Chernobly: Destined for Disaster

The Chernobyl nuclear powerplant, in Ukraine, was designed and operated so badly, it was practically destined for disaster.

First, the Soviet plant design was fatally flawed. It didn’t include a containment vessel, the massive concrete structure that encloses other nuclear reactors. Adding one, of course, would have been very expensive. But, it would have contained the accident.

It occurred when unqualified engineers ran the reactor at very low power during a test – which made the reaction unstable. To keep the test running, they pulled nearly all the safety control rods from the core.

This caused the reaction to spiral out of control. The engineers panicked and dropped all the rods back in, which displaced coolant water and caused the reactor to overheat. The coolant water then boiled to steam with such force that it blew the thousand-ton lid off the reactor.

In the explosion, a hundred tons of nuclear fuel were scattered across the site, or vaporized into the air as the reactor caught fire.

Firemen rushed in to put out the blaze. Two workers were killed on site. More than a hundred others died or became seriously ill from radiation poisoning.

Nearby towns were evacuated and have been left abandoned since, as more than a hundred thousand people were displaced.

But, what was a disaster for the region’s human population would turn out to be a boon for its wildlife. Something we’ll discuss on another EarthDate.