chernobyl nuclear disaster case study pdf

The Long-Range Atmospheric Transport of Natural and Contaminant Substances pp 149–162 Cite as

Chernobyl:A Summary Case Study With Emphasis on The Transport and Deposition To Scandinavia

• Anton Eliassen 2  

114 Accesses

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIC,volume 297))

On April 26 at 0123 local time, reactor No. 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl (51°17’N, 30°15’E) exploded and caught fire. The reactor had been in operation since December, 1983. Under normal operation, the reactor had a thermal effect of 3200 MW and delivered 1000 MW of electric power. The reactor was a graphite-moderated channel-boiler type. Before the accident, there were twelve such reactors in operation in the Soviet Union.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

Izrael, Y. A., V. N. Petrov, D. A. Severov. 1987. Radioactive fallout simulation in the close-in area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Soviet Meteorol. Hydro1. , (Special English translation), 17 pp

Google Scholar  

Persson, C., H. Rodhe, and L.-E. De Geer. 1987. The Chernobyl accident- A meteorological analysis of how radionucleides reached and were deposited in Sweden. Ambio 16:20–31.

Pudykiewicz, J . 1988. Numerical simulation of the transport of radioactive cloud from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Tellus 40B:241–259.

Article   Google Scholar  

Smith, F. B. 1987. The environmental consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. Provisional Rept., Bracknell, England:Meteorological Office, 41 pp.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, P. O. Box 43, Blindern N-0313, Oslo, 3, Norway

Anton Eliassen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Inc, Ferry Reach, Bermuda, UK

Anthony H. Knap

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Eliassen, A. (1990). Chernobyl:A Summary Case Study With Emphasis on The Transport and Deposition To Scandinavia. In: Knap, A.H., Kaiser, MS., Kaiser, MS. (eds) The Long-Range Atmospheric Transport of Natural and Contaminant Substances. NATO ASI Series, vol 297. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0503-0_8

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0503-0_8

Publisher Name : Springer, Dordrecht

Print ISBN : 978-94-010-6712-6

Online ISBN : 978-94-009-0503-0

eBook Packages : Springer Book Archive

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

The Chernobyl Disaster A Case Study on the Information Policy of the Kádár

2019, Central European Journal of Communication

While the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was on the rhetorical level committed to the Soviet agitation and propaganda model, its actual practice increasingly deviated from it during the 1980s. As the press reflected upon the events of the day, propaganda could manifestly be at odds with reality, creating a reality gap, i.e., one between what people were told to see and what they actually saw. This paper offers a case study on the communication of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Hungary and looks into how it was reflected in party communiqués, the party newspaper, and opinion polls. It asks the question of whether 'accuracy' or 'partisanship' prevailed in the official communication of the disaster.

Related Papers

Central European Journal of Communication

Dalma Boldog

While the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party was on the rhetorical level committed to the Soviet agitation and propaganda model, in practice it increasingly deviated from it during the 1980s. As the press reflected upon the events of the day, propaganda could manifestly be at odds with reality, creating a reality gap, that is, one between what people were told to see and what they actually saw. This paper offers a case study on the communication of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Hungary and looks into how it was reflected in party communiques, the party newspaper, and opinion polls. It asks the question of whether ‘accuracy’ or ‘partisanship’ prevailed in the official communication of the disaster.

Journal of Public Affairs

Fekete Mariann , Gabor Sarlos

This research article analyzes the influence of the “Chernobyl factor” on the nuclear power discourse in Hungary. Despite its temporal distance, the geographical proxim- ity of the Chernobyl disaster has significantly influenced the lives and perceptions of current Hungarian generations. The research examines two layers of public communi- cation regarding the Chernobyl disaster—political discourse and Hungarian online news media—and matches these with the online representation of the catastrophe. This study finds that despite Chernobyl's significant impact on the cultural memory of Hungarian society, it is considered an event of the past with limited relevance for the future. The contemporary representation of Chernobyl reflects the aspirations and expectations of current society, manifests highly mediatized content, nurtures elements of infotainment, symbolizes danger and negligence, and socially reconstructs meaning through alienation from its original connotation. The Chernobyl factor does not appear significantly in current nuclear discourse in Hungary.

Richard R John

This essay traces the shifting understanding of the Enlightenment truism that improving popular access to information is a public good. It spans the "age of radio"--an epoch that can be said to have begun in 1912, the year of the Titanic disaster, and to have ended in 1956, the year in which US-backed radio broadcasts failed to catalyze a political revolution in communist Hungary. Technical advances in information technology, of course, continued after 1956; they included, in particular, the widespread commercialization of the digital computer, the technical advance most central to today's information age. In some quarters, the Enlightenment faith in the emancipatory promise of information never died. Yet the age of radio remains a watershed in the history of information. For it challenged, without entirely undermining, the Enlightenment faith that technical advance in information technology could bring moral progress. This challenge can be traced by examining the evolution of three media genres--publicity, propaganda, and public opinion--and three media organizations--the metropolitan newspaper, the government messaging agency, and the radio broadcasting station. In particular, we examine how media insiders--political leaders, government officials, business elites, journalists, and social scientists--understood the relationship between publicity, propaganda, and public opinion.

Mass Culture and Perestroika in the Soviet Union

Michael Launer

A review of news coverage and an anal)'Sis of two documenlary jibns in the context of Soviet cultural values and polltlcal staJ,es suggests tbat the rbetorlcal recunstructlon of Chernobyl contribuled IV the legttbnatlon of nuclear power and the environment as public 'Issues. In March 1985, when Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev ascended to power in the U .S.S.R., he promised to reform the Soviet economy. A concomitant feature of the revitalization program would be greater access to the information necessary for effective economic planning. The latter change, glasnost, would facilitate the former, perestroika. As events have transpired, however, both policy initiatives developed far beyond their original, well-limited definitions. Today the impending conversion to a market economy and a combative, nearly uncontrollable press have rendered the social scene almost unrecognizable. It is difficult to perceive any remnant of those tentative, cautious policy conceptions that ushered in the new age of Soviet political culture. Indeed, one seldom even hears the term glasnost in the U.S.S.R. A critical event with enormous repercussions in both the economic and information spheres was the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear station on April 26, 1986. As both popular and scholarly accounts have extensively documented, press coverage of this accident was a watershed in Soviet policy. This article assesses how media treatments of Chernobyl changed the developing concept of glasnost while reflecting the existing conception of Soviet media policy. We begin by reviewing news coverage that appeared in three major Soviet daily newspapers and on Soviet television news from the day of the explosion through May 14, when President Gorbachev addressed the nation. We follow this analysis with a brief description of post-Chernobyl reinterpretationsmostly recreations or narratives of the fateful events preceding and following the explosion-that saw light of day as a direct result of the greater freedom accorded by Moscow to editors of journals, magazines, and newspapers. These works provided the Soviet people with far greater detail than had been offered

Russian Journal of Communication

Elza Ibroscheva

Bulletin of the atomic scientists

Alexander Gendler

Environmental Communication-a Journal of Nature and Culture

Tanja Perko

Olga Bertelsen

Ortwin Renn

This paper addresses the question of how the public in many European countries and the US perceived the danger of the radiation fallout from Chernobyl and how they reacted to the management of risk in each country. In addition, the lessons learned about communicating risk are discussed on the basis of studies of public attitudes and the effects of media coverage.

Csaba Katona

1988 and 1989 was the dawn of Hungarian change of regime. The impact of the upcoming change is also well documented in informers’ reports. The lecture examines the structure and tone of the press from this particular aspect from October 1988 to January 1989. How the reports were reflected on the free press. Membership of a state party is accustomed to the fact that the caring state determines what needs to be done. Fresh media products and their multi-faceted vision caused them serious confusion. For reports, it is not to be overlooked that their creators have been working on orders. There were some who recorded what readers of the report expected. Others wrote what they really heard. Many people were shocked to see more newspapers and TV channels. Others demanded their banning immediately. The media activity was considered by many sources as self-directed, provocative. There was someone who reported that many people agreed with the change. But most people wrote that conflicting news is causing serious confusion. The sudden freedom came to surprise most of the people. The following quotation summarizes this: „The majority did not know what was right, what can be done, what can not be done. Many newspapers do not yet make sense of the clarity but the difficulty of orientation."

RELATED PAPERS

Acta Polymerica

Yitzhak Rabin

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

Matthias Zink

Advances in Science and Technology Research Journal

Tomasz Klepka

Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society

Eloisa Ishikawa

Stine Bundgaard

Science of The Total Environment

Daniela Bertotto

George Odipo

JURNAL KESEHATAN PERINTIS (Perintis's Health Journal)

MUHAMMAD IKHWAN

Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi

irvan novikri

SSRN Electronic Journal

Ann Sherman

Elementos de Química

Vera Lucia da Silva Marinho

Atmospheric Environment

Cadernos De Ciencias Sociais

Moisés de Lemos Martins

The British Journal of Hand Therapy

Prof. Jörg Grünert

Journal of the Anatomical Society of India

iuliana popovici

Ilaria Meloni

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Dalia H . Eldardiry , Reham Abdellatif

Desalination

Tracy Gardner

Prospectiva Universitaria

Arturo Gamarra Moreno

Denis Ribouillault

Stanislav Ivanov

Total Quality Management & Business Excellence

Abhilasha Singh

Claudio Hutz

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

International Journals of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering Research Article February ISSN: 2277-128X (Volume-8, Issue-2) a 2018

Case Study: Chernobyl Disaster Yasar Hussain*, Arvind Rehalia, Akash Dhyani Bharati Vdyapeeth, College of Engineering, New Delhi, India Email- [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract— the Chernobyl disaster was the world worst nuclear disaster, took place in the Chernobyl power plant due to explosion of reactor at Pripyat city in Ukraine . It led to 31 deaths including fire fighters and workers of the power plant on same day andabout 15 indirect deaths up to 2011. Also around 115000 people were evacuated from a 30 km zone around the plant. In this paper author gives a case study on Chernobyl disaster. And also, author finds the reasons and its effect on the human beings after the accident. And also, the confinement process of reactor number 4.

Keywords— Steam Turbine Test, Technical Flaw, Uranium Reaction, Overheating, the Confinement

I. INTRODUCTION The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine. It was a catastrophic disaster which occurred due to technical flaws. Basically, the accident was the result of failure of steam turbine test. On April 26, 1986 technicians prepared to test the backup cooling system in reactor number 4. But the routine safety went wrong while the test was ongoing condition. In the reactor number 4, uranium fuel is used to produce a high amount of heat that convert water into steam which drive huge turbine to generate electricity for all the reactor. Control rods were inserted inside the uranium to control the reaction and it is crucial for cooling water to pump around the core to prevent overheating. But, as the test was started, all of the rods were removed from the uranium fuel. Due to this mistake, technicians lost the control of the flow of coolant, as a result the temperature of the reactor increased drastically and a high amount of heat was produced, that was sufficient to melt the core. At 1:23 am the reactor number 4 of Chernobyl plant was exploded. Around 8 tonnes of radioactive fuel was spread into the atmosphere of the Ukraine. The toxicity of this explosion was equivalent to 400 Hiroshima bomb explosions . After the explosion in 1986, the reactor number 4was covered by the sarcophagus and plant was again started with three remaining reactor which were in running condition. But due to lake of energy resources the Chernobyl nuclear plant was completely shut down later in year 2000.The Chernobyl accident led to a huge impact on the people of the Ukraine. Abnormalities of insects, deformation of eyes and other parts of the body and natural waste were some of the most common effects of the Chernobyl accident.

II. THE CAUSE ( STEAM TURBINE TEST ) A. Before Steam Turbine Test An easy way to comply with the conference paper formatting requirements is to use this document as a template and simply type your text into it. The construction of Chernobyl nuclear plant was done on 15th august 1972 and the commission was held in 1977 with only one reactor. Two other reactors became operational earlier. The reactor number 4 was newest going online in 1983. The preparation was done in 1986 to test the backup cooling system on reactor number 4with the expectations of some improvement in processing rate.

B. Steam Turbine Test The steam turbine test was held on 26th April 1986. In the reactor number, the uranium fuel is used to produce a high amount of heat which converted the water into steam and with the help of that steam the turbine could be rotated and could produce the energy for the reactors. To control the reaction and overheating of the system, some rods were inserted into the uranium fuel.

C. Result of Steam Turbine Test The preparation for steam turbine test was done properly. But the test was gone horribly wrong, almost all the rods were removed from the uranium fuel. As a result, technicians lost the control over the temperature of the system. And finally a huge amount of heat was produced, which result in the explosion of reactor number 4 of Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine. And also a large amount of toxic radioactive fuel was spread out in the atmosphere.

© www.ijarcsse.com, All Rights Reserved Page | 76 Hussain et al., International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering 8(2) ISSN(E): 2277-128X, ISSN(P): 2277-6451, pp. 76-78 III. EFFECT OF EXPLOSION There were various hazardous effects occurs due to the explosion of reactor number 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant. These effects included some earlier effects which include direct effects and also some indirect effects occurred afterwards.

A. Earlier Effects The explosion led to 31 deaths in total, including fire fighters and workers of Chernobyl nuclear plant and also around 115000 people were evacuated due to the radiation of the explosion in a radius of 30 km around the plant and around 15 more indirect deaths by 2011.

B. Lateral Effects There are many other effects has been seen after the accident at Chernobyl Power Plant related to human, insects and nature etc. The most common effects are 1) Radroach (after the explosion the insects around the Chernobyl were found to be abnormal. The abnormalities are such as deformation of legs, eyes or fur). 2) Eyes abnormalities in human being (it includes either the deformation or unnatural growing eyes). 3) Hydrocephalus (it includes the deformation of body parts usually head, face hands and legs). 4) Limb development (it includes the development of limbs in abnormal fashion). 6) Natural waste (after the accident the growing rate of plant around Chernobyl was decreased and also decomposition of old plants started). 7) Mental health (it includes negative effect of brain development).

IV. CONFINEMENT METHODS FOR DAMAGED REACTOR After the explosion, there are two steps has been taken by the government of Ukraine till date, first was the emergency construction of sarcophagus and another is New Safe Confinement (NSC) or New Shelter.

A. Sarcophagus After the Chernobyl explosion, there were lot of problems raised related to human health and safety. It is estimated that within the shelter there is 200 tons of radioactive corium , 30 tons of contaminated dust and 16 tons of uranium and plutonium were present. To overcome the effect of toxic radioactive fuel, a secure and successful treatment was needed. Thus, a sarcophagus structure was build over the reactor number 4 between May and October in 1986 to halt the release of radiation into the atmosphere. It was an emergency measure of safety purpose. It was made up of giant metal concrete and the durability of that sarcophagus was estimated around 30 year since its construction. But, the structural condition of the sarcophagus was continuously deteriorated. Later repair of this sarcophagus was seemed to be impossible. Thus a decision to replace the sarcophagus was taken.

B. New Safe Confinement In 1992 Ukraine organized a competition to attract the ideas that would make the Chernobyl safe again. Time frame was quite tight since the sarcophagus that had been built around reactor number 4 was designed to last 30 years. In 1993 Novarka was selected for the construction of New Safe Confinement (NSC or new shelter) with tender partners Vinci Construction Grand projects and Bouygues travdux public. Its design includes the confining of damaged reactor as well as the sarcophagus. Its height(92.5meters), length(150meters) and external span(270meters) can easily describe its huge dimensions. It is a containment style of structure to contain the escape of radiation or toxic gases to maximum pressure of 275 to 550KPa and its architecture is Arch shaped steel structure which would take the confinement air tight for 100 years. Also it is the biggest mobile structure in history. It would weighs more than the Eiffel Tower and can house the Statue of Liberty. The total cost in its construction is around €1.6 billion this much amount was the only hindrance occurred in this project. But in 1997 the Chernobyl Shelter Fund was established and it received the donation from all over the world and was managed by the European Bank The construction of NSC was started in September 2010 and it was decided that the encloser would be constructed around 300 meters away from the damaged reactor. The arch was assembled in the ground and lifted in phases on the damaged reactor. The Novarka team started clearing and cleaning of erection in earlier 2010. In April 2010 they started excavating to lay the concrete beams that would be used to slide the structure into position over damaged reactor. By Feb 2012 the first segment was rolled off from the production line. The arch was erected in six phases between November 2012 to October 2014.Work on electric and ventilation system began in June 2015 to prevent corrosion in the confinement. The air between the inner and outer wall was dried and subjected to mild pressure. After some other works, on 14th November 2016, the arch was ready to be pushed in its final position. On 29th November, the

© www.ijarcsse.com, All Rights Reserved Page | 77 Hussain et al., International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering 8(2) ISSN(E): 2277-128X, ISSN(P): 2277-6451, pp. 76-78 arch was shifted to the damaged reactor by travelling the distance of around 300 meters. Some of safety works are still in progress qnd the completion of the project will be done by 2018. Now the NSC is officially on its place.

V. CONCLUSION Author has deeply studied the main cause of disaster and also their direct and indirect effects. And finally, he concluded that the main cause of the accident was the technical flaws in the process of Steam Turbine Test and low safety measure taken during the test. And due to emission of radiation from the reactor, there were number of problems occurred related to human being as well as nature and environment. But after the construction of Confinement, The Ukraine is now safe from the effect of those Radiations .

ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all we would like to express my profound honour to Mr. Arvind Rehalia, Associate professor, Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering for his continuous support and advise. With the help of his patience and continual encouragement we are able to complete this case study. We would also like to thank our HOD Mrs Arati Kane and all the faculty members of Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering for their support and cooperation. And finally, I would like to express my deep respect and gratitude to my parents and my family.

REFERENCES [1] Available at: www.world-nuclear.org [2] Available at: www.youtube.com. [3] Available at: www.en.wikipedia.org.

© www.ijarcsse.com, All Rights Reserved Page | 78