Sitnikov: I... [clears throat] I walked around the exterior of building 4. I think there's graphite on the ground in the rubble.
Dyatlov: You didn't see graphite.
Sitnikov: I did.
Dyatlov: You didn't. YOU DIDN'T! Because it's NOT THERE!
These were the words exchanged between Soviet nuclear engineer, Anatoly Sitnikov, the man claiming he saw graphite, and Anatoly Dyatlov, chief engineer for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In 1986, in Northern Ukraine, a poorly designed experiment was attempted with reactor Unit 4 of the nuclear power plant, Chernobyl. The result was a chain reaction in the core of the plant, explosions triggering a fireball blowing off the lid of the reactor, and a fire in the graphite reactor core that released radioactive material into the atmosphere, contaminating an estimated 5 million people in the surrounding area.
So why was Dyatlov claiming no graphite was present, when the graphite fire was clearly the reason radioactive material was suddenly being spread? Obviously he was in shock, denying the explosion even happened. But how can we avoid this disaster in the future, as we continue to use nuclear energy as opposed to energy generated by fossil fuels? First, we need to avoid the situation surrounding Chernobyl: the age of competition, the Cold War. And We need better leadership, and an effective control of the aftermath if we are going to safely use nuclear energy as an alternative to natural gas.
According to A.V. Krayushkin, author of 30 Years After the Chernobyl Accident, the disaster was caused by a flawed reactor design coupled with inadequately trained personnel. But why was the reactor flawed, and why were the personnel untrained? A lack of safety culture during this time period directly caused by Cold War isolation. The Soviet Union was willing to do whatever it took to get ahead of the US, and although Gorbachev was lessening the tension between Communism and Capitalism through his policies of glasnost and perestroika, the Soviet Union still adhered to less rigorous safety requirements to speed the development and their knowledge of nuclear power plants. Soviet safety policies were that they should only consider credible occurrences of reactor malfunctions when building reactors, not dire, only remotely possible malfunctions. Thus led to the poor design and lack of safety mechanisms of reactor Unit 4, the reactor which caused the accident. Avoiding ages of competition like the Cold War, where safety measures are neglected for bigger profits and heavier industry, is the first step to dodging these disasters and promoting stricter safety regulations.
Poor leadership was the next cause of the Chernobyl disaster. The chief-engineer, aforementioned Anatoly Dyatlov, refused to believe the reactor exploded. He ordered men to pump water into the reactor: putting them in fatal danger for being in such close proximity to the lethal radiation. He yelled, acted anxiously, and denied the explosion occurred. His shock, lack of action, and absurd orders slowed down evacuating the surrounding town. He had to relearn to walk because of the amount of radiation he received that night and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. To avoid similar disasters, we need rigorous training sessions for not just the leaders, but all members of the team. We need clear thinkers in times of intense stress, who can act quickly and remain calm. Again, part of the lack of training can be contributed to the Cold War’s dearth of safety culture, but nonetheless, the more training, the less at risk.
Finally, the aftermath. The Soviet Union didn’t even admit to any accident until asked several days later by the Swedish government. Even then, they gave vague statements to the public and the rest of the world, claiming “the trouble has passed.” If the Soviets had released more information, countries, especially the US could have helped minimize the aftermath. The Soviet Union didn’t manage animal fodder or milk production near the accident, leading to radioactive iodine being deposited in pastures, eaten by cows, and then ingested by children: resulting in 20,000 documented cases of thyroid cancer in individuals all under the age of 18, according to Jason Mark, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Furthermore, The Chernobyl plant only had a weak concrete containment structure over it until 2018, when an enormous steel sarcophagus was built. But the lack of preparation and control of the aftermath forces us to consider the effects of nuclear energy, and illustrates the importance of planning ahead if we are going to use it.
So when using nuclear energy, which we are increasingly using because of the current climate change crisis, we must consider the causes of Chernobyl: the Cold War resulting in a lack of safety, poor leadership, and an attempt to cover up and not deal with the aftermath. We must learn from their mistakes and do better. We must think of the 200% increase in congenital birth defects near Chernobyl because of the hazardous levels of radiation around them when they were in the womb. We must think of the 20,000 children with thyroid cancer from drinking milk contaminated with radioactive iodine. We must think of the 28 firefighters who died the night of the disaster and the 200 that later suffered through radiation sickness and cancer. But we must also think of ourselves, and how we can avoid the death, disaster, and demise the Soviet Union faced in the aftermath of Chernobyl.
References
Chivers, Tom. “Here's Why Nuclear Energy Is Much Safer Than You Think.” BuzzFeed News,
21 Oct.f2015,fwww.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/heres-what-you-need- to-know-
about-nuclear-power.
Krayushkin, A. V., & Davydova, G. B. (2018). Thirty Years after the Chernobyl Accident: The
View on the Origin and Development. Physics of Atomic Nuclei, 81(8), 1227–1232. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063778818080124
Mark, Jason. “The Fission Division.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 22, no. 3, Sept. 2007, pp.
37–43.fEBSCOhost,fsearch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cpid,url&custid=s1176192&db=a9h&AN=26696797.
McMillan, David. “Abandoned Towns Around Chernobyl.” Photographer Returns to Chernobyl,
Quote projects, C. to W. (2019, December 2). 2019 miniseries about the Chernobyl disaster.
Retrieved from https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)
Walshe, Nigel. “The Dangerous Ground of 'Dark Tourism'.” CNN, 25 June 2019,dwww.cnn.com
/travel/article/dark-tourism-chernobyl/index.html.
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