Introduction

The Chernobyl reactor meltdown was one of the worst nuclear accidents that has happened to this day. In 1986 there was a reactor meltdown caused by a flawed Soviet reactor and inexperienced operators. Chernobyl is a city in Ukraine where Soviets had a nuclear power plant during the Cold War.  The number of deaths are believed to be about 4,000 due to the radiation that escaped and how hard it was to track what all people came into contact with it. 

Engineering Perspective

Chernobyl had its reactor meltdown due to a wrongly made nuclear reactor along with human error. They had inexperienced people working at the Chernobyl power plant that did not have the knowledge or the understanding on how to deal with the situation. They were trying to run a test to see if the turbines could provide enough power to keep the coolant pumps running in case of a power lose. They had tried this same test before but were unsuccessful. The problem arose when the reactors power went down from the 25% they were trying to test at to 1%. They quickly tried to increase the power in the reactor but accidently caused a giant power surge with caused the power in the reactor to go back up to 100% power. The emergency shut down failed which then led to the reactor meltdown. Some people wanted to abort the test but was told to continue it by a superior. The design of the control rods is what caused the reactor to have a power surge and inevitably caused the Chernobyl. The limits were exceeded when the overheated rods came into contact with the water tanks causing massive amounts of steam which had no way to escape the building which led to the top of the building blowing off. 

Lessons Learned

This disaster is the worst nuclear disaster in the world to date. The design process for the control rods has greatly been increased. It would also be best to only have the top nuclear scientist and engineers in order to prevent and make the best decisions possible when tough situations arise. 

Resources

“Chernobyl Accident 1986” Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association, https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx.

Blakemore, Erin. “Chernobyl Disaster Facts and Information.” Culture, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster.

“Chernobyl Disaster.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyl-disaster.