Chernobyl Presentation

1. Where is Chernobyl
Is in northern Ukraine, Its 10 miles away from Belarus and 80 miles (130) km) north of Kiev.
The city Pripyat, which was called after the river Pripyat had to the time of Chernobyl 49.360
citizens. So, the town Pripyat was next to Chernobyl, as well as the river. The old town of
Chornobyl, which had a population of 12,500. Within a 30 km radius of the power
plant, the total population was between 115,000 and 135,000 at the time of the
accident.

2. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The Chernobyl Power Complex consisted of four nuclear reactors. Units 1 and 2 were
constructed between 1970 and 1977, while units 3 and 4 of the same design were
completed in 1983. Two more reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the
accident. To the southeast of the plant, an artificial lake was constructed to provide cooling
water for the reactors.

3. 1986 Chernobyl accident

On 25 April, the reactor crew at Chernobyl 4 began preparing for a test to determine how
long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps in case of a power
loss. This test had been carried out at Chernobyl the previous year, but the power from the
turbine ran down too rapidly, so new voltage designs were to be tested.

The power fell to low and the workers continued the test and in order to control the rising
levels the control rods were pulled out so the the experiment involved shutting down the
coolant pumps, which caused the coolant to rapidly heat up and boil, so the power level
went up. The rods melted and the steam pressure caused an explosion which blew a hole in
the rood. To save money, the reactor was constructed with only a partial containment,
which allowed the radiation to escape.

4. Reasons for the accidents

Poor quality, it was a typical soviet craftsmanship, which was a rushed design but also there
where a lot of deadlines that were just not met.

There was also a lack of knowledge of reactor physics and engineering, as well as lack of
experience and training. On top of that the night shift was not prepared to carry out the
experiment, but they still chose to carry it out. And also the operators seemed to be
completely unaware about the poisoning.

The communication between the safety officers and the operators regarding the experiment
was very poor.
Disabled all safety systems, who was responsible for that we will see on the next slide.

5. Who was responsible?

So here, ill tell you more about some very important people who were included in
Chernobyl, but also who was part of the nightshift.

So Viktor Bryukhanov was the director since 1970 of Chernobyl plant. He was arrested in
August 1986, he was 10 years in prision for “serious errors and shortcomings in the work
that lead to the accident”, because he was guilty of gross violation of safety regulations as
well as for abuse of power.
During construction, deadlines were missed due to tight schedules, lack of construction
equipment, and defective materials were also present.

There was even an another accident in reactor 1 and it wasn’t even published but it came
our later and he didn’t seen the need to fix that. Bryukhanov also postponed an outstanding
time-consuming safety test of reactor 4. And during the accident he continued to deny that
the reactor 4 had exploded. He also said to the government the situation was under control.

So keep in mind thousands of police arrived and, as with the fire fighters, they have no
knowledge of radiation, no dosimeters or protective clothing.

Nikolai Fomin
As chief engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and he approved the experiement
which led to the explosion. He even ordered to some workers to climb to the roof and survey
the reactor; workers returned and reported to Fomin and Bryukhanov that the reactor was
destroyed. The managers refused to believe them.
For health reasons, he was released from prison early, and transferred to a psychiatric
hospital.

Anatoly Dyatlov was deputy chief-engineer of the Nuclear Power Plant. He supervised the
safety test. Together with Nikolai Fomin and Viktor Bryukhanov, Dyatlov was tried for failure
to follow safety regulations. He was also found guilty and they were sentenced to ten years
in prison. He wrote a book in which he claimed that poor plant design, rather than plant
personnel, was primarily responsible for the accident.

Waleri Legassow

He was a Soviet scientist in the field of chemistry. Legassov was a key figure in the
government commission. He needed to investigate the causes of the disaster and develop a
plan to eliminate its consequences. He made the most important decisions to avoid more
explosions, among other things, and informed the government including the President
Gorbachev about the situation in the zone. He immediately reported the safety risks of the
destroyed reactor to the press and called for the immediate evacuation of the city of
Prypyat. In August 1986, he presented the report to the Soviet delegation. His report on the
extent and consequences of the disaster did not seem very convincing. The numbers were
described as "too high" and the extent of the disaster should be estimated lower.

He had a big responsibility over the consequences but also a pressure (wanted to destroy his
position in university) from the government, because no one believed him.

He sadly hanged himself in April 1988. He left an audio document in which he released
further details on the Chernobyl disaster, in particular naming a significantly larger circle of
responsible parties.

1. 28. April – Evaculation of Prypyat

The evacuation of Pripyat’s residents took 3.5 hours, using 1,200 buses from Kiev. Residents
remember that everyone was in a hurry, but nobody was panicking. The residents of Pripyat
were asked to carry with them only what was required for two or three days, some food,
and their identity papers. At the end they never could return. Of those who tried to return
later, having realised that Pripyat was lost forever.

2. Radiation

Just wanted to add something. Even in sweden the nuclear power plant in Sweden, an
automatic alarm was triggered due to increased radioactivity on the site. Measurements on
employees' work clothing found increased radioactive levels.

It takes thousand (i think 25000 )of years till there’s no radiation anymore. So the zone in
chernobyl will be always contaminated.
To clean it all, people need to wash up the facility and remove up to 50 cm of the soil. But
it’s almost impossible.

Because radioactive Radiation has a long half life time it takes years till It takes a very long
time for the radiation to decay. Not only in our ground but also in our body. If you have
radiation in you body, you don’t get it out that fast.

Little fact for all those people living in Bavaria, the Bavarian Forest has still radiation. If you
think about the wild pigs or mushrooms, there is still, today radiation left from the
Chernobyl disaster.

Picture
The Soviet bureaucrats removed their children from Kiev and other threatened areas after
the accident.
A week after the Chernobyl tragedy all the children’s playgrounds in the town of Wiesbaden,
south west Germany, were closed due to the level of radiation.
The government statement was denying western reports. They said that only two people
died during the accident and that 197 have been hospitalised and levels of radiation are
decreasing, they emphasized that all was normal.

Just to give you an imagination of the radiation I found here a understandable graphic.
Here you can see radioactive radiation is stored in the thyroid.
To prevent the radiation from accumulating in the thyroid gland, there are so-called iodine
tablets. This so-called iodine blockade Tablets was carried out at Chernobyl and for all those
affected by the radioactive cloud. In Polen for example. And I think Germany prepared for
such accident iodine Tablets already.

3. Chernobyl today
They covered it with a big safe metal building, a large shelter to reduce the radiation. There
are still workers (around 4000) on the side, who check it. Chernobyl is still guarded by the
militia today, only a few people still live in the area around the reactor. Most of them are
army personnel, scientists or illegal residents.
Nature took over, so everything is growing there, its so green there, you wouldn’t even
recognize that its been a town before. Also the wildlife is huge there. You will see deers,
horses and beers and wolves. 
They re-opened to tourists in 2013 in January. They even have a Chernobyl hotel there, and
the tourists number are increasing. Since the residents were led to believe that they would
soon be able to return home, many buildings still stand in their original condition. However,
Flats were looted and damaged after the evacuation. In addition, there is an increasing
danger that the growing tourism will leave its mark
 4. Video
Before we show you this video I want to say something to it.. so this is actually a trailer of a
show, which I really recommend to watch. They did a very good job, showing the big
consequences after such an accident.
Why are we showing the video to you is, because we want to bring this topic a little bit
closer to you. But also I want you after this presentation to take something away, so we
don’t repeat mistakes like that and are aware of the consequences.
And one more thing, maybe you understand the Ukraine society, because this history
formed also the society.

It indicates the time span in which half of a radiating substance has decayed.