Geography Essay HL-Chernobyl

8/17/2019 Geography Essay HL-Chernobyl

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Nimisha Sharma

Geography HL

IB1

Explain the reasons for the occurrence and severity of a specichumaninduced ha!ard event that you have studied"

Hazard: A threat (whether natural or human) that has the potential to

cause loss of life, injury, property damage, socio-economic disruption or

environmental degradation. t can !e human-induced as well as natural.

A human-induced disaster is a disastrous event caused directly and

principally !y one or more identi"a!le deli!erate or negligent human

action. Also called a human-made disaster.

#he $herno!yl %uclear Accident in &' is a famous human-induced

disaster. t was a nuclear accident that occurred at the $herno!yl %uclear

*ower *lant on April +, &'. $herno!yl is located in the raine, north-

west of the capital city iev. #he raine is located in /astern /urope. At

the time of the accident the raine was part of the 001 (nion of 0oviet

0ocialist 1epu!lics) and !ecame independent in &''& with the collapse of

the 001. #he raine has a population of a!out 2 million.

#he $herno!yl nuclear accident too place at 3&.+4 am local time on the

+th April &'. #he accident happened e5actly when the scientists at the

plant were testing the safety procedures. t happened during an

emergency drill. t is nown as the worst nuclear power plant disaster in

the history. t was actually a nuclear meltdown in one of the reactors,which caused a "re that sent a plume of radioactive fallout and eventually

spread all over /urope. t is one of only two nuclear accidents to !e

classi"ed level 6 on the nternational %uclear /vents 0cale.

#he day !efore the $herno!yl nuclear disaster, scientists were preparing

for a one-time shutdown to do routine maintenance on reactor num!er 2.

n violation of safety regulations, they disa!led plant e7uipment including

the automatic shutdown mechanisms.


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At &:+4 a.m. on April +, when e5tremely hot nuclear fuel rods were

lowered into cooling water, an immense amount of steam was created,

which 8 !ecause of the 19 reactors (designed and !uilt !y the 0oviet

nion)

design ;aws 8 created more reactivity in the nuclear core of reactor num!er 2. #he resultant power ;ow had an immense e5plosion

that detached the &,333-ton plate covering the reactor core, releasing

radiation into the standard pressure and !urning away the ;ow of coolant

into the reactor. A few minutes after, a second !urst of even greater

power than the "rst !lew the reactor !uilding apart and discharged

!urning graphite and other regions of the reactor core around the plant,

starting a !it of intense "res around the damaged reactor and reactor

num!er 4, which was still running at the time of the detonations.

t was reported that the e5ternal "res around the plant were e5tinguished

within < hours, !ut "res within the reactor continued until &3th ay &'.

Helicopters were used to drop !oric acid, sand, clay and lead onto the

reactor to neutralise the reactor, !ut "re"ghters on the ground were used.

#he "remen were not warned a!out the riss of radiation and due to that

most of them died later !ecause of radiation poisoning.

*ripyat, the near!y town was not evacuated for over +2 hours, even after

the massive radiation lea. #he town had a population of around


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After getting a massive radiation lea around the plant, a radioactive

cloud was also discharged into the air. #he 001 authorities did not inform

the world straight out near the accident and it was actually another power

station in 0weden that "rst discovered the cloud and informed 001 a!outit. #he cloud contained 233 times more radioactive material than the

Hiroshima !om! that hit ?apan. #he whole of /urope received fallout from

the cloud, although it is reconed that up to

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Geography Essay HL-Chernobyl