CHERNOBYL, 1986 term paper

Early in the morning of Saturday, 26 April 1986, the worst nuclear accident of the twentieth century occurred at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Republic of the Ukraine. Located sixty-five miles northwest of Kiev, Chernobyl was the largest power station in the Soviet Union; it had four nuclear reactors and produced 15 percent of the Soviet Union’s electricity. A scheduled daylong experiment was under way when a series of human errors and control malfunctions resulted in a power surge in Reactor 4, producing two explosions. The first explosion blew off the 1,000-ton steel and concrete roof, spewing forth radioactive materials and a plume of radioactive gas 3,000 feet high. It is estimated that 8 percent of the reactor’s radioactive material escaped. This would be many times more than the radioactivity released from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The radioactive debris landed on the roofs of nearby reactors, igniting thirty fires. Inside Reactor 4 one worker was killed in the blast and another died within hours from radiation exposure. Hundreds of firefighters rushed to Chernobyl, where they battled the fires without protective clothing. Within days twenty-nine firefighters died from radiation exposure. By Sunday, 27 April Swedish nuclear monitors had determined that windborne radiation from the Soviet Union was spreading across Scandinavia and western Europe. Belatedly, the Soviet government admitted that an accident had occurred and that 45,000 emergency personnel were at Chernobyl. Between 28 April and 6 May 1986, a heroic “battle for Chernobyl” was under way. To put out the fires, helicopters flew repeatedly over the smoldering reactor, dumping tons of sand, lead, and clay to trap the radiation, smother the flames, and cool the reactor. Later, after the fires were out, a huge steel and cement “sarcophagus” was built to enclose Reactor 4 and seal all gases and vapors. It is estimated that this sarcophagus will have to remain in place for a millennium. By 10 May, 179 villages and 135,000 people had been evacuated from Chernobyl and surrounding areas. Medical teams from throughout the world began treating thousands of people for radiation exposure. Thirty-one people died in the accident, though the Chernobyl explosion affected more than 1 million people. Six hundred thousand are scheduled twice a year for cancer screening. Thousands of head of livestock were destroyed and millions of acres of farmland, forests, and wetlands have been contaminated by radiation. Although the ultimate costs and consequences of Chernobyl will not be known for some time, there has been an alarming increase in deformed fetuses, abnormal births, mental retardation, and a high incidence of cancers and tumors among the people residing in the Chernobyl area.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Read Robert Gale’s Final Warning (see Suggested Sources) and write a paper commenting on his views on the accident.
2. Despite tightened security, people continue to return to farm, fish, and live in the contaminated zones near Chernobyl. How significant is this problem today?
3. Despite the fact that the RBMK reactor that exploded at Chernobyl has serious design flaws, some are still in operation in the former Soviet Union. Do a report on the nuclear energy policies of Ukraine. Does Ukraine adhere to its nuclear energy policies? Why do you think Ukraine continues to operate RBMK reactors despite their design flaws? Provide reasons for your position. 4. Investigate the health profile of the Chernobyl region today and compare it with other parts of the former Soviet Union.
5. Some experts continue to argue that nuclear energy is cleaner and better for the environment than fossil fuels. Review the arguments on both sides of the question and take a position on the issue. Provide reasons for your position.
6. What is the policy of the United States on nuclear power stations? Write an essay commenting on this policy.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Breakup of the Soviet Union, 1991” (#91) and “The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio” (#94). Search under Three Mile Island, Green Parties, and RBMK Reactor design.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Chernousenko, V. M. Chernobyl: Insight from the Inside. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1991. A candid report by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Task Force on Chernobyl.

Gale, Robert Peter. Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl. New York: Warner Books, 1988. Gale was an American physician who went to Chernobyl and treated the victims.

Shcherbak, Iurii. Chernobyl: A Documentary Story. Translated by Ian Press. Basingstoke: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1989. A good starting point for the key documents.

Secondary Sources

Gould, Peter. Fire in the Rain: The Democratic Consequences of Chernobyl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Lively discussion of the effects of Chernobyl on Europe and the Ukraine.

Liberatore, Angela. Management of Uncertainty: Learning from Chernobyl. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1999. A good retrospective on lessons learned from Chernobyl a decade after the accident.

Mansfield, Jerry W. The Nuclear Power Debate: A Guide to the Literature. New York: Garland, 1984. Although dated, this study still remains a good starting point.

Marples, David R. The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. A comprehensive discussion of the immediate environmental and medical impact of the accident.

Medvedev, Grigori. The Truth about Chernobyl. Translated by Evelyn Rossiter. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Written by a nuclear power expert who had worked at Chernobyl, the book gives a day-by-day account of the tragedy.

Medvedev, Zhores A. The Legacy of Chernobyl. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990. A comprehensive account by a leading Russian biologist.

Park, Chris C. Chernobyl: The Long Shadow. New York: Routledge, 1989. A geographer’s view of the long-term effects of the accident.

Read, Piers Paul. Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl. New York: Random House, 1993. Dramatic account of the “battle for Chernobyl.”

Yaroshinskaya, Alla. Chernobyl: The Forbidden Truth. Translated by Michèle Kahn and Julia Sallabank. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Accessible and fresh assessment of the ecological threats from Chernobyl.

World Wide Web

“Chernobyl: A Nuclear Disaster.” http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/index.htm. A useful introduction to Chernobyl produced by a team of high school students. Based on information available as of 1997.