The Chernobyl Disaster

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On the 26th of April 1986, in the early hours of the morning it was an average day like any other. The civilians of Pripyat had no idea that a catastrophic event was about to occur and that their lives would never be the same again. The world’s worst nuclear accident was about to take place. A nuclear explosion flourished its surroundings with radioactive poison, which would contaminate the area of Pripyat, making it an unliveable ghost town. There is no clear evidence in how this disaster actually unfolded, but there are key factors that caused this explosion to happen, such as a flawed reactor design in which inadequately trained personnel were operating (reference). The effects of the explosion would live on for many years to come, causing many health impacts. Radiation poisoning, cancer such as Thyroid and congenital abnormalities (reference), food contamination and mental instability are just a few. Pripyat would then become a marvellous animal sanctuary, where even rare species of animals could in a peaceful environment, away from human life. Chernobyl would leave an everlasting stamp on the history of disastrous events, created by man.

The factor which lead to the Chernobyl disaster occurring, was an experiment by engineers on the evening shift at Chernobyl 4 to see how long the turbines would spin and supply power to the main circling pumps while losing main electrical power supply. The test was carried out the previous year, but it didn’t quite work out as planned, new designs were to be tested and hopefully work out according to plan. The operators at the time made quite a few mistakes in which they would have no idea it would have such a dramatic effect on the Chernobyl plant. At 2300 control rods, which would regulate...

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...ing a significantly high dose of radiation from the food supply, increasing their chances on developing cancer or any other types of deadly diseases. The air outside the exclusion zone is usually generally safe, but when there are heavy winds the air could possibly be at risk of being contaminated with radiation (reference). The food supply is continuously contaminated by rainfall and the movement of radioactive dust, livestock such as goats and cattle contain traces of radiation from this disaster in their meat and milk, as the food that they generally eat has traces of radiation. Mushrooms are severely contaminated in half the country, but they are collected and eaten, as they are a disk of Belarus. The Chernobyl disaster has caused day-to-day things that people would not usually twice about to contain traces of radiation, which no one wants to be overexposed to.

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