result of exposure to radiation. Over 2.5 million people in Ukraine suffer from diseases acquired as a result of exposure, and about 80,000 of them receive benefits. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY)
22. Pictured on May 26, 2003: an abandoned amusement park in the city of Pripyat, which is located next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY)
23. Pictured May 26, 2003: gas masks on the floor of a classroom in a school in the ghost town of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY)
24. In the photo dated May 26, 2003: a TV case in a hotel room in the city of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY)
25. View of the ghost town of Pripyat next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY)
26. Pictured January 25, 2006: an abandoned classroom in a school in the deserted city of Pripyat near Chernobyl, Ukraine. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries. According to scientists, the complete decomposition of the most dangerous radioactive elements will take about 900 years. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
27. Textbooks and notebooks on the floor of a school in the ghost town of Pripyat January 25, 2006. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
28. Toys and a gas mask in the dust in the former primary school abandoned city of Pripyat on January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
29. Pictured January 25, 2006: abandoned gym one of the schools of the deserted city of Pripyat. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
30. What is left of the school gym in the abandoned city of Pripyat. January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
31. A resident of the Belarusian village of Novoselki, located just outside the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in a picture dated April 7, 2006. (AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV) 33. On April 6, 2006, an employee of the Belarusian radiation-ecological reserve measures the level of radiation in the Belarusian village of Vorotets, which is located within a 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)
34. Residents of the village of Ilintsy in the closed area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about 100 km from Kyiv, pass by the rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, who are rehearsing before a concert on April 5, 2006. Rescuers organized an amateur concert dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster for more than three hundred people (mostly elderly people) who returned to live illegally in villages located in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) 37. Construction team wearing masks and special protective suits on April 12, 2006 during work to strengthen the sarcophagus covering the destroyed 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO / GENIA SAVILOV)
38. On April 12, 2006, workers sweep away radioactive dust in front of a sarcophagus covering the damaged 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Because of high level radiation crews work for only a few minutes. (GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images)
For almost eight centuries, Chernobyl was just a small Ukrainian town, but after April 26, 1986, this name began to denote the worst man-made disaster in the history of mankind. The very word "Chernobyl" bears the sign of radioactivity, the imprint of human tragedy and mystery. Chernobyl scares and attracts, and for many decades it will remain in the center of attention of the whole world.
Accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 is the beginning of a new period in the relationship between man and atomic nucleus. A period full of fear, caution and distrust.
An object: Power unit No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the city of Pripyat, Ukraine.
Victims: 2 people died during the disaster, 31 people died in the following months, about 80 in the next 15 years. 134 people developed radiation sickness, resulting in death in 28 cases. About 60,000 people (mostly liquidators) received high doses of radiation.
Causes of the disaster
An unusual situation has developed around the Chernobyl disaster: the course of events of that fateful night on April 26, 1986 is known literally to seconds, all possible reasons the occurrence of an emergency, but it is still unknown what exactly led to the explosion of the reactor. There are several versions of the causes of the accident, and over the past three decades, the disaster has acquired a lot of speculation, fantastic and frankly delusional versions.
The first months after the accident, the main blame for it was placed on the operators, who made a lot of mistakes that led to the explosion. But since 1991, the situation has changed, and almost all charges against nuclear power plant personnel have been dropped. Yes, people made several mistakes, but they all corresponded to the reactor operation regulations in force at that time, and none of them were fatal. So, the low quality of regulations and safety requirements was recognized as one of the causes of the accident.
The main causes of the disaster lay in the technical plane. Many volumes of investigations into the causes of the disaster boil down to one thing: the exploded RBMK-1000 reactor had a number of design flaws, which, under certain (rather rare!) conditions, turn out to be dangerous. In addition, the reactor simply did not comply with many nuclear safety regulations, although it is believed that this did not play a special role.
The two main causes of the disaster are considered to be a positive vapor reactivity coefficient and the so-called "end effect". The first effect boils down to the fact that when water boils in the reactor, its power increases sharply, that is, nuclear reactions begin to take place in it more actively. This is due to the fact that steam absorbs neutrons worse than water, and the more neutrons, the more active the uranium fission reactions are.
And the "end effect" is caused by the design features of the control and protection rods used in the RBMK-1000 reactors. These rods consist of two halves: the upper one (7 meters long) is made of neutron-absorbing material, the lower one (5 meters long) is made of graphite. The graphite part is necessary so that when the rod is pulled out, its channel in the reactor is not occupied by water, which absorbs neutrons well, and therefore can worsen the course of nuclear reactions. However, the graphite rod did not displace water from the entire canal - approximately 2 meters of the lower part of the canal were left without a displacing rod, and therefore filled with water.
It is known that graphite absorbs neutrons much worse than water, and therefore, when completely pulled out rods are lowered in the lower part of the channels, nuclear reactions do not slow down due to the sharp displacement of water by graphite, but, on the contrary, sharply accelerate. That is, due to the “end effect” in the first moments of lowering the rods, the reactor is not shut down, as it should be, but on the contrary, its power increases abruptly.
How could all this lead to disaster? It is believed that the positive steam reactivity coefficient played a fatal role at the moment when the power of the reactor was reduced, and at the same time the speed of the circulation pumps was also reduced - because of this, the water inside the reactor began to flow more slowly and began to evaporate rapidly, which caused an acceleration of the flow of nuclear reactions. In the first seconds, the increase in power was controlled, but then it acquired an avalanche-like character, and the operator was forced to press the button for the emergency lowering of the rods. At that moment, the “end effect” worked, in a fraction of a second the power of the reactor increased abruptly, and ... And an explosion thundered, almost putting an end to not all nuclear energy, and leaving an indelible mark on the face of the Earth and in the hearts of people.
Chronicle of events
The accident at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred so rapidly that until the last seconds all control devices remained operational, thanks to which the entire course of the disaster is known literally to fractions of seconds.
The shutdown of the reactor was scheduled for April 24 - 26 to carry out scheduled preventive maintenance - this is, in general, a common practice for nuclear power plants. However, very often during such shutdowns, various experiments are carried out that cannot be carried out with the reactor running. Just one of such experiments was scheduled for April 25 - testing the “turbine generator rotor run-down” mode, which in principle could become one of the reactor protection systems during emergencies.
This experiment is very simple. Turbogenerators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are units consisting of a steam turbine and a generator that generates electricity. The rotors of these units are combined, and their total mass reaches 200 tons - such a colossus, accelerated to a speed of 3000 rpm, after the steam supply is stopped, can rotate for a long time by inertia, only due to the acquired kinetic inertia. This is the “run-out” mode, and theoretically, it can be used to generate electricity and power circulation pumps when regular power sources are turned off.
The experiment was to show whether the turbogenerator was able to supply power to the pumps in the "coast" mode until the emergency diesel generators returned to normal operation.
From April 24, the reactor power gradually began to decrease, and by 0.28 on April 26, it was possible to bring it to the required level. But at that moment, the reactor power dropped to almost zero, which required the immediate lifting of the control rods. Finally, by 1:00 a.m., the reactor power reached the required value, and at 1:23:04, with a delay of several hours, the experiment was officially launched. This is where the problems started.
The turbogenerator in the "runaway" mode stopped faster than expected, which caused the speed of the circulation pumps connected to it to drop. This led to the fact that the water began to pass more slowly through the reactor, boil faster, and a positive vapor coefficient of reactivity intervened. So the power of the reactor began to gradually increase.
After some time - at 1:23:39 - the instrument readings reached critical values, and the operator pressed the emergency protection button AZ-5. The completely withdrawn rods began to sink into the reactor, and at that moment the “end effect” worked - the reactor power increased many times, and after a few seconds an explosion thundered (more precisely, at least two powerful explosions).
The explosion completely destroyed the reactor and damaged the building of the power unit, a fire started. Firefighters quickly arrived at the scene of the accident, who by 6 o'clock in the morning completely coped with the fire. And in the first two hours, no one imagined the scale of the catastrophe and the degree of radiation contamination. Already an hour after the start of the extinguishing, many firefighters began to show symptoms of radiation damage. People received large doses of radiation, and 28 of the firefighters died of radiation sickness in the following weeks.
Only at 3:30 am on April 26, the radiation background at the crash site was measured (because at the time of the accident, the standard control devices were out of order, and compact individual dosimeters simply went off scale), and an understanding came of what actually happened.
From the first days after the explosion, measures began to eliminate the consequences of the disaster, the active phase of which lasted several months, and in fact lasted until 1994. During this time, over 600,000 people took part in the liquidation work.
Despite powerful explosion, the bulk of the contents of the nuclear reactor remained at the site of the destroyed fourth power unit, so it was decided to build a protective structure around it, which later became known as the "Sarcophagus". The construction of the shelter was completed by November 1986. The construction of the "sarcophagus" took over 400 thousand cubic meters of concrete, several thousand tons of a mixture attenuating radioactive radiation and 7,000 tons of metal structures.
Explosion
Until now, disputes have not stopped about the nature of the explosion of the reactor at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Many experts agree that the explosion was similar to a nuclear one. That is, an uncontrolled chain reaction began in the reactor, similar to what happens when nuclear bomb. These reactions lasted a fraction of a second, and did not turn into a full-fledged nuclear explosion, since the entire contents of the reactor were ejected from the mine, and the nuclear fuel dissipated.
However, the main explosion of the reactor was facilitated by an explosion of a different nature - steam. It is believed that due to the avalanche-like growth of steam generation inside the reactor, the pressure increased many times (in fact, by 70 times), which ripped off the multi-ton plate that covered the reactor from above, like a lid on a pan. As a result, the reactor was completely dehydrated, uncontrolled nuclear reactions began in it, and an explosion.
A different version of what happened was proposed by Konstantin Pavlovich Checherov, a man who devoted more than 10 years to analyzing the causes of the Chernobyl disaster, during which he personally examined virtually every meter of the reactor shaft and the reactor hall of the fourth power unit. In his opinion, due to an emergency shutdown of the pumps, the temperature in the lower part of the reactor rose sharply, the pipelines (the water pressure in them reached 70 atmospheres) broke, and as a result, the entire reactor, like a colossal jet engine, was thrown out of the shaft up into the reactor hall . And already there, under the roof of the hall, there was an explosion that had a nuclear nature, but a relatively small power - about 0.01 kilotons. This explosion destroyed the roof and walls of the reactor hall. That is why virtually all the fuel (90-95%) was ejected from the reactor shaft. Checherov's version for a long time contradicted the official position and therefore remained (and remains) practically unknown to a wide circle.
To imagine the scale of the disaster, you need to understand what the RBMK-1000 reactor is. The basis of the reactor is a concrete shaft with dimensions of 21.6 × 21.6 × 25.5 m, at the bottom of which lies a steel sheet 2 m thick and 14.5 m in diameter. A cylindrical graphite stack rests on this slab, pierced by channels for fuel elements, coolant and rods - in fact, this is the reactor. The diameter of the masonry reaches 11.8 m, the height is 7 m, it is surrounded by a shell with water, which serves as additional biological protection. From above, the reactor is covered with a metal plate with a diameter of 17.5 m and a thickness of 3 m.
The total mass of the reactor reaches 5000 tons, and all this mass was simply thrown out of the mine by the explosion.
Consequences of the Chernobyl accident
The Chernobyl disaster is in the forefront of the most serious man-made accidents in the history of mankind. It had such disastrous consequences that even now - almost 30 years later - the situation remains very difficult.
The explosion of the reactor led to monstrous radiation contamination of the area. At the time of the accident, the reactor contained about 180 tons of nuclear fuel, of which from 9 to 60 tons were released into the atmosphere in the form of aerosols - a huge radioactive cloud rose above the nuclear power plant and settled over a large area. As a result, significant territories of Ukraine, Belarus and some regions of Russia were subjected to pollution.
It should be noted that the main danger is not uranium itself, but highly active isotopes of its fission - cesium, iodine, strontium, as well as plutonium and other transuranium elements.
In the first hours after the accident, its scale remained unknown, but already on the afternoon of April 27, the entire population of the city of Pripyat was hastily evacuated, in the following days people were taken out first from the 10-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and then from the 30-kilometer one. To this day, the exact number of people evacuated is unknown, but according to rough estimates, about 115,000 people were evacuated from more than a hundred settlements in the whole of 1986, and in subsequent years more than 220,000 people were resettled.
Subsequently, around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in a 30-kilometer zone, the so-called "exclusion zone" was created, in which a ban on any economic activity, and in order to prevent the return of people, almost all settlements were literally destroyed.
Interestingly, even now in some contaminated areas, there are over-permissible levels of radioactive isotopes in the soil, plants and, as a result, in cow's milk. This situation will be observed for several more decades, since the half-life of cesium-137 is 30 years, and that of strontium-90 is 29 years.
Over time, the radioactive background in the contaminated areas generally decreases, but this effect has unexpected manifestations. It is known that during the decay of radioactive elements, others are formed, and they can be either less or more active. So, during the decay of plutonium, ameretium is formed, which has a higher radioactivity, therefore, over time, the radioactive background in some areas only grows! It is believed that in the contaminated territories of Belarus, due to the increase in the amount of ameretium, by 2086 the background will be 2.5 times greater than immediately after the accident! The only reassurance is that the bulk of this background is alpha radiation, from which it is relatively easy to protect yourself.
The terrible consequences of the accident caused mass dissatisfaction with nuclear energy, people simply became afraid of nuclear power plants! This led to the fact that in the period from 1986 to 2002 not a single new nuclear power plant was built, and the construction of new power units at existing plants was either frozen or completely stopped. And only the last ten years there has been an increase in nuclear energy, but this applies more to Russia - a new blow was dealt by the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1, and a number of countries have already announced the abandonment of nuclear energy (for example, Germany wants to completely abandon nuclear power plants by the 2030s).
The Chernobyl disaster also had some very surprising consequences. The exclusion zone has long been the subject of dark jokes about mutations and other scary things caused by radiation. But in fact, the situation in those areas is quite different. Almost 30 years ago, people left the 30-kilometer zone, and since then no one has lived there (with the exception of several hundred “self-settlers” - people who returned here, despite all the prohibitions), did not plow and did not sow, did not pollute the environment and did not dump waste. As a result, radioactive forests and fields have almost completely recovered, the populations of animals, including rare ones, have increased many times over, and the ecological situation has generally improved. Paradoxical as it may seem, but the radiation catastrophe was not an evil, but rather a boon for nature!
And, finally, Chernobyl brought to life a new socio-cultural phenomenon - stalking. The exclusion zone perfectly embodies the Zone created by the Strugatsky brothers in the novel Roadside Picnic. Since the beginning of the 90s, hundreds of “stalkers” have been drawn to close the territory, dragging everything that is bad, visiting abandoned cities and striving for the stalker “Mecca” - the post-apocalyptic city of Pripyat, forever frozen in the Soviet past. And no one knows what doses of radiation these unfortunate stalkers received, and what dangerous things they brought home.
Stalkerism acquired such proportions that the government of Ukraine was forced to adopt special legislative acts restricting people's access to the Exclusion Zone. But despite the increased control of the zone's borders and all the prohibitions, the newly-minted stalkers do not give up trying to get into the most mysterious region of the planet, covered with myths and legends.
The current situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Despite the disaster, the Chernobyl NPP resumed its work in the autumn of 1986: already on October 1, power unit No. 1 was launched, and on November 5, power unit No. 2. The launch of the third power unit was difficult because it was in close proximity to the emergency fourth, so he began work only November 24, 1987.
On the evening of October 11, 1991, a serious fire occurred at the second power unit, which actually put an end to the work of the station. On this day, the reactor of power unit No. 2 was shut down, later work began on its restoration, but they were never completed, and since 1997 the reactor has been officially shut down. The reactor of power unit No. 1 was shut down on November 30, 1996. The shutdown of the reactor of power unit No. 3 was made by the President of Ukraine on December 15, 2000 - this event was staged like a show and broadcast live.
So, to date, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not functioning, however, work is being done on it to replace the “sarcophagus” (which is starting to collapse) with a new protective structure. In this regard, about 750 people continue to work on the territory of the station. The progress of work is broadcast around the clock on the official website of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant http://www.chnpp.gov.ua/.
On November 14, 2016, the process of moving the assembled new shelter began - in 4 days it should take its place above the destroyed power unit.
What has been done to prevent a disaster from happening again?
It is believed that the main causes of the Chernobyl disaster were the design flaws of the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor. But these reactors were not only at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but also at several other stations - Leningrad, Smolensk and Kursk. Millions of people are in potential danger!
After the disaster, the question arose of modernizing all these reactors, which was done in subsequent years. Now 11 more RBMK-1000 reactors remain in operation, which no longer pose a danger, however, due to physical wear and tear and moral obsolescence, most of them will be decommissioned in 5-10 years.
Also, the Chernobyl disaster made it necessary to revise the regulations for the operation of reactors and tighten nuclear safety requirements. So, really serious safety measures at nuclear power plants were introduced only after 1986 - before that, it was believed that many accident scenarios were simply unthinkable, and fears were far-fetched.
To date, the global nuclear power industry has become one of the most high-tech industries in which special attention is paid to safety, equipment reliability and personnel training. And this was largely due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which showed that the fission of the atomic nucleus is much more complicated and dangerous than the simple burning of coal.
April 26, 1986... This date will be remembered by several generations of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians as the day and year when a terrible thing happened. When all this happened, perhaps even the most experienced experts did not fully and fully realize what awaited us all later.
The catastrophe of April 26, 1986 resulted in thousands of deaths and diseases, infected forests, poisoned water and soil, mutations of plants and animals. Among other things, a thirty-kilometer exclusion zone appeared on the map of Ukraine, access to which is possible only with a special permit.
This article is aimed not only at reminding readers once again what happened on April 26, 1986, but also at looking at what happened, as they say, from different angles. Now it seems to be no secret to anyone that in modern world more and more often there are those who are willing to pay a lot of money to go on an excursion to these places, and some former residents, who have not taken root in other regions, often return to their ghostly and abandoned cities.
Brief summary of events
Almost 30 years ago, namely on April 26, 1986, the largest nuclear accident in the world occurred on the territory of present-day Ukraine, the consequences of which are felt by the planet to this day.
Explosion at a power plant in the city of Chernobyl atomic reactor the fourth power unit. At the same time, a huge amount of deadly radioactive substances was thrown into the air.
It has now been calculated that only in the first three months, starting from April 26, 1986, 31 people died literally on the spot from radiation. Later, 134 people were sent to specialized clinics for intensive treatment for radiation sickness, and another 80 died in agony from infection of the skin, blood and respiratory tract.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986, April 26 and the following days) needed workers more than ever. More than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the accident, most of whom were military personnel.
Perhaps the most dangerous consequence The accident was a huge release into the environment of deadly radioactive substances, namely isotopes of plutonium, uranium, iodine and cesium, strontium and radioactive dust itself. The plume of radiation covered not only a huge part of the USSR, but also Eastern Europe and the Scandinavian countries, but most of all on April 26, 1986, it affected the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSR.
A lot of international experts have been investigating the causes of the accident, but even so far no one knows for sure the true causes of what happened.
Distribution area
After the accident around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was necessary to designate the so-called "dead" zone of 30 km. Hundreds of settlements were destroyed almost to the ground or buried under tons of earth with the help of heavy equipment. If we consider the sphere with confidence, we can say that Ukraine at that time lost five million hectares of fertile soil.
Before the accident, the reactor of the fourth power unit contained almost 190 tons of fuel, 30% of which was released into the environment during the explosion. In addition, at that time, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during operation were in the active phase. It was they who, according to experts, represented the greatest danger.
Over 200,000 sq. km of surrounding land was contaminated with radiation. The deadly radiation spread like an aerosol, gradually settling on the surface of the earth. Pollution of the territories then mainly depended only on those regions, in which it rained on April 26, 1986 and the next few weeks.
Who is to blame for what happened?
In April 1987, a court session was held in Chernobyl. One of the main culprits at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was recognized as the director of the station, a certain V. Bryukhanov, who initially neglected the elementary safety rules. Subsequently, this person deliberately underestimated the data on the level of radiation, did not put into effect an evacuation plan for workers and the local population.
Also, along the way, facts of gross neglect of their official duties were discovered on April 26, 1986 by the chief engineer of the Chernobyl N. Fomin and his deputy A. Dyatlov. All of them were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The head of the same shift at which the accident happened (B. Rogozhkin) was sentenced to another five years, A. Kovalenko, his deputy, to three, and Yu. Laushkin, state inspector of Gosatomenergonadzor, to two.
At first glance, this may seem cruel enough, but if all these people had shown great caution in working at such a dangerous enterprise as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the catastrophe on April 26, 1986 would hardly have happened.
Alert and evacuate the population
The expert commission argues that after the accident, the first thing to do was to immediately evacuate the population, but no one took the responsibility to take necessary solutions. Had the opposite happened then, human casualties could have been tens or even hundreds of times less.
In practice, it turned out that people did not know anything about what had happened all day. On April 26, 1986, someone worked on a personal plot, someone was preparing the city for the upcoming kindergarten kids walking on the street, and schoolchildren, as if nothing had happened, were doing physical education in the fresh air, as it seemed to them.
Work on the removal of the population began only at night, when an official order was issued to prepare for evacuation. On April 27, a directive was announced on the complete evacuation of the city, scheduled for 14.00.
So the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the disaster on April 26, 1986, which deprived many thousands of Ukrainians of their homes, turned the modest satellite town of Pripyat into a terrible ghost with devastated parks and squares and dead, deserted streets.
Panic and provocation
When the first rumors about the accident passed, part of the population decided to leave the city on their own. Already on April 26, 1986, closer to the second half of the day, many women in panic and despair, picking up babies in their arms, literally ran along the road away from the city.
Everything would be fine, but it was done through the forest, the dose of pollution of which actually many times exceeded all permissible indicators. And the road... According to eyewitnesses, the asphalt pavement shone with some strange neon tint, although they tried to fill it with plenty of water mixed with some white solution unknown to a simple man in the street.
It is very unfortunate that serious decisions on the rescue and evacuation of the population were not made in time.
And, finally, only a few years later it became clear that the special services Soviet Union were aware of the procurement of three tons of meat and fifteen tons of butter in the territories that were directly affected Chernobyl tragedy April 26, 1986 Despite this, they decided to recycle radioactive products, adding relatively pure components to them. In accordance with the decision taken, this radioactive meat and butter was transported to many large plants in the country.
The KGB also knew for sure that during the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, defective equipment from Yugoslavia was used, it was also familiar with various kinds of miscalculations in the design of the station, the delamination of the foundation and the presence of cracks in the walls ...
What was done anyway? Attempts to prevent more grief
At about half past one in the night in the city of Chernobyl (1986, April 26), the local fire department received a signal about a fire. The guard on duty went to the call and almost immediately transmitted a high-complexity fire signal.
Upon arrival, the special team saw that the roof of the engine room and the huge reactor room were on fire. By the way, today it has been established that when extinguishing that terrible fire, the guys who were engaged in the reactor hall suffered the most.
Only at 6 o'clock in the morning the fire was completely extinguished.
In total, 14 vehicles and 69 employees were involved. Of the overalls, people who carried out such an important mission had only canvas overalls, a helmet and mittens. The men put out the fire without gas masks, as high temperature it was simply impossible to work in them.
Already at two o'clock in the morning the first victims of radiation appeared. People began to experience severe vomiting and general weakness, as well as the so-called "nuclear sunburn". It is said that some of the skin of the hands was removed along with the mittens.
Desperate firefighters did their best to prevent the fire from reaching the third block and beyond. The station staff, however, began extinguishing local fires in various areas of the station and took all necessary measures to prevent a hydrogen explosion. These actions helped prevent an even greater man-made disaster.
Biological consequences for all mankind
Ionizing radiation, when it hits all living organisms, has a detrimental biological effect.
Radiation radiation leads to the destruction of biological matter, mutations, changes in the structure of organ tissues. Such irradiation contributes to the development of various types of oncological disorders of the vital functions of the body, changes and decay of DNA, and as a result leads to death.
A ghost town called Pripyat
Several years following the man-made disaster, this locality aroused the interest of various specialists. They came here en masse, trying to measure and analyze the level of the contaminated territory.
However, in the 90s. Pripyat began to attract more and more attention from scientists interested in environmental changes in the environment, as well as issues of transformation natural area city, completely left without anthropogenic influence.
many Ukrainian scientific centers conducted an assessment of changes in flora and fauna in the city.
Stalkers of the Chernobyl zone
First of all, it is worth noting that stalkers are people who, by hook or by crook, penetrate the exclusion zone. Chernobyl fans of extreme sports are conditionally divided into two categories, differing in their appearance used slang, photographs and prepared reports. The first - curious, the second - ideological.
Agree, now you can really find a lot of information in the media
The first victims of a powerful leak of radioactive substances were the workers of the nuclear power plant. The explosion of a nuclear reactor claimed the lives of two workers immediately. In the next few hours, several more people died, and for several days the death rate among the workers of the station continued to increase. People were dying from radiation sickness.
The accident occurred on April 26, 1986, and on April 27, residents of the nearest city of Pripyat were evacuated, who complained of nausea, headaches and other symptoms of radiation sickness. By that time, 36 hours had passed since the accident.
28 station workers died four months later. Among them were heroes who put themselves in mortal danger to stop further leakage of radioactive substances.
At the time of the accident and after it, south and east winds prevailed, and the poisoned air masses were directed to the northwest, to Belarus. The authorities kept the incident a secret from the world. However, soon the sensors at the nuclear power plants in Sweden signaled the danger. Then Soviet authorities I had to confess what had happened to the world community.
Within three months of the disaster, 31 people died from radiation. About 6,000 people, among whom were residents of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, fell ill with thyroid cancer.
Many doctors in countries of Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, women were advised to have abortions to avoid getting sick. This was not necessary, as it turned out later. But because of the panic, the accidents were greatly exaggerated.
Environmental implications
Shortly after the leak of radioactive substances at the station, trees died in the contaminated area. The area began to be called "forest" because the dead trees became reddish in color.
The damaged reactor was filled with concrete. How effective this measure was, and how useful it will be in the future, remains a mystery. Plans to build a more reliable and safe "sarcophagus" are waiting to be implemented.
Despite the contamination of the area, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant continued to operate for several years after the accident, until its last reactor was shut down in 2000.
The plant, the ghost towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat, along with a fenced-off area known as the "exclusion zone", are closed to the public. However, a small group of people have returned to their homes in the disaster area and continue to live there despite the risks. Also, scientists, representatives of the authorities and other specialists are allowed to visit the contaminated area for the purpose of inspections and research. In 2011, Ukraine opened access to the accident site to tourists wishing to see the consequences of the disaster. Naturally, a fee is charged for such an excursion.
Modern Chernobyl is a kind of reserve where wolves, deer, lynxes, beavers, eagles, wild boars, elks, bears and other animals are found. They live in dense forests surrounding the former nuclear power plant. Only a few cases of detection of animals suffering from radiation with a high content of cesium-137 in the body have been recorded.
However, this does not mean that the ecosystem around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has returned to normal. Due to the high levels of radiation, the area will not be safe for human habitation for another 20,000 years.