The greater good?
by ViTo • May 1, 2006 No comments- 1:00 AM The planned experiment is started and control bars are inserted. The operator forgets to reprogram the computer. The power which should stay between 700-1000 MW descends to only 30 MW.
- 1:02 AM In order to rise power again control bars are completely removed. It is too late.
- 1.03 AM This abnormal situation triggers the alarms which the operator manually disables.
- 1.22 AM The computer indicates a radioactivity excess. Operators decide to finish the experiment anyway.
- 1.23 AM The system is extremely unstable: working without control bars and with the alarms disabled. An explosion occurs which destroys the concrete retaining walls.
The core of the reactor is exposed. Nuclear fuel is thrown outside the reactor and radioactiviy expands through the atmosphere. The quantity of radioctive material exposed is 200 times bigger than the amount in Hiroshima or Nagasaki’s bombs. It is considered the worst nuclear accident of the history and it was caused by a human error. This is what happened the 26th of April 1986, exactly 20 years ago in Chernobyl.
The first reaction from the Russian authorities was to hide the event! It was only admitted a reactor had exploded when presented with irrefutable evidences. The first russian media report of the accident appeared 2 days later and was the 4th item in the news bulletin. What is even worse, the decision to evacuate the zone with cities only 14 km away from the plant, was made on May 2nd, 6 days later. At that moment, radiation nearby Kiev had risen 100 times above the safe levels. About 116,000 people were relocated, and according to estimations 5 million people were exposed to radiation. Estimated recovery time: 130 years.
Chernobyl remains a virtual ghost town and it has been said this is the one place where you could understand how the world would be after a nuclear war. Terrible… or not?
As humans abandoned the area animals moved in. In spite of the radiation, existing populations multiplied and some species not seen in decades returned: Lynxs, owls and even a bear (not present in Ukraine for centuries). It seems wildlife defies radiation: birds nest inside the sarcophagus (the concrete shield built around the reactor). Obviously, they are negatively affected by it: Many of them died or simply stopped reproducing, yet the next generations have been found to be suprisingly normal. These creatures adapt to their environment: a mutant animal in the wild will die fast, and only the best ones will remain. The natural selection process is boosted.
There may be plutonium in the zone, but all other negative human influences have disappeared: there is no herbicide or pesticide, no industry, no traffic, marshlands are no longer drained, etc. To wildlife, the benefits of removing people from the zone, have far outweighed any harm from radiation.
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