Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and Nuclear Energy

The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on the 26 April 1986. It took place in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the town of Pripyat in the Soviet Ukraine, modern day Ukraine. The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster was caused by a meltdown in Chernobyl’s Number Four Reactor. The reason for the meltdown was through a poorly constructed experiment, which was to determine how the reactor’s turbines would react to a power outage. It was led by the insufficiently trained staff at the power plant. Staff shut down the reactor’s power regulation systems and its emergency safety systems and then removed control rods from the reactor. This caused a rapid power surge in the temperature of the reactor, with reactions taking place between cooling water and extremely hot uranium-plutonium fuel. This led to an increase in pressure and several explosions which created a large fireball that blew off the lid of the reactor. With the lid of the reactor blown off, radioactive material from the reactor leaked into the atmosphere, where the wind carried it as far as Canada, affecting over two hundred thousand square kilometers of land. Chernobyl has been regarded as the worst nuclear disaster in human history. Directly from Chernobyl, the internationally recognized death poll is 31. However, there are numbers estimated by Greenpeace to be as high as 93, 000. The Chernobyl Disaster discharged out an incredible amount of radiation and Greenpeace estimates 270, 000 cases of cancer alone in a report written in 2004. The city and reactor itself are still sectioned off, even after thirty years, because of the effects of ongoing radiation exposure that is estimated to haunt the region for the next twenty thousand years. The towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat and several villages are all ghost towns after the Chernobyl disaster. They were home to a hundred and twenty thousand people. Plants and animals also suffered from the radioactive aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, with increasing genetic defects with animals found in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. However - following the abrupt departure of people and civilization from the area - there has been an increase in the populations of plants and animals and the zone has become a unique area of biodiversity and sanctuary for flora and fauna. The disaster also accelerated the end of the Soviet Union, with Mikhail Gorbachev, the final General Secretary of the Soviet Union, who describes the nuclear disaster as a “turning point” that “opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue”. It as well vitalized global anti-nuclear movements and the splitting of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. An estimate report, by Johnathan Shamet, places economic costs of the disaster at seven hundred billion US Dollars. Chernobyl remains the apotheosis for the dangers of nuclear energy. The power plant, once used to power ten percent of Ukraine’s energy, is now sectioned off thirty kilometers by thirty kilometers and a giant concrete sarcophagus sits on the damaged reactor. The site is now a popular tourist site, visited by people who often see the haunting ghost towns, evacuated during the disaster. Interestingly, the Chernobyl Power Plant has begun generating clean electricity once again – albeit through solar panel technology. The most evident recovery seen in Chernobyl is the return of fauna and flora to the area. Rare and usually unseen animals (in the Chernobyl area) have been found in a renewed sanctuary. Yes. The benefits of nuclear power outweigh the benefits. This is not to say that nuclear energy is completely advantageous over other renewables. This is not to say that nuclear power should be the only source of energy either. There are various issues with the sustainability in nuclear energy, but there lies many myths in public belief that affects the public’s reception. A key advantage over wind and other renewables is that nuclear energy is not aperiodic. Former President, Donald Trump famously belittled wind energy for its intermittency, stating: ”When the wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electricity”. Nuclear energy is more reliable than wind or solar as at any time, wind could cease to blow or the sun could cease to shine, resulting in no electricity generation. They were also the most reliable energy source, in the United States, according to the US Office of Nuclear Energy, operating 92% of the time. Another advantage that nuclear energy has against other possible candidates for renewable energy such as solar, is that typically, nuclear power plants do not require as much space as solar or wind farms. To match the thousand-megawatt power rating of a typical nuclear facility in the United States, you would need three million solar panels or more than four hundred and thirty wind turbines. An interesting point is the growing scientific advancements towards an energy procedure known as “nuclear fission”. Nuclear fission is known to be the same reaction that fuels our Sun, and we have the potential through nuclear energy to obtain almost unlimited energy. Discussing the disadvantages of nuclear power is also important as well. Nuclear power plants require immense volumes of water for cooling procedures. The United States, in 2015, consumed three hundred and twenty billion gallons of water to produce nuclear power. A huge problem is that water is becoming increasingly scarce, especially with the growing prevalence of a climate crisis, nuclear energy may become unsustainable. Nuclear energy is also non-renewable. The fuel used in nuclear reactors, mainly uranium and plutonium, is a finite resource and is being depleted slowly. This is a sustainability problem for nuclear power, consequently, if we rely too heavily on it, we may see problems in the future. It is not possible to discuss the disadvantages of nuclear power without mentioning nuclear accidents. When a nuclear power plant has a meltdown, it often implicates catastrophic harmful impacts on the environment around it and human health. The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, still thirty years on is still affecting people, two million in accordance with data provided by the World Health Organization, and thousands of deaths indirectly related to the disaster. It is important to see safety is extremely important around the question of nuclear power. I believe nuclear energy must be a part of our energy solution, but it cannot act as a permanent solution, nor not act as a solution. With our world accelerating to what we call the “climate-crisis”, it is imperative that what and whichever means and methods to possibly slow it down, should be employed. Nuclear has been plagued with political and social rejection and prejudice, but leaving a candidate out of the solution with such large carbon-zero potential and such future potential is a flaw if we are to solve the greatest energy crisis we face today. In the context of our current situation surrounding the climate and pollution crises, renewable energy is currently overly expensive compared to nuclear energy. However, we know nuclear is truly not renewable and we must slowly switch to a renewable source of energy. But, it buys us time. Valuable time we need. 1170 Words I did not know I would write this much.