Cherobnyl Disaster

 On April 26, 1986, a nuclear disaster occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in Ukraine. The explosion released a massive amount of radioactive material into the environment which spread across the Soviet Union and Europe. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, resulting in 31 deaths with an estimated 135,000 people having been evacuated from their homes due to the radiation.

Prior to the incident, Chernobyl was an industrial town and site of a major nuclear power plant. The Chernobyl plant consisted of four separate reactor units, each of which had a capacity of 1,000 megawatts electric (MWe). All four reactors were fueled by uranium dioxide fuel rods and moderated with graphite blocks.

On the evening of April 25th 1986, engineers began an experiment at unit 4 that was meant to test the reactor’s cooling systems during an electrical outage. Unfortunately, during this experiment, conditions led to two explosions inside of the core that breached the reactor vessel. This allowed large amounts of radioactive materials including Xenon-135 and iodine-131 to escape into the atmosphere. 

As a result of this incident, 31 people died due to direct exposure or due to radiation related illnesses in the years following the event. Over 135,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses in order to avoid further contamination from radioactivity. In addition to these direct effects on human lives, thousands of livestock animals also died or became sick as a result of being exposed to radioactive materials from Chernobyl fallout.

The environmental effects from this tragedy are still being felt today. Many areas are still contaminated with high levels of radiation making them dangerous for habitation or agricultural production. Water sources such as lakes and rivers have also been polluted with contaminants released from Chernobyl that can remain dangerous for hundreds of years unless proper remediation occurs.

Chernobyl serves as a stark reminder about how quickly something like a nuclear power plant can go wrong if safety procedures are not properly followed or maintained. The people who were directly affected by this tragedy will always carry with them memories and trauma from what happened that fateful day. Today it stands as one of mankind’s biggest mistakes but hopefully lessons learned will prevent future tragedies such as this one from ever occurring again.

To know more about this click on link below

cherobnyl disaster by the infographic show