Nuclear Disaster in Chernobyl: Historical Context and The Future Influence

The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, that occurred on April 26, 1986, because of an excess buildup of heat inside the nuclear reactor core causing one of the reactors to explode. The entire disaster was caused by a failed safety test. In the minutes leading up to the meltdown, the people that were working were doing everything that they possibly could to prevent the meltdown from happening. The meltdown was caused by a sudden buildup of pressure and heat because of having too few rods in place to prevent an excess of water to be allowed into the reactor. The excess amount of water allowed into the reactor made it impossible for the reactor to heat up the water to create steam which powered the turbines. The effects of the disaster short-term were death due to radiation sickness. For those who were exposed to radiation but to the point where it wouldn’t kill them suffered from long term effects such as scars and health defects. In the environment, the effects were drastic. The entire area of Chernobyl is now radiated beyond the point of anyone being able to live there even 30+ years later.

The meltdown in my opinion could have been avoided. I feel this way because there were more qualified people that could have conducted the safety test in the morning. The meltdown was caused by the excess amount of water put into the reactor. The excess amount of water caused a buildup of heat and pressure causing the reactor to explode. If it were done in the morning, the test would have most likely gone well. But, since they did it in the middle of the night, there was a bigger risk of something going wrong. First off, there would have been more staff on site if the test were conducted during the day, so there would be more people to talk to if something did go wrong. Like I said before, I think this disaster could have been prevented. I think the government could have handled this better, mainly because at first they tried to cover it up. If they hadn’t covered it up, they would have been able to seek out help from other countries. With the help from other countries, they would have been able to clean up all the nuclear waste and dispose of the waste properly.