Chernobyl Nuclear Plant

The Chernobyl nuclear facility was located in Ukraine, Soviet Union Russia and the disaster
which was caused involving the same nuclear station took place in the early hours of 26th
April 1986 when the operators were conducting a simulation of a low power test
recommended by the Moscow authorities. At the time of the accident, the facility was
operating with 4 reactors among which one of them was 3 years old which exploded and
released 8 tonnes of radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere. 30 years later, the atmosphere is
still contaminated with the same radioactive elements and nothing is said to grow on those
lands.

The main engineering reasons behind the failure of the power plant were mainly:
(i)

Design errors,

(ii)

Management faults,

(iii)

Political reasons.

Firstly pertaining to the design errors, control rods which were used to regulate energy output
from uranium in the reactor moved slowly taking 20 seconds to be completely submerged in
the reactor. This proved costly even if it was just a very little delay as it prevented a runaway
of the core in case of any incidents. The control rods were made of Boron carbide with
graphite tips. During the immersion, the graphite tip increased the reactivity in the core since
an unwanted characteristic of hot graphite is that it readily explodes upon contact with air.

Secondly, for the faults of management and errors committed by the operators; during the low
test power, the safety systems had been switched off and the reactor was being operated under
improper, unstable conditions. At that point, the Russian nuclear engineers were aware of this
instability and the Soviet authorities insisted to conduct the rest of the test. During this
situation, an uncontrollable power surge occurred causing the nuclear fuel to overheat and
leading to a series of steam explosions that severely damaged the reactor building and
completely destroyed the unit 4 reactor.

In line with the aforementioned sub title, the operators did not follow the standard test
procedures since they bypassed 3 safety mechanisms which involved emergency water
rejection and to emergency shut downs. Sufficient training was not made available to the
operators and the accident occurred during the change of shifts that is at midnights, no senior

employees were on site leaving the care to the juniors who could not be enough competent in
assuming any possible incidents.

Lastly, pertaining to the political causes were that the authorities highlighted on the fact that
time was of great value and hence little time was to be dedicated on improvements although
safety operations were imposed. It proved in the aftermaths that the design errors of the
reactor did not arise from lack of competency from the engineers but rather resulted from a
bureaucratic dictatorship which prevailed in the Soviet system even if it consisted of safety
issues and measures.

SUROOPJEET Niraj Kumar

(Industrial systems)
1415457

KHEDOO Nevin
1310340

BEng Mechanical Eng minor