Home

 Chernobyl: How a Tragic Incident Sparked a Change

 In the early morning hours on April 26th, 1986, a flaw in Chernobyl’s fourth reactor caused the machine to explode, sending radioactive gasses more than thirty-six hundred feet into the atmosphere. The catastrophic explosion of Chernobyl devastated nearby towns and the Soviet Government while causing damage to the environment and its inhabitants. Immediately following the incident, the barriers of safety and health regulations were broken, as other countries scrambled to make sure nothing this horrific could happen again.

Famous Chernobyl Ferris Wheel 2019, Abandoned Explorer.

                                                                                                                                                                 Pripyat, Ukraine, 1986, Atlas Obscura

In the timespan of 1978 to 1983, four nuclear reactors were built in the  province of Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, near the city of Pripyat.

The fourth reactor was heavily flawed, having pipes that were subject to leaks, faults, and other such things. Fuel rods could be changed without shutting down the reactor, meaning large cranes were required to remove these fuel rods. This could lead to a potentially dangerous situation in the case that an inexperienced personnel were to man the crane. Most of the workers didn’t have the proper qualifications to run the machines, and weren’t well monitored. The workers also checked out without authorization, and often didn’t have the proper equipment. 

The Plant needed more workers, so the employees were allowed more lax work times long as they did eventually work.

The reactor built at Chernobyl is a RBMK reactor, which was never built by any country outside the USSR because it had characteristics that were rejected everywhere outside the Soviet Union. Chief among these was its inherent instability, especially on startup and shutdown. Because of the way the reactor used graphite where American reactors use water, when Soviet operators tried to reduce power the RBMK had a tendency to sharply increase power production instead. As overheating became more severe, power increased even more.