What caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode, when? Consequences of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Chernobyl nuclear power plant them. VI Lenin - Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which ceased its work in connection with the explosion at the power unit No. 4. Its construction began in the spring of 1970, and seven years later it was put into operation. By 1986, the station consisted of four blocks, to which were completed two more. When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, or rather, one of the reactors, its work was not stopped. Currently, the construction of a sarcophagus is underway, which will be completed by 2015.

Station Description

1970-1981 - in this period six power units were built, two of which did not have time to run until 1986. A cooling pond was built to cool the turbines and heat exchangers between the Pripyat and the ChNPP rivers.

Before the accident, the generating capacity of the station was 6000 MW. At present, work is under way to transform the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into an environmentally friendly design.

Start of construction

To select a suitable site for the construction of the first nuclear power plant, the design institute of the capital of Ukraine surveyed the Kiev, Zhytomyr and Vinnitsa regions. The most convenient place was the territory on the right side of the Pripyat River. The land, which soon began construction, was unproductive, but the requirements for the maintenance of the nuclear power plant fully corresponded. This site was approved by the USSR State Committee of Hospitals and the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.

February 1970 was marked by the beginning of the construction of Pripyat. The city was created especially for power engineers. The fact is that for the first years the personnel servicing the station had to live in dormitories and demountable houses in the nearby villages. To ensure the work of members of their families in Pripyat, various enterprises were built. Thus, for 16 years of existence of the city it was equipped with everything necessary for comfortable living of people.

The 1986 accident

At 01:23 am on April 26, 1986 , a project test of the turbogenerator of the 4th power unit was started, which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode. As a result, the building collapsed, there were more than 30 fires. The first victims were V. Hodemchuk - the operator of circulation pumps, and V. Shashenok - an employee of the start-up enterprise.

A minute after the incident on duty, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was informed of the explosion. In the shortest time to the station arrived firefighters. V. Pravik was appointed the head of liquidation. Thanks to his skilful actions, the spread of the fire was stopped.

When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, the environment was contaminated with radioactive substances such as:

- plutonium, uranium, iodine-131 (half-life lasts about 8 days);

- cesium-134 (half-life - 2 years);

- cesium-137 (from 17 to 30 years);

- strontium-90 (28 years).

The whole horror of the tragedy is that for a long time people hid from the inhabitants of Pripyat, Chernobyl, and also the entire former Soviet Union, why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and who is guilty of it.

Source of the accident

On April 25, the 4th reactor had to be stopped for another repair, but instead decided to conduct a test. It consisted in creating an emergency situation, in which the station itself would have coped with the problem. There were already four such cases by that time, but this time something went wrong ...

The first and main cause of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion is the careless and unprofessional attitude of the personnel towards a risky experiment. Workers maintained the power unit at 200 MW, which led to self-poisoning.

As if nothing had happened, the staff observed what was happening, instead of driving the control rods out of work and pressing the A3-5 button - for emergency shutdown of the reactor. As a result of inaction in the power unit, an uncontrolled chain reaction began, which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode.

By the evening (approximately at 20.00) in the central hall there was a more intense fire. This time people were not attracted to the extinguishing of the fire . He was eliminated with the help of helicopter technology.

For all the time, except for firefighters and station personnel, about 600 thousand people were involved in rescue work.

What caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode? There are a number of reasons that contributed to this:

- the experiment should have been carried out at all costs, despite the sudden change in the behavior of the reactor;

- decommissioning of operational technological protections that would stop the power unit and prevent an accident;

- the management's silence about the scale of the catastrophe that occurred, as well as the reasons why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.

Effects

As a result of eliminating the consequences of the spread of radioactive substances, 134 firefighters and station personnel developed radiation sickness, 28 of them died within a month after the accident.

Signs of irradiation were vomiting and weakness. First, the first medical aid was provided by the medical staff of the station, and after that the victims were transported to Moscow hospitals.

By the price of their own lives rescuers did not allow the transition of the fire to the third block. Due to this, it was possible to avoid the spread of fire in neighboring blocks. If the quenching failed, a second explosion could exceed the power of the first 10 times!

The accident on September 9, 1982

Until the day the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, a case of destruction at the power unit No. 1 was recorded. During the trial launch of one of the reactors at a power of 700 MW there was a kind of explosion of the fuel assembly and channel No. 62-44. The result was the deformation of the graphite masonry and the release of a significant amount of radioactive substances.

An explanation of why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1982 can be the following:

- gross violations of the workshop staff when regulating water flow in canals;

- the remainder of the internal stress in the walls of the channel zirconium pipe, which resulted from a change in technology by the plant that produced it.

The government of the USSR, as usual, decided not to inform the population of the country why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. The photo of the first accident did not survive. It is even possible that it never existed.

Representatives of the station

Further in the article the names of the employees and their posts before, during and after the tragedy are presented. The post of director of the station in 1986 was Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov. Two months later, Pozdyshev E.N.

Sorokin NM was deputy engineer for operation in the period 1987-1994. Gramotkin II from 1988 to 1995 served as head of the reactor workshop. At present, he is the General Director of SHP "Chernobyl NPP".

Anatoliy Stepanovich Anatoliy Dyatlov - deputy chief engineer for exploitation and one of the perpetrators of the accident. The reason for the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was to conduct a risky experiment, which was headed exactly by this engineer.

Exclusion zone currently

The long-suffering young Pripyat is currently contaminated with radioactive substances. They are collected more often in the ground, houses, ditches and other depressions. In the city from the existing facilities there were only a water fluoridation station, a special laundry, a checkpoint and a garage for special equipment. After the accident Pripyat, oddly enough, did not lose the status of the city.

With Chernobyl, the situation is quite different. It is safe for life, people who serve the station, and so-called self-travelers live in it. The city today is the administrative center for the management of the exclusion zone. Chernobyl concentrates in itself the enterprises that support the nearby territory in an environmentally safe condition. Stabilization of the situation consists in controlling radionuclides in the Pripyat River and in the airspace. In the city is the personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which protects the exclusion zone from illegal intrusion of unauthorized persons.