The Chernobyl disaster was a major accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant situated in Ukraine, Russia on April 26, 1986 at 01:23 a.m., consisting of an explosion at the plant and subsequent radioactive contamination of the surrounding geographic area.
Two causes leading to the Chernobyl disaster are the flaws in the RBMK reactor( reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy, meaning reactor (of) high power (of the) channel (type)) design and plant's management was largely composed of non-RBMK-qualified personnel: the director, V.P. Bryukhanov, had experience and training in a coal-fired power plant. His chief engineer, Nikolai Fomin, also came from a conventional power plant. Dyatlov, deputy chief engineer of reactors 3 and 4, had only "some experience with small nuclear reactors", namely smaller versions of the VVER nuclear reactors that were designed for the Soviet Navy's nuclear submarines.
The main flaw is the control rod which is inserted in the reactor to slow down the reaction. In the RBMK reactor, the control rod increased the reactor power output instead of reducing it as desired. This behavior is counter-intuitive and was not known to the reactor operators.
To reduce costs, and because of its large size, the reactor had been constructed with only partial containment. This allowed the radioactive contaminants to escape into the atmosphere after the steam explosion burst the primary pressure vessel.
From the causes of the Chernobyl accident listed above, we can see that to prevent the repeat of Chernobyl accident we should have stricter safety checks and have people with understanding and knowledge of the machine to work in the Plant. Also, safety above all else.
[information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster]
Two causes leading to the Chernobyl disaster are the flaws in the RBMK reactor( reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy, meaning reactor (of) high power (of the) channel (type)) design and plant's management was largely composed of non-RBMK-qualified personnel: the director, V.P. Bryukhanov, had experience and training in a coal-fired power plant. His chief engineer, Nikolai Fomin, also came from a conventional power plant. Dyatlov, deputy chief engineer of reactors 3 and 4, had only "some experience with small nuclear reactors", namely smaller versions of the VVER nuclear reactors that were designed for the Soviet Navy's nuclear submarines.
The main flaw is the control rod which is inserted in the reactor to slow down the reaction. In the RBMK reactor, the control rod increased the reactor power output instead of reducing it as desired. This behavior is counter-intuitive and was not known to the reactor operators.
To reduce costs, and because of its large size, the reactor had been constructed with only partial containment. This allowed the radioactive contaminants to escape into the atmosphere after the steam explosion burst the primary pressure vessel.
From the causes of the Chernobyl accident listed above, we can see that to prevent the repeat of Chernobyl accident we should have stricter safety checks and have people with understanding and knowledge of the machine to work in the Plant. Also, safety above all else.
[information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster]
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