Where the nuclear reactor exploded. Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants: The Probability of a Global Outcome. What is Chernobyl

Swedish scientists have come to the conclusion that during the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant there was a weak nuclear explosion. The specialists analyzed the most probable course of nuclear reactions in the reactor and modeled the meteorological conditions for the spread of decay products. talks about an article by researchers published in the journal Nuclear Technology.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred on April 26, 1986. The catastrophe jeopardized the development of nuclear energy throughout the world. A 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created around the station. Radioactive fallout even fell in the Leningrad region, and cesium isotopes were found in high concentrations in lichen and deer meat in the Arctic regions of Russia.

There are different versions of the causes of the disaster. Most often, they point to the wrong actions of the Chernobyl personnel, which led to the ignition of hydrogen and the destruction of the reactor. However, some scientists believe that there was a real nuclear explosion.

boiling hell

A nuclear chain reaction is maintained in a nuclear reactor. The nucleus of a heavy atom, such as uranium, collides with a neutron, becomes unstable and decays into two smaller nuclei - decay products. The fission process releases energy and two or three fast free neutrons, which in turn cause the decay of other uranium nuclei in the nuclear fuel. The number of decays thus increases exponentially, but the chain reaction inside the reactor is under control, which prevents a nuclear explosion.

In thermal nuclear reactors, fast neutrons are not suitable for excitation of heavy atoms, so their kinetic energy is reduced with the help of a moderator. Slow neutrons, called thermal neutrons, are more likely to cause the decay of uranium-235 atoms used as fuel. In such cases, one speaks of a high cross section for the interaction of uranium nuclei with neutrons. Thermal neutrons themselves are called so because they are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment.

The heart of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the RBMK-1000 reactor (a large-capacity channel reactor with a capacity of 1000 megawatts). In fact, this is a graphite cylinder with many holes (channels). Graphite plays the role of a moderator, and nuclear fuel is loaded through technological channels in fuel elements (TVELs). The fuel elements are made of zirconium, a metal with a very small neutron capture cross section. They pass neutrons and heat, which heats the coolant, preventing the leakage of decay products. Fuel rods can be combined into fuel assemblies (FA). Fuel elements are characteristic of heterogeneous nuclear reactors in which the moderator is separated from the fuel.

RBMK is a single-loop reactor. Water is used as a heat carrier, which is partially converted into steam. The steam-water mixture enters the separators, where the steam is separated from the water and sent to the turbogenerators. The exhaust steam condenses and re-enters the reactor.

There was a flaw in the design of the RBMK, which played a fatal role in the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The fact is that the distance between the channels was too large and too many fast neutrons were slowed down by graphite, turning into thermal neutrons. They are well absorbed by water, but steam bubbles are constantly formed there, which reduces the absorption characteristics of the coolant. As a result, reactivity increases, the water heats up even more. That is, RBMK is distinguished by a rather high vapor reactivity coefficient, which complicates the control over the course of a nuclear reaction. The reactor must be equipped with additional safety systems, and only highly qualified personnel should work on it.

Broken firewood

April 25, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was scheduled to stop the fourth power unit for scheduled maintenance and experiment. Specialists of the Research Institute "Gidroproekt" proposed a method for emergency power supply of the pumps of the station due to the kinetic energy of a turbine generator rotating by inertia. This would make it possible, even in the event of a power outage, to maintain the circulation of the coolant in the circuit until the backup power is turned on.

According to the plan, the experiment was to begin when the thermal power of the reactor dropped to 700 megawatts. The power was reduced by 50 percent (1,600 megawatts), and the process of shutting down the reactor was delayed by about nine hours at the request from Kyiv. As soon as the power reduction resumed, it unexpectedly dropped to almost zero due to erroneous actions of the nuclear power plant personnel and xenon poisoning of the reactor - the accumulation of the xenon-135 isotope, which reduces reactivity. To cope with the sudden problem, neutron-absorbing emergency rods were removed from the RBMK, but the power did not rise above 200 megawatts. Despite the unstable operation of the reactor, the experiment began at 01:23:04.

The introduction of additional pumps increased the load on the run-out turbine generator, which reduced the volume of water entering the reactor core. Together with a high vapor reactivity coefficient, this quickly increased the power of the reactor. The attempt to introduce absorber rods, due to their poor design, only exacerbated the situation. Just 43 seconds after the start of the experiment, the reactor collapsed as a result of one or two powerful explosions.

Ends in the water

Eyewitnesses claim that the fourth power unit of the nuclear power plant was destroyed by two explosions: the second, the most powerful, happened a few seconds after the first. It is believed that the emergency arose due to rupture of pipes in the cooling system caused by the rapid evaporation of water. The water or steam reacted with the zirconium in the fuel elements, which led to the formation of a large amount of hydrogen and its explosion.

Swedish scientists believe that two different mechanisms led to the explosions, one of which was nuclear. First, the high steam reactivity coefficient contributed to an increase in the volume of superheated steam inside the reactor. As a result, the reactor burst, and its 2000-ton top cover flew up several tens of meters. Since fuel elements were attached to it, there was a primary leak of nuclear fuel.

Secondly, the emergency lowering of absorber rods led to the so-called "end effect". At the Chernobyl RBMK-1000, the rods consisted of two parts - a neutron absorber and a graphite water displacer. When the rod is introduced into the reactor core, graphite replaces the neutron-absorbing water in the lower part of the channels, which only enhances the vapor reactivity coefficient. The number of thermal neutrons increases and the chain reaction becomes uncontrollable. There is a small nuclear explosion. Even before the destruction of the reactor, the flows of nuclear fission products entered the room, and then - through the thin roof of the power unit - entered the atmosphere.

For the first time, specialists started talking about the nuclear nature of the explosion back in 1986. Then scientists from the Khlopin Radium Institute analyzed the fractions of noble gases obtained at the Cherepovets factory, where liquid nitrogen and oxygen were produced. Cherepovets is a thousand kilometers north of Chernobyl, and a radioactive cloud passed over the city on April 29. Soviet researchers found that the ratio of the activities of the isotopes 133 Xe and 133m Xe was 44.5 ± 5.5. These isotopes are short-lived nuclear decay products, indicating a weak nuclear explosion.

Swedish scientists calculated how much xenon was formed in the reactor before the explosion, during the explosion, and how the ratios of radioactive isotopes changed until they fell out in Cherepovets. It turned out that the reactivity ratio observed at the plant could have arisen in the event of a nuclear explosion with a capacity of 75 tons of TNT. According to the analysis of meteorological conditions for the period April 25 - May 5, 1986, xenon isotopes rose to a height of up to three kilometers, which prevented its mixing with the xenon that was formed in the reactor before the accident.

The first stage of the station began to be built in 1970, and seven years later the first power unit was connected to the USSR energy system. But the station seemed to be haunted by evil fate from the very beginning.

ON THIS TOPIC

A few years after commissioning, the first accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - an ominous omen of an impending tragedy. During the trial run of the first power unit, one of the channels of the reactor collapsed, and the graphite lining of the core was deformed. Fortunately, there were no casualties, and the consequences of the incident were eliminated in a short time.

On the night of April 26, 1986, testing of the turbogenerator began at Unit 4. The engineers planned to shut down the reactor and measure the performance of the generator. However, it was not possible to shut down the reactor safely. The explosion occurred at 1:23 Moscow time, a strong fire started.

Contrary to popular belief, almost no one was killed or injured in the reactor explosion. The only victim was the pump operator Valery Khodemchuk. His body was presumably crushed by fallen massive slabs, and later, during search and rescue operations, it was not possible to find him. The second victim of the accident was Vladimir Shashenok, an automation adjustment engineer. He died the same morning from his burns.

The reactor was almost completely destroyed, a huge amount of radiation began to escape into the atmosphere. Firefighters arrived at the scene of the tragedy a couple of minutes later. Without any means of protection against deadly radiation (from the equipment they had only canvas robes, gloves and a helmet), they began to put out a blazing nuclear reactor, as a result of which they received a colossal dose of radiation.

Weakness, vomiting and other signs of severe radiation exposure began to be observed among firefighters 15 minutes after the start of the extinguishing. First aid was provided to them right on the spot, and then a decision was made to send them to hospitals, including Moscow.

Radiation sickness was almost immediately recorded in 134 people who were at that moment at the crash site. About 30 of them died in a short time, the rest suffered longer. In total, about four thousand people died due to the Chernobyl accident, including the long-term effects of radiation exposure.

Meanwhile, the authorities did not intend to evacuate the city of Pripyat, located in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl station, for the first hours after the disaster. On the morning of April 26, unsuspecting townspeople calmly walked around the city. There was a strong heat, the sun was shining, many were going to go to their dachas, to go fishing. Pripyat lived its usual life, not even suspecting what exactly happened just two kilometers away.

For the first time, the country's leadership began to seriously talk about evacuation only late in the evening of April 26. And the corresponding instruction came at two in the morning on April 27. The townspeople were ordered to take with them documents, necessary things, food for several days. 47,000 people were waiting for several thousand buses with headlights on. They left the city along the highway in two lanes. The column moved to the west, towards the Polessky and Ivanovo districts. No one imagined that they were saying goodbye to Pripyat forever. Later, during May, more than 115,000 people were evicted from the 30-kilometer exclusion zone.

The first official message about what happened was transmitted only on April 28 - two days after the disaster. It referred to what happened as an "accident". Further, in typical dry clerical language, it was said about providing "all necessary assistance" to the victims, as well as the creation of a government commission to clarify the causes of what had happened.

As former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev later admitted, the May Day demonstrations that took place in those days in Kiev and other cities located near the crash site were not canceled due to the fact that the authorities allegedly did not have a complete picture of what had happened. In addition, Gorbachev stated, there were fears that panic would begin in the cities.

The troubles at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not end there. In the fall of 1993, due to an accident, the second power unit was shut down. In March 2000, the Ukrainian government decided to close the station.

A project was approved for the complete elimination of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by 2065. It is planned to reduce the radioactivity of reactor installations from 2022 to 2045, then dismantle them, and completely clean the place where the station stands from radioactive elements. However, due to the unstable situation in Ukraine and the catastrophic budget situation, many experts question the implementation of these plans.

Over the past two centuries, mankind has experienced an incredible technological boom. We have discovered electricity, built flying machines, mastered low-Earth orbit and are already climbing into the outskirts of the solar system. The discovery of a chemical element called uranium showed us new possibilities in obtaining large amounts of energy without the need to consume millions of tons of fossil fuel.

The problem of our time is that the more complex the technologies we use, the more serious and destructive the disasters associated with them. First of all, this refers to the “peaceful atom”. We have learned how to create complex nuclear reactors that power cities, submarines, aircraft carriers, and even spaceships are planned. But not a single most modern reactor is 100% safe for our planet, and the consequences of errors in its operation can be catastrophic. Isn't it too early for humanity to take up the development of atomic energy?

We have already paid more than once for our clumsy steps in conquering the peaceful atom. Nature will correct the consequences of these catastrophes for centuries, because human capabilities are very limited.

The Chernobyl accident. April 26, 1986

One of the largest man-made disasters of our time, which caused irreparable harm to our planet. The consequences of the accident were felt even on the other side of the globe.

On April 26, 1986, as a result of a personnel error during the operation of the reactor, an explosion occurred in the 4th power unit of the station, which forever changed the history of mankind. The explosion was so powerful that multi-ton roof structures were thrown into the air for several tens of meters.

However, it was not the explosion itself that was dangerous, but the fact that it and the resulting fire were carried from the depths of the reactor to the surface. A huge cloud of radioactive isotopes rose into the sky, where it was immediately picked up by air currents that carried it in a European direction. Phonic precipitation began to cover the cities in which tens of thousands of people lived. The territories of Belarus and Ukraine suffered the most from the explosion.

The volatile mixture of isotopes began to hit unsuspecting residents. Almost all of the iodine-131 that was in the reactor ended up in a cloud due to its volatility. Despite the short half-life (only 8 days), it managed to spread hundreds of kilometers. People inhaled a suspension with a radioactive isotope, receiving irreparable harm to the body.

Along with iodine, other even more dangerous elements rose into the air, but only volatile iodine and cesium-137 (half-life 30 years) could escape in the cloud. The rest, heavier radioactive metals, fell out within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the reactor.

The authorities had to evacuate a whole young city called Pripyat, which at that time was home to about 50 thousand people. Now this city has become a symbol of disaster and an object of pilgrimage for stalkers from all over the world.

Thousands of people and pieces of equipment were thrown to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Some of the liquidators died during the work, or died later from the effects of radioactive exposure. Most became disabled.

Despite the fact that almost the entire population of nearby territories was evacuated, people still live in the Exclusion Zone. Scientists do not undertake to give accurate predictions about when the last evidence of the Chernobyl accident will disappear. According to some estimates, it will take from several hundred to several thousand years.

Accident at Three Mile Island Station. March 20, 1979

Most people, barely hearing the expression "nuclear catastrophe", immediately think of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but in fact there were many more such accidents.

On March 20, 1979, an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Pennsylvania, USA), which could have become another powerful man-made disaster, but it was prevented in time. Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, this particular incident was considered the largest in the history of nuclear energy.

Due to the leakage of coolant from the circulation system around the reactor, the cooling of nuclear fuel was completely stopped. The system heated up to such an extent that the structure began to melt, metal and nuclear fuel turned into lava. The temperature at the bottom reached 1100 °. Hydrogen began to accumulate in the reactor circuits, which the media perceived as an explosion threat, which was not entirely true.

Due to the destruction of the shells of the fuel elements, radioactive from the nuclear fuel got into the air and began to circulate through the ventilation system of the station, after which they entered the atmosphere. However, when compared with the Chernobyl disaster, everything here cost little victims. Only noble radioactive gases and a small part of iodine-131 got into the air.

Thanks to the well-coordinated actions of the station personnel, the threat of an explosion of the reactor was averted by resuming the cooling of the molten machine. This accident could become an analogue of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but in this case, people coped with the disaster.

The US authorities have decided not to close the power plant. The first power unit is still in operation.

Kyshtym accident. September 29, 1957

Another industrial accident with the release of radioactive substances occurred in 1957 at the Soviet Mayak enterprise near the city of Kyshtym. In fact, the city of Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozersk) was much closer to the accident site, but then it was strictly classified. This accident is considered the first man-made radiation disaster in the USSR.
"Mayak" is engaged in the processing of nuclear waste and materials. It is here that weapons-grade plutonium is produced, as well as a host of other radioactive isotopes used in industry. There are also warehouses for the storage of spent nuclear fuel. The enterprise itself is self-sufficient in electricity from several reactors.

In the fall of 1957, there was an explosion at one of the nuclear waste storage facilities. The reason for this was the failure of the cooling system. The fact is that even spent nuclear fuel continues to generate heat due to the ongoing decay reaction of the elements, so the storage facilities are equipped with their own cooling system, which maintains the stability of sealed containers with nuclear mass.

One of the containers with a high content of radioactive nitrate-acetate salts has undergone self-heating. The sensor system could not fix this, because it simply rusted due to the negligence of workers. As a result, there was an explosion of a container with a volume of more than 300 cubic meters, which tore off the roof of the storage facility weighing 160 tons and threw it almost 30 meters. The force of the explosion was comparable to the explosion of tens of tons of TNT.

A huge amount of radioactive substances were lifted into the air to a height of up to 2 kilometers. The wind picked up this suspension and began to carry it over the nearby territory in a northeasterly direction. In just a few hours, radioactive fallout spread hundreds of kilometers and formed a kind of strip with a width of 10 km. A territory with an area of ​​23 thousand square kilometers, where almost 270 thousand people lived. Tellingly, due to weather conditions, the Chelyabinsk-40 object itself was not damaged.

The Commission for the Elimination of Consequences of Emergencies decided to evict 23 villages, the total population of which was almost 12,000 people. Their property and livestock were destroyed and buried. The contamination zone itself was called the East Ural radioactive trace.
Since 1968, the East Ural State Reserve has been operating on this territory.

Radioactive contamination in Goiania. September 13, 1987

Undoubtedly, one should not underestimate the danger of nuclear energy, where scientists work with large volumes of nuclear fuel and complex devices. But even more dangerous is radioactive materials in the hands of people who don't know what they're dealing with.

In 1987, in the Brazilian city of Goiânia, looters managed to steal from an abandoned hospital a part that was part of radiotherapy equipment. Inside the container was the radioactive isotope cesium-137. The thieves did not figure out what to do with this part, so they decided to just throw it in a landfill.
After some time, an interesting shiny object attracted the attention of the landfill owner Devar Ferreira, who was passing by. The man thought of bringing the curiosity home and showing it to his household, and also called friends and neighbors to admire an unusual cylinder with an interesting powder inside, which glowed with a bluish light (radioluminescence effect).

Extremely improvident people did not even think that such a strange thing could be dangerous. They picked up the parts of the part, touched the powder of cesium chloride and even rubbed it on the skin. They liked the pleasant glow. It got to the point that pieces of radioactive material began to be passed to each other as gifts. Due to the fact that radiation in such doses does not have an instant effect on the body, no one suspected something was wrong, and the powder was distributed among the residents of the city for two weeks.

As a result of contact with radioactive materials, 4 people died, among whom was the wife of Devara Ferreira, as well as the 6-year-old daughter of his brother. A few dozen more people were undergoing therapy for radiation exposure. Some of them died later. Ferreira himself survived, but all his hair fell out, and he also received irreversible damage to the internal organs. The man spent the rest of his life blaming himself for what had happened. He passed away from cancer in 1994.

Despite the fact that the disaster was of a local nature, the IAEA assigned it the 5th level of danger according to the international scale of nuclear events out of 7 possible.
After this incident, a procedure was developed for the disposal of radioactive materials used in medicine, as well as tightened control over this procedure.

Fukushima disaster. March 11, 2011

The explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan on March 11, 2011 was equated on a scale of danger to the Chernobyl disaster. Both accidents received 7 points on the international scale of nuclear events.

The Japanese, who at one time became victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have now received in their history another catastrophe on a planetary scale, which, however, unlike its world counterparts, is not a consequence of the human factor and irresponsibility.

The cause of the Fukushima accident was a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of more than 9, which was recognized as the strongest earthquake in the history of Japan. Nearly 16,000 people died as a result of the collapses.

Tremors at a depth of more than 32 km paralyzed the work of a fifth of all power units in Japan, which were under the control of automation and provided for such a situation. But the giant tsunami that followed the earthquake completed the job. In some places, the wave height reached 40 meters.

The earthquake disrupted the operation of several nuclear power plants at once. For example, the Onagawa nuclear power plant survived the fire of the power unit, but the staff managed to correct the situation. At Fukushima-2, the cooling system failed, which was repaired in time. Fukushima-1 suffered the most, which also had a cooling system failure.
Fukushima-1 is one of the largest nuclear power plants on the planet. It consisted of 6 power units, three of which were not in operation at the time of the accident, and three more were turned off automatically due to an earthquake. It would seem that the computers worked reliably and prevented trouble, but even in a shutdown state, any reactor needs to be cooled, because the decay reaction continues, generating heat.

The tsunami that hit Japan half an hour after the earthquake disabled the reactor's emergency cooling system, causing the diesel generator sets to stop working. Suddenly, the station staff was faced with the threat of overheating of the reactors, which had to be eliminated as soon as possible. The nuclear power plant personnel made every effort to cool the red-hot reactors, but the tragedy could not be avoided.

Hydrogen accumulated in the circuits of the first, second and third reactors created such pressure in the system that the structure could not stand it and a series of explosions rang out, causing the collapse of the power units. In addition, the 4th power unit caught fire.

Radioactive metals and gases rose into the air, spread over the nearby territory and fell into the waters of the ocean. The products of combustion from the storage of nuclear fuel rose to a height of several kilometers, carrying radioactive ash hundreds of kilometers around.

To eliminate the consequences of the accident at Fukushima-1, tens of thousands of people were involved. Urgent decisions were needed from scientists on how to cool the red-hot reactors, which continued to generate heat and release radioactive substances into the soil under the station.

To cool the reactors, a water supply system was organized, which, as a result of circulation in the system, becomes radioactive. This water accumulates in reservoirs on the territory of the station, and its volumes reach hundreds of thousands of tons. There is almost no place left for such tanks. The problem with pumping out radioactive water from reactors has not yet been resolved, so there is no guarantee that it will not fall into the oceans or the soil under the station as a result of a new earthquake.

There have already been precedents for leaking hundreds of tons of radioactive water. For example, in August 2013 (leakage of 300 tons) and February 2014 (leakage of 100 tons). The level of radiation in groundwater is constantly rising, and people cannot influence it in any way.

At the moment, special systems have been developed for the decontamination of contaminated water, which make it possible to neutralize water from tanks and reuse it for cooling reactors, but the efficiency of such systems is extremely low, and the technology itself is still underdeveloped.

Scientists have developed a plan that provides for the extraction of molten nuclear fuel from reactors in power units. The problem is that humanity currently does not have the technology to carry out such an operation.

The preliminary date for the extraction of molten reactor fuel from the circuits of the system is 2020.
After the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, more than 120 thousand residents of nearby territories were evacuated.

Radioactive contamination in Kramatorsk. 1980-1989

Another example of human negligence in the handling of radioactive elements, which led to the death of innocent people.

Radiation contamination occurred in one of the houses in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, but the event has its own background.

In the late 1970s, in one of the mining quarries in the Donetsk region, workers managed to lose a capsule with a radioactive substance (cesium-137), which was used in a special device for measuring the level of contents in closed vessels. The loss of the capsule caused a panic among the management, because rubble from this quarry was delivered, incl. and to Moscow. By personal order of Brezhnev, the mining of rubble was stopped, but it was too late.

In 1980, in the city of Kramatorsk, the construction department commissioned a panel residential building. Unfortunately, a capsule with a radioactive substance fell into one of the walls of the house along with rubble.

After the tenants moved into the house, people began to die in one of the apartments. Just a year after the settlement, an 18-year-old girl died. A year later, her mother and brother died. The apartment became the property of new tenants, whose son soon died. In all the dead, the doctors stated the same diagnosis - leukemia, but this coincidence did not alert the doctors at all, who blamed everything on bad heredity.

Only the perseverance of the father of the deceased boy made it possible to determine the cause. After measuring the radiation background in the apartment, it became clear that it was off scale. After a short search, a section of the wall was identified from where the background came from. After delivering a piece of the wall to the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, scientists removed the ill-fated capsule from there, the dimensions of which were only 8 by 4 millimeters, but the radiation from it was 200 milliroentgens per hour.

The result of local infection for 9 years was the death of 4 children, 2 adults, as well as the disability of 17 people.

Them. V. I. Lenina is a Ukrainian nuclear power plant that stopped its work due to an explosion at power unit No. 4. Its construction began in the spring of 1970, and after 7 years it was put into operation. By 1986, the station consisted of four blocks, to which two more were being completed. When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, or rather, one of the reactors, exploded, its work was not stopped. The sarcophagus is currently under construction and will be completed by 2015.

Station Description

1970-1981 - during this period of time, six power units were built, two of which did not have time to start up until 1986. To cool the turbines and heat exchangers, a bulk pond was built between the Pripyat River and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Before the accident, the plant's generating capacity was 6,000 MW. Currently, work is underway to transform the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into an environmentally friendly design.

Start of construction

To select a suitable site for the construction of the first nuclear power plant, the design institute of the capital of Ukraine examined the Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Vinnitsa regions. The most convenient place was the territory on the right side of the Pripyat River. The land, on which construction soon began, was unproductive, but fully met the requirements for maintenance. This site was approved by the State Technical Commission of the USSR and the Ministry

February 1970 was marked by the beginning of the construction of Pripyat. The city was created specifically for power engineers. The fact is that during the first years, the personnel serving the station had to live in dormitories and rented houses in the villages adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Various enterprises were built in Pripyat to provide jobs for their family members. Thus, over the 16 years of the city's existence, it has been equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable living for people.

1986 crash

At 01:23 am, a design test of the turbine generator of the 4th power unit was started, which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode. As a result, the building collapsed, causing more than 30 fires. The first victims were V. Khodemchuk, an operator of circulation pumps, and V. Shashenok, an employee of a commissioning plant.

A minute after the incident, the Chernobyl security guard was informed about the explosion. Firefighters arrived at the station as soon as possible. V. Pravik was appointed head of the liquidation. Thanks to his skillful actions, the spread of fire was stopped.

When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, the environment was contaminated with radioactive substances such as:

plutonium, uranium, iodine-131 lasts about 8 days);

Cesium-134 (half-life - 2 years);

Cesium-137 (from 17 to 30 years);

Strontium-90 (28 years old).

The whole horror of the tragedy lies in the fact that for a long time they hid from the inhabitants of Pripyat, Chernobyl, as well as the entire former Soviet Union, why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and who was guilty of it.

Source of accident

On April 25, the 4th reactor was supposed to be stopped for the next repair, but instead they decided to conduct a test. It consisted in creating an emergency situation in which the station itself would cope with the problem. By that time there were already four such cases, but this time something went wrong ...

The first and main reason for the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the negligent and unprofessional attitude of the personnel to the risky experiment. The workers maintained the unit's power at 200 MW, which led to self-poisoning.

As if nothing had happened, the staff watched what was happening, instead of taking the control rods out of work and pressing the A3-5 button - for emergency shutdown of the reactor. As a result of inaction, an uncontrolled chain reaction began in the power unit, which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode.

In the evening (at about 20.00) a more intense fire took place in the central hall. People were not attracted this time. It was liquidated with the help of helicopters.

For all the time, in addition to firefighters and station personnel, about 600 thousand people were involved in rescue operations.

What caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode? There are a number of reasons that contributed to this:

The experiment had to be carried out at any cost, regardless of the abrupt change in the behavior of the reactor;

Decommissioning of working technological protections that would shut down the power unit and prevent an accident;

The suppression by the management of the station of the magnitude of the catastrophe that happened, as well as the reasons why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.

Consequences

As a result of eliminating the consequences of the spread of radioactive substances, 134 firefighters and employees of the station developed radiation sickness, 28 of them died within a month after the accident.

Signs of exposure were vomiting and weakness. First, first aid was provided by the medical staff of the station, and after that the victims were transported to hospitals in Moscow.

At the cost of their own lives, the rescuers prevented the fire from moving to the third block. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid the spread of fire in neighboring blocks. If the extinguishing had not been successful, the second explosion could have exceeded the power of the first one by 10 times!

Accident on September 9, 1982

Until the day the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, there was a case of destruction at power unit No. 1. During a test run of one of the reactors at a power of 700 MW, a kind of explosion of the fuel assembly and channel No. 62-44 occurred. The result of this was the deformation of the graphite masonry and the release of a significant amount of radioactive substances.

The explanation for why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1982 can be the following:

Gross violations of the workshop personnel in the regulation of water flow in the channels;

The rest of the internal stress in the walls of the channel zirconium pipe, which arose as a result of a change in technology by the plant that produced it.

The government of the USSR, as usual, decided not to inform the population of the country why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. The photo of the first accident has not survived. It is even possible that it never existed.

Station representatives

The following article presents the names of employees and their positions before, during and after the tragedy. Bryukhanov Viktor Petrovich was the director of the station in 1986. Two months later, Pozdyshev E.N. became the manager.

Sorokin N. M. was the deputy engineer for operation in the period 1987-1994. Gramotkin I. I. from 1988 to 1995 served as the head of the reactor shop. Currently, he is the General Director of the SSE "Chernobyl NPP".

Dyatlov Anatoly Stepanovich - Deputy Chief Engineer for Operations and one of those responsible for the accident. The reason for the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was to conduct a risky experiment, which was headed by this particular engineer.

Exclusion zone at present

The long-suffering young Pripyat is now contaminated with radioactive substances. They gather most often in the ground, houses, ditches and other depressions. Only a water fluoridation station, a special laundry, a checkpoint and a garage for special equipment remained in the city from the existing facilities. After the accident, Pripyat, oddly enough, did not lose the status of a city.

With Chernobyl, the situation is quite different. It is safe for life, people serving the station and the so-called self-settlers live in it. The city today is the administrative center of the exclusion zone. Chernobyl concentrates enterprises that maintain the nearby territory in an environmentally safe state. Stabilization of the situation is to control the radionuclides in the Pripyat River and the airspace. The city has personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which protects the exclusion zone from illegal entry of unauthorized persons.