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CHERNOBYL

The Chernobyl accident has been written about and analyzed from just about every point of view imaginable. Many reports even references quoted on Helium are simply plain lies.

The immediate cause of the Chernobyl accident was a mismanaged electrical-engineering experiment. Ultimately, to conduct this experiment, reactor staff had to bypass multiple layers of safety systems that would have prevented the reactor instability that the Chernobyl reactor would eventually experience. While this unfavorable Soviet safety culture would be the primary cause of the accident, a number of other factors would contribute to the extensiveness of the fallout.

The design of the Chernobyl reactor presents a number of problems that can only exasperate a severe accident. In contrast to western-styled Light Water Reactors, Chernobyl's RBMK reactor design contains these recognized design flaws:

Inherently unstable under conditions of loss-of-coolant.

Inherently unstable under conditions of increased temperature.

Lacks sufficient containment.

The absence of a containment structure was especially important. Post-accident analyzes indicated that if there had been a rigorous pressure-tight containment, none of the radioactivity would have escaped, and there would have been no injuries or deaths.

The social fallout from Chernobyl put pressure on the nuclear industry to take a harder look at safety in general and the safety mechanisms that prevent severe accidents. In response, governments and private industry sponsored research in severe accident research, advanced reactors designs, new engineered safety systems, and refined regulation following the Chernobyl accident. However, much of this work just extended the path of research begun with the accident at Three Mile Island.

Ultimately, attention focused on raising the safety standards of the nuclear industry internationally. The International Nuclear Safety Program was established for this purpose. The INSP offers training and technology transfer to under-developed nuclear countries. They have also been actively involved in offering direct services to address specific needs of operating reactors worldwide.

Unfortunately, the most severe repercussion of the accident was caused by ignorant and self-serving publicity put out by Greenpeace, the Natural Resource Defense Council and others. They persuaded thousands of pregnant women to abort their fetuses for no purpose.

Learn more about this author, John Graham.
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