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Chernobyl 25 years

Chernobyl 25 years . Physics and Human Affairs, EMPACTS Project NorthWest Arkansas Community College Melody Thomas, Instructor. Science and Construction of Chernobyl. Steven Thomas and Zac Colvin. Nuclear Fission. Splitting of one atom into two Nuclear- pertaining to the nucleus

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Chernobyl 25 years

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  1. Chernobyl25 years Physics and Human Affairs, EMPACTS Project NorthWest Arkansas Community CollegeMelody Thomas, Instructor

  2. Science and Construction of Chernobyl Steven Thomas and Zac Colvin

  3. Nuclear Fission • Splitting of one atom into two • Nuclear-pertaining to the nucleus • Accelerated Neutron

  4. Uranium • 92nd Element • Two natural isotopes

  5. Video on Nuclear Fission http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1jtWR_tcX4

  6. How a Nuclear Plant Works • Steam Generation. • Turbines produce electricity.

  7. Chernobyl Construction • 4 RBMK reactors completed between 1970 and 1983 • 22 square kilometer artificial lake • 115000-130000 people lived within a 30 km radius

  8. RBMK-1000 • Graphite Moderated Reactor • 1970’s design with flaws

  9. Positive Void Coefficient • Build up in steam bubbles (voids) lead to increase in temperature. • Power builds to 100 times normal capacity

  10. Operating Reactivity Margin • Bare minimum safety regulations were met. • Positive Scram Effect.

  11. Sources • http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-power1.htm • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1jtWR_tcX4 • https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/421629/19492/Sequence-of-events-in-the-fission-of-a-uranium-nucleus • http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html • http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/TheScienceOfNuclearPower

  12. Chernobyl • Before dawn on April 26, 1986, less than two miles south of what was then a city of 50,000, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's number four reactor exploded. Amy Daniels, Randi Walker, Erika Palos, Stormy Clary and Ashton Pepple

  13. Events Leading up to the disaster of April 26, 1986

  14. April 26, 1986

  15. Leading up to the Accident

  16. Things continuing to decline

  17. The Moment before and of the Explosion

  18. The Moments after

  19. What Went Wrong • The immediate cause of the Chernobyl accident was a mismanaged electrical-engineering experiment. • Engineers with no knowledge of reactor physics were interested to see if they could draw electricity from the turbine generator of the Number 4 reactor unit to run water pumps during an emergency when the turbine was no longer being driven by the reactor but was still spinning initially.

  20. What Went Wrong • The experiment was delayed due to an electrical demand. The experimenters tried to make up for lost time by lowering the power level rapidly. • That mistake caused a rapid buildup of neutron-absorbing fission by products in the reactor core, which poisoned the reaction. • To compensate, the operators withdrew a majority of the e reactor’s control rods, but even with the rods withdrawn, they were unable to increase the power level

  21. What went wrong • This made the system increasingly unstable and led to the loss of more control rods. • They also bypassed most of the safety system which included the emergency core- cooling system. They disconnected the backup electrical system and the diesel generator.

  22. Explosion! This led to an explosion of reactor Number 4. The explosion was caused by a simple test of the emergency systems to be used in a power failure. Anyone who had any knowledge of nuclear technology would have known that the test program was inherently unsafe.

  23. Contributing Factors • Control rods had a design flaw that now proved deadly: their tips were made of graphite. • The graphite tip went in first, which rather than reduce the reaction, they increased it. • The control rods displaced water from the rod channels as well, increasing reactivity further.

  24. Faulty Reactor Design The reactor had no sort of containment structure which was a huge design flaw. If there would have been some sort of containment structure, like the ones in the United States, then most likely none of the radioactivity would have escaped, and there would have been no injuries or deaths.

  25. The Days Following:

  26. Radiation Fallout • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Mj5IbXwW0&feature=youtu.be

  27. Radiation Pattern • The radiation field held the strength for the 10 days that the Chernobyl fire continued, slowly falling off to near background levels by the end of three weeks.

  28. Radiation Patterns Within a few weeks the radioactive effluents had both diffused and decay to undetectable levels.  While the radiation field intensity eventually fell back to normal levels, exposure due to internally deposited radioactive effluents continued to provide a threat to the population.

  29. References • •Hyper Physics Chernobyl section, C.R. Navy, hosted by department of Physics and Astronomy of Georgia State University, 2005. • •D. Marples, “the Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster.” London, 1988, pp. 12-19 • •Glenn Alan Cheney, “Chernobyl: The Ongoing Story of the World’s Deadliest Nuclear Disaster, “Macmillan, 128pp. New York, 1993. • •A.P.Hill, “Dose Estimates from the Chernobyl Accident,” ANS Transactions, Winter 1987. • •R.A. Schlenker, “Internally Deposited Fallout from the Chernobyl Accident, “ANS Transactions, Winter 1987

  30. References: • Stone, Richard. "THE LONG SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL." National Geographic 209.4 (2006): 32. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. • Images provided by Google. • •www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/occup-travail/radiation/dosim/res-centre/glossary-lexique-eng.php • •http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/chernobyl.html

  31. Short Term Affects of Chernobyl India Dujay, Katie Drake, and Mary Beth Teufel

  32. While the long term effects of Chernobyl have been devastating to many, the immediate aftermath was completely shocking to those who were immediately affected by the nuclear disaster twenty five years ago.

  33. Environmental Affects The mapping of radionuclides over 200,000 square kilometers of Europe, varied by rain and winds.

  34. HealthConcerns & Relocation “This ground is permanently closed.” A week after the explosion in Chernobyl, the city council closed all playgrounds after detecting nuclear radiation levels.

  35. Prypyat, which had 45,000 residents was totally evacuated in the first three days after the incident. Some buildings, including this orphanage and school are still waiting to be clean up.

  36. Agriculture A calf with clef lip born shortly after the disaster Four of the 30 cattle that died in transport to Italy. The remainder were sent back to Poland after showing high levels of radiation.

  37. Destruction of all fresh vegetables which arrived in Italy, Saturday, May 3, 1986 for fear of radioactive contamination. A row of boxes of fresh vegetables lies unsold at Milan's fruit and vegetables general market Saturday, May 03, 1986.

  38. People emptying milk from the cartons in Berlin, Saturday, May 11, 1986 to protest radioactive levels in milk and other food. A cow inspecting a radioactive warning sign in Michelstadt, West Germany, May 5, 1986.

  39. Disaster Reports Delayed “ An accident has taken place at the Chernobyl power station, and one of the reactors was damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Those affected by it are being given assistance. A government commission has been set up.”

  40. What forced them to speak? Their initial reports of the incident were vague, and were only announced after officials in Sweden, 700 miles away, discovered sharp increases in radiation which appeared to be coming from the Soviet Union.

  41. On the morning of the 28th, official at the Forsmark nuclear plant near Stockholm Sweden were alerted to alarmingly high levels of radiation at their facilities.

  42. Further Bureaucratic Silence Mikail Gorbachev further exacerbated the matter by remaining silent for 18 days, choosing not to speak publicly until 3 weeks after the incident.

  43. Political Fallout Across The Map As the Soviet remains cloaked in secrecy and silence, the rest of the world prepared for attacks against the world of Nuclear power. • The United States • The Netherlands • Austria • West Germany

  44. Silence is Lifted The first display of Glasnost, the Soviet campaign to forgo secrecy, came in the communist newspaper, Pravda, 10 days after the incident.

  45. Chernobyl Glasnost opened the door for scrutiny of other social and domestic issues.

  46. 62 Nation International Cooperation In September 1986, 600 delegates, including scientist and government officials from 62 nations, met at a conference sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss the incident at Chernobyl.

  47. The conference was not just about Chernobyl, but about the future of Nuclear power throughout the world.

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