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    Reflection Essay On "Chernobyl 35 Years After The Nuclear Disaster (A Documentary)

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    Marie Franz Chua
    The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It was caused by a flawed reactor design and inadequately trained staff. The resulting explosions and fires released radioactive material into the atmosphere. Hundreds of thousands of liquidators helped with the cleanup, but received high radiation doses. While the immediate deaths were relatively few, the long term health and psychological impacts on the region were severe. The emergency responders who helped in the initial disaster response and cleanup are often forgotten for their heroic actions.

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    Reflection Essay On "Chernobyl 35 Years After The Nuclear Disaster (A Documentary)

    Uploaded by

    Marie Franz Chua
    286 views4 pages
    The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It was caused by a flawed reactor design and inadequately trained staff. The resulting explosions and fires released radioactive material into the atmosphere. Hundreds of thousands of liquidators helped with the cleanup, but received high radiation doses. While the immediate deaths were relatively few, the long term health and psychological impacts on the region were severe. The emergency responders who helped in the initial disaster response and cleanup are often forgotten for their heroic actions.

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    Reflection Essay on “Chernobyl 35 years after the nuclear disaster (A Documentary)

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    The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It was caused by a flawed reactor design and inadequately trained staff. The resulting explosions and fires released radioactive material into the atmosphere. Hundreds of thousands of liquidators helped with the cleanup, but received high radiation doses. While the immediate deaths were relatively few, the long term health and psychological impacts on the region were severe. The emergency responders who helped in the initial disaster response and cleanup are often forgotten for their heroic actions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    286 views4 pages

    Reflection Essay On "Chernobyl 35 Years After The Nuclear Disaster (A Documentary)

    Uploaded by

    Marie Franz Chua
    The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It was caused by a flawed reactor design and inadequately trained staff. The resulting explosions and fires released radioactive material into the atmosphere. Hundreds of thousands of liquidators helped with the cleanup, but received high radiation doses. While the immediate deaths were relatively few, the long term health and psychological impacts on the region were severe. The emergency responders who helped in the initial disaster response and cleanup are often forgotten for their heroic actions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 4

    Chua, Marie Franz M.

    MAEd - CHEM

    “The enemy is invisible, it has no flavor, smell or form. So, people weren’t afraid.

    We didn’t realize at the time what it could eventually cause. Later I saw the results when

    people I had to work with started dying,”

    - Gennady Fraierman, Battalion Commander, Responsible for Cleaning

    the Reactor Roof

    The Chernobyl accident is one of the most infamous nuclear disasters in history.

    It happened on the 26th of April 1986 due to a flawed reactor design and the staff not

    being appropriately trained. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least

    5% of the radioactive materials into the atmosphere. The explosion caused the nearby

    area to be entirely uninhabited for years. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled

    radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and

    large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air. Most of the

    released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material

    was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and to some extent over

    Scandinavia and Europe. This caused serious social and economic disruption for large

    populations in Russia.

    Publicizing a nuclear accident was considered a significant political risk, but by

    then it was too late. The accident had already spread radiation as far as Sweden,

    where officials at another nuclear plant began to ask about what was happening in

    Russia.

    The casualties included firefighters who attended the initial fires on the roof of the

    turbine building. All these were put out in a few hours, but radiation doses on the first

    Reflection Essay on “Chernobyl: 35 years after the nuclear disaster " (A Documentary)
    Chua, Marie Franz M.
    MAEd - CHEM

    day caused 28 deaths – six of which were firemen – by the end of July 1986. The doses

    received by the firefighters and power plant workers were very high.

    Their next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining

    three reactors could be restarted, and the damaged reactor shielded more permanently.

    About 200,000 liquidators were involved in the recovery and clean-up. Liquidators

    received high doses of radiation. They served as “bio-robots”. Later, the number of

    liquidators swelled to over 600,000, but most of these received only low radiation doses.

    The highest doses were received by about 1000 emergency workers and onsite

    personnel during the first day of the accident. Emergency responders used helicopters

    to pour sand and boron on the reactor debris. It was to stop the fire and additional

    releases of radioactive material; the boron was to prevent additional nuclear reactions.

    A few weeks after the incident, the crews wholly covered the damaged unit in a

    temporary concrete structure, called the "sarcophagus," to limit the further release of

    radioactive material.

    The Russian government also cut down and buried about a square mile of pine

    forest near the plant to lessen radioactive contamination at and near the site. Despite

    the death of two people in the explosions, the hospitalization of workers and firefighters,

    and the danger from fallout and fire, no one in the surrounding areas—including the

    nearby city of Pripyat, which was built in the 1970s to house workers at the plant—was

    evacuated until about 36 hours after the disaster began, because back then people

    were not fully aware of the effects of radiation.

    Reflection Essay on “Chernobyl: 35 years after the nuclear disaster " (A Documentary)
    Chua, Marie Franz M.
    MAEd - CHEM

    Those who experienced the Chernobyl incident considered the emergency

    responders or liquidators as the unknown heroes of the incident.

    “Were they rewarded for it? I think they are simply forgotten…because no one

    needs them now. When I delve into memories of the past and I recall the people who

    gave their lives and remained anonymous, nobody knows them (liquidators), that’s the

    truth. No one’s heard of them, and they did a heroic deed, by saving the lives of

    millions.”

    - Michael Rubin, Construction Contractor in the Chernobyl area.

    It was almost 35 years then, but the psychological effects on the people who

    experienced it are still massive. People still remember it as if it were yesterday. Many

    experts regard the mental health impact of Chernobyl as an enormous public health

    problem unleashed by accident to date.

    What can be learned from this incident? Environmental disasters (intentional or

    not) have long-lasting consequences. They can persist for years/decades in the best-

    case scenario and centuries in the worst. They (will) affect water, air, soils, life and, of

    course, humans – some of them not even born yet. Reversing or minimizing the

    damage –whenever possible– is not free. It costs millions. It costs human lives. It takes

    time. Sometimes solutions are in fact “temporary patches” that contain the problem for a

    few months or years, but they do not solve the problem itself. Science is the best tool

    we have to prevent and to solve these complex problems. Only by using the scientific

    Reflection Essay on “Chernobyl: 35 years after the nuclear disaster " (A Documentary)
    Chua, Marie Franz M.
    MAEd - CHEM

    method, it will possible to understand and find solutions to environmental –and many

    more– issues. And there is still lot of work that needs to be done.

    References:

    Chernobyl Accident and the Aftermath. (2018). Retrieved August 6, 2021, from Stanford.edu

    website: http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/moshkovich1/

    Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association. (2021).

    Retrieved August 6, 2021, from World-nuclear.org website: https://world-

    nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-

    accident.aspx

    Feder, T. (2016). What can Chernobyl teach us? Physics Today, 69(4), 24–27.

    https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.3133

    Nuclear Energy Institute. (2019, May). Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences. Retrieved

    August 6, 2021, from Nuclear Energy Institute website:

    https://www.nei.org/resources/fact-sheets/chernobyl-accident-and-its-

    consequences#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20psychological%20effects%20of,Nations

    %20study%20published%20in%202008.

    Reflection Essay on “Chernobyl: 35 years after the nuclear disaster " (A Documentary)

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