Destiny Carter
11/08/12
Per.5
Geography
Chernobyl On April 26, 1986, a hellish white glow bejeweled a small, little-known town in central Ukraine, now notoriously recognized by the international community as Chernobyl. During the early morning, operators had been running an ill-conceived experiment on reactor unit number four, during which a spike the operating level of the core caused a catastrophic explosion. The resulting eruption of radionuclide’s, both from the initial explosion and from the subsequently fires, turned the Ukraine contrary into a radioactive waste land. The accident on April 1986 at the Chernobyl power plant demonstrates that planning conducted at a national level alone cannot estimate the risks posed to all nations by nuclear energy. The scope of the challenge to make nuclear energy production safer is even greater than that shown by the accident at Chernobyl. At the nuclear power station itself, several attempts were made to clear away and contain chunks of graphite and other radioactive solids. They sent in volunteers, they were only allowed to be in the power station for 90 seconds or less. In 20-36 minutes at the power station, radiation would have over whelmed the nervous system and subsequently killed anyone as close as these volunteers were. The radiation levels were 15, 00 times greater than a normal person’s exposure in a year. For the past years, major accidents have contributed to our awareness in the nuclear power plant surrounding us. These accidents have set an example to us on how we should view or look at safety features of a nuclear power plant. There are many aspects that we must take in consideration, for example the lack of human factors (people who was a part of it). Today, nuclear power plants are one of the sources that are available to generate electricity. Currently there are 428 nuclear power plants