On April 29th, 1986 the worst nuclear power accident ever witnessed occurred in the Ukraine. Today, Chernobyl sits alone in what some refer to as the "Zone of Alienation". It is a 30 kilometer zone surrounding the once nuclear reactor site which was initiated in order to prevent people from entering the heavily radiated zone. All types of activities in the "zone" not related to the scientific study of nuclear reactor safety or pertaining to work at the nuclear site are illegal.
So what is going on there today. Well...first some history...less than a year after the accident, the nuclear plant was encased in a concrete "sarcophagus" in order to shield the still radiating nuclear fuel. However, because the concrete wall has begun to crack...safety precautions must be taken and a new encasing must be constructed. Ukraine has been trying to come up with the money to build a 20,000 metric ton steel arch that would replace the current concrete "box". The steel shell is said to prevent any radiation leakage from the plant for over 100 years. So after years of persuasive talks from the Ukraine, governments all over the world have pledged money to the construction of the steel arch. And now ten days away from the 25th anniversary of the accident, it seems that they have met their financial goal.
Below I've provided a short video that describes all of the details...check it out...it displays some great engineering!
Just an interesting little bit of trivia. There were four reactors as the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. Chernobyl No. 1 is the one that is well known for melting down and contaminating the area. What many people don't know is that the other reactors at Chernobyl continued to operate for many years after the accident. In fact, they only shut down Chernobyl No.2, the last operating reactor there, in 1999. Though they were bad designs, they still proved to operate safely safely when they weren't being stupid with them.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that is a little off topic from what you were talking about, but I just couldn't resist.
Aaron's point is a good one, but it's also one that is a little maddening--"the reactor itself is safe, it's the operators who messed up!" But nuclear reactors are always sociotechnical systems--they are always technical systems embedded in social, political, and human environments. So it doesn't make much sense, from a public or political perspective, to talk about the reactors as if they are independent and therefore safe. They ARE safe, comparatively, but we must always thing of them as sociotechnical--there is no perfect world in which things are just technical.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, an interesting post.
Maybe that did come out a little backward on my part. That is exactly what I was meaning to say. The human element is what brings the uncertainty into the equation. As Dr. King refers to a lot, there is a correct engineering solution and a correct solution. These don't always coincide because the world is not technical. We, the humans, are always involved. That is why we need designs that better take this into account. We can't tout that the reactors are safe if we can mess up. We are part of how reactors work...maybe we are the weak link, but we are still a link.
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