The Accident
Information about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s fatal moments and the controversy surrounding them.
A Brief Introduction to Radiation
Before we start talking about what actually happened to the Chernobyl power plant, it’s important that you understand how radiation works and why it was such a big deal when the power plant exploded.
Radiation is not like anything that you’ve ever experienced (or should ever have to experience) before. While it is true that the human body is constantly being bombarded with trace amounts of radiation (from neutral sources, like granite rock or xrays), the amount of radiation that the human body will absorb “naturally” is not enough to do any significant damage to it. In other words, your body does not experience radiation in any noticeable amount.
What Happened on April 26, 1986?
Before its meltdown, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant generated approximately 10% of Ukraine’s energy supply. Each of the four RBMK-1000 reactors was capable of producing 1 gigawatt of electricity, and by the late 1970’s all four reactors were coming online. It’s interesting to note that two more RBMK-1000 reactors were under construction when the accident occurred.
At 1:23 a.m., on April 26, 1986, reactor number four experienced a nuclear meltdown as a result of a series of explosions and fires. While the exact actions that caused the accident may never be known (there are some differences among various sources about the details relating to the accident), we do know that the meltdown was the result of a botched safety test.
Long-Term Consequences
How can we accurately measure the damage caused by the Chernobyl power plant’s meltdown? Without getting into too much detail we can simply come to the conclusion that we can’t. The true cost of the disaster may never be known, as radiation has a funny way of working in ways that can be hard to detect many generations down the line.
What we do know is that damage was indeed done, and that its long-term results are still very much in the making. The half-life of many of the radioactive particles that were released into the atmosphere can not be measured in years, or even tens of years, but in thousands and tens of thousands of years.
What Does the Future Hold for Chernobyl?
For those that have visited Chernobyl, the general consensus is that the silence of the deserted city is deafening. Guided tours are now being conducted through the area, and those tours may represent one of the first attempts to begin to adapt and shift life to better accommodate the ill-fated power plant.
But nature does not follow the course of action as determined by humans. Already, less than 25 years after the accident (as of March, 2008), we can see that nature has reclaimed much of “the dead zone”. Trees are growing tall, animals run free, and it becomes quite clear that the human race is not needed here.
That does not mean that humans won’t even occupy these lands again, but as any source on radioactivity will tell you, it won’t be in our generation, our children’s generation, or their children’s generation. Some estimate that it may be more than 500 years before humans can safely occupy this region again.