On the 28th of April 1986, the alarm sounded
when one of the employees of Forsmark Nuclear
Power Plant, the second largest nuclear power
plant
in Sweden passed through a radiation monitor.
Thinking it was a false call, he rechecked
it and confirmed that his shoe has high levels
of radiation.
Thinking it could be because of a leak in
the powerplant,
he reported it to the authorities and evacuated
everyone from the plant,
but soon more powerplants from the north reported
the same issue leaving
them wondering of a nuclear bomb blast.
But further analysis they found that the radioactive
particles that they found in the grass
as specific to the Soviet nuclear power plants.
Also, during the weekend the wind had blown
from the southeast,
and it had rained in the north-eastern parts
of Sweden, depositing radioactive fall-out
on the
ground in that area.
All the evidence was pointing towards one
of the nuclear power plants in the Soviet
Union.
That day, Swedish diplomats were in touch
with Moscow inquiring about whether there
could have
been a nuclear accident there.
But the answer they got was "no."
Sweden warned that they were going to file
an official alert
with the International Atomic Energy Authority,
and it was only then that the Soviet Union
admitted that there'd been an accident at
Chernobyl.
What happened at Chernobyl?
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air
strike carried out on the 7th of June 1981,
which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor built
by Russians.ever since the incident
the soviet union wanted to test its nuclear
reactors on what would happen if they are
under attack and their power supply is knocked
out.
The Chernobyl nuclear power reactor uses electricity
to supply coolants to the reactor,
in case of a power outage,
the backup diesel generators kick in to provide
the coolants, but there is a delay of
45sec for that to happen,
it was theorized that the delay could be avoided
if the rotating steam turbine could supply
the power
before the diesel generators operate to its
full capacity.
The capacity of the reactor was 3200Mw, and
it should be brought down to the range of
700-1000Mw
to start the experiment as the reactor would
not be stable at a power below that.
From 1979 to 1986, numerous reports were filed
on reactor design which was overlooked by
the system,
and the experiment was supposed to happen
on the 25th of April during the day shift,
on the 25th of April
the power of the reactor was brought down
to 1600 Mw 50% of its capacity.
A nearby power reactor unexpectedly went offline
forcing the Chernobyl power station to delay
the
experiment.
Later in the evening, the reactor got permission
to carry out its operation, but by that time
the
shift change took
place and the people who are on the shift
now are unaware of the experiment that's going
to happen now.
The process of reducing the power from 1600Mw
to 700 Mw was carried out rapidly due to the
reactor's
production of a fission byproduct, xenon-135
Xenon 135 is a fission product of uranium,
and it is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing
nuclear poison.
Which decreased the power level to 30 Mw rapidly.
The boron rods which acts as control rods
in the reactor were taken out to increase
the power output,
only a few of them were placed but were dragged
to the topso that it would have minimal effect
in
reducing power.
At this time power surged back to 200Mw and
power was shut down, the rotating steam turbines
that
were supposed to
push the water had low effect in performing
the operating because of which there was more
steam and
less water produced.
At this time fearing of increase of output
of reactor an emergency button was pressed
which
inserted the control
rods back to reduce the power.
However, the rods were tipped with graphite
which when inserted
into a reactor would
cause an initial rise of power.
This made the output of the reactor increased
to an astronomical
100 folds.
By this time the production of the reactor
stood at 33,000Mw, and 50 fuel rods inside
the reactor
were blown making the
reactor a ticking time bomb within seconds
the reactor blew up the 500-ton protective
layer on
top of the reactor
releasing 50 tons of nuclear material into
the atmosphere.
Little do the people who work at the reactor
know about the radiation everyone rushed to
see the damage.
Moreover, the Soviet government tried to hide
the incident and evacuation was carried out
36 hrs after the incident.
During which numerous cases of vomiting, seizures
and the metallic taste of the air were
reported by the citizens of
Pripyat a city which was constructed 1 mile
from the reactor.
The firefighters and rescue officers who arrived
at the blast site were never informed about
the radiation.
Estimations state that deaths as a result
of the immediate aftermath and the cleanup
operation
might number at least
6,000 and premature deaths as a result of
the radioactivity released is around a million.
