On April 25, 1986, scientists working at a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, a city located in the Ukraine on the border it shared with Belarus and Russia (the Soviet Union at the time), were preparing for a test. This test was meant to see how long turbines would last to supply power to the main pumps if there were ever a major loss of electricity. This exact experiment had been done a year prior to the incident, but the power from the turbine ran out too quickly, so new designs for the voltage regulators were being tested. The scientists shut down a number of safety measures including an automatic shutdown if something was to go wrong and they had also shut down the unit 4 reactor due to the need for regular maintenance.
Early on April …show more content…
After that, more than 200,000 people were sent in to help the clean-up efforts. They were exposed to very high levels of radiation. Soon, the number of people assisting with the clean-up of the disaster grew to over 600,000. They were only exposed to low levels of radiation compared to the first people that were on the scene. Before all of these people affected, however, were the people living in Chernobyl. They were affected the greatest out of anyone because they were so close to the site of the explosion and they were not evacuated from the city until 36 hours after the incident. The government did very little for the people of Chernobyl and actually tried to cover up the incident altogether.
The disaster of Chernobyl has altered the view on the use of nuclear energy. The people of the world are realizing that there is no benefit of nuclear energy that will ever outweigh the horrible possibility that comes with having a nuclear power plant. People know how horrible and terrifying radiation poisoning is and it is this fear that stops them from trying to make a nuclear power plant work in their cities. Though there are some places that still operate and use nuclear power plants, they are very few and far in …show more content…
Why did the Soviet Union try to cover up the massive explosion in Chernobyl? How long will the radiation from the blast affect the land it hit and the people who lived there? And how will it affect it in the future? Is there any possibility for Chernobyl to become a new city that is relatively healthy to live in?
If the government in charge of the Chernobyl crisis had told the people what had actually happened, more people may have been spared from prolonged exposure to high radiation levels. They should have told the surrounding countries about the explosion because they knew the radiation was carried by winds to other areas not only in their own county. The government should have stepped in when the scientists wanted to disable the safety precaution in the test from the beginning and should have heeded the warnings that the systems gave
Early on April …show more content…
After that, more than 200,000 people were sent in to help the clean-up efforts. They were exposed to very high levels of radiation. Soon, the number of people assisting with the clean-up of the disaster grew to over 600,000. They were only exposed to low levels of radiation compared to the first people that were on the scene. Before all of these people affected, however, were the people living in Chernobyl. They were affected the greatest out of anyone because they were so close to the site of the explosion and they were not evacuated from the city until 36 hours after the incident. The government did very little for the people of Chernobyl and actually tried to cover up the incident altogether.
The disaster of Chernobyl has altered the view on the use of nuclear energy. The people of the world are realizing that there is no benefit of nuclear energy that will ever outweigh the horrible possibility that comes with having a nuclear power plant. People know how horrible and terrifying radiation poisoning is and it is this fear that stops them from trying to make a nuclear power plant work in their cities. Though there are some places that still operate and use nuclear power plants, they are very few and far in …show more content…
Why did the Soviet Union try to cover up the massive explosion in Chernobyl? How long will the radiation from the blast affect the land it hit and the people who lived there? And how will it affect it in the future? Is there any possibility for Chernobyl to become a new city that is relatively healthy to live in?
If the government in charge of the Chernobyl crisis had told the people what had actually happened, more people may have been spared from prolonged exposure to high radiation levels. They should have told the surrounding countries about the explosion because they knew the radiation was carried by winds to other areas not only in their own county. The government should have stepped in when the scientists wanted to disable the safety precaution in the test from the beginning and should have heeded the warnings that the systems gave