Human induced hazard
The Chernobyl nuclear facility is located in Ukraine about 20 km south of the border with Belarus. At the time of the accident, the plant had four working reactors (units 1, 2, 3 and 4)
The accident occurred in the very early morning of 26 April 1986 when operators ran a test on an electric control system of unit 4. The accident happened because of a combination of basic engineering deficiencies in the reactor and faulty actions of the operators. The safety systems had been switched off, and the reactor was being operated under improper, unstable conditions, a situation which allowed an uncontrollable power surge to occur. This power surge caused the nuclear fuel to overheat and led to a series of steam explosions that severely damaged the reactor building and completely destroyed the unit 4 reactor.
The accident occurred in the very early morning of 26 April 1986 when operators ran a test on an electric control system of unit 4. The accident happened because of a combination of basic engineering deficiencies in the reactor and faulty actions of the operators. The safety systems had been switched off, and the reactor was being operated under improper, unstable conditions, a situation which allowed an uncontrollable power surge to occur. This power surge caused the nuclear fuel to overheat and led to a series of steam explosions that severely damaged the reactor building and completely destroyed the unit 4 reactor.
The explosions started numerous fires on the roofs of the reactor building and the machine hall, which were extinguished by firefighters after a few hours. Approximately 20 hours after the explosions, a large fire started as the material in the reactor set fire to combustible gases. The large fire burned during 10 days. Helicopters repeatedly dumped neutron-absorbing compounds and fire-control materials into the crater formed by the destruction of the reactor and later the reactor structure was cooled with liquid nitrogen using pipelines originating from another reactor unit.
The Chernobyl accident is the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry. Indeed, the explosion that occurred on 26 April 1986 in one of the reactors of the nuclear power plant, and the consequent fires that lasted for 10 days, led to huge amounts of radioactive materials being released into the environment and a radioactive cloud spreading over much of Europe. The greatest contamination occurred around the reactor in areas that are now part of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
Since the accident, some 600 000 people have been involved in emergency, containment, cleaning, and recovery operations, although only few of them have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Those who received the highest doses of radiation were the emergency workers and personnel that were on-site during the first days of the accident (approximately 1000 people).
Since the accident, some 600 000 people have been involved in emergency, containment, cleaning, and recovery operations, although only few of them have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Those who received the highest doses of radiation were the emergency workers and personnel that were on-site during the first days of the accident (approximately 1000 people).
Three population categories were exposed from the Chernobyl accident:
- Emergency and recovery operation workers
- Inhabitants evacuated from contaminated areas
- Inhabitants of contaminated areas who were not evacuated
With the exception of the on-site reactor personnel and the emergency workers who were present near the destroyed reactor during the time of the accident and shortly afterwards, most of recovery operation workers and people living in the contaminated territories received relatively low whole-body radiation doses, comparable to background radiation levels accumulated over the 20 year period since the accident.
Causes of Chernobyl: Hundreds thousands of people died from radiation and illnesses
- Acute Radiation Syndrome
- Thyroid cancer
- Leukemia
- Solid cancers
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Cataracts
Chernobyl Today
Explain the reason why people live in hazardous environment?
This essay is going to explain and show why people live in hazardous environment and what are the main reasons for that. However, hazardous environments have their positive and negative sides and they will always anchor people to stay there. Through this investigation, I will state reasons why people live in these areas looking at different types of disasters such as, earthquakes & tsunami capable areas, volcanoes, cyclones & hurricanes.
Firstly, I am going to explain the definition of the hazard and its types. Hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property or environment. It is divided in two groups, natural and human hazards. Natural hazards could be predicted but mainly they just happen out of nowhere. They cause a lot of damages whether on infrastructure and environment or on human's life. Human hazards could not be predicted and the main reason for them are mistakes done by people.
An earthquake is a sudden and brief period of intense ground shaking. The movement of the ground can be both vertical and horizontal. The main reason why people live in these areas is because of their early settlement and cultural tradition. People have been living there for ages and through centuries their population have increased rapidly and they invested a lot of money for expanding and developing their environment. One example of this is Tokyo. Massive city on the east of Japan which is really capable of frequently tremors followed by tsunamis. Nearly 14 million people is living there and there is not any possible solution for them to leave all their homes and city's infrastructure just because of earthquakes. Despite of that, where would people move if they ever decide to leave ? It is totally unfeasible.
A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust from which lava, ash, and hot gases flow or are ejected during an eruption. Volcanoes have a wide range of effect on humans which can be problematical or beneficial. One of the reasons why people live close to volcanoes is geothermal energy. It can be harnessed by using the stream from underground which has been heated by Earth's magma. This stream is used to drive turbines in geothermal power stations to produce electricity for domestic and industrial use. Iceland is one of the countries that uses this method. Another reason why people live close to volcanoes is minerals from the heart of the Earth. Lava contains minerals which can be mined once the lava has cooled. These include gold, silver, diamonds and other and mining towns often develop around the volcanoes. Active and dormant volcanoes are rich sources of minerals. Volcanic rocks are rich in minerals, but when the rocks are fresh the minerals are not available to plants.The rocks need thousands of years to become weathered and broken down before they form rich soils. When they do become soils they form some of the richest ones on the planet. One of the examples is The Naples area. It include Mount Vesuvius that had large eruptions 35,000 and 12,000 years ago. Both eruptions produced very thick deposits of ash and broken rocks which have weathered to rich soils. Nowadays, on these soils are cultivated different type of plants such as, grapes, oranges, lemon trees, vegetables, herbs and specifically the area of the Naples has become major tomato growing region. However, one of the main reasons is tourism. It attracts millions of people to visit that areas from different reasons. Around the volcanoes ay be warm bathing lakes, hot springs, bubbling mud pools and geysers which are always popular for tourists. One of these attractions is Old Faithful in the Yellowstone National Park, USA.
A cyclone is a violent storm originating over tropical or subtropical waters, characterized by violent rainstorms and high-velocity cyclonic winds between 5-25 degrees North and South from equator. The main reason why people live in areas that are capable of cyclones is because of its benefits. Cyclones bring rain to dry areas and help crops to succeed. Also they could bring advantage for the ships to navigate through their weaker western side. The example of this is Bangladesh where we can see a lot of dangerous disasters that are killing people but they are not leaving their country because of the benefits they get but the major reason is poverty.
To conclude, the main reason why people live in hazardous environment is because of the benefits they are bringing to them. In this essay I stated the main reasons for each disaster including examples from whole around the world. To summarise, people are conscious of the consequences that the hazards could make but in order to survive in future, they need a treasure that hazards are bringing with them. That treasure is making people to stay regardless of the major problems that they could experience.
Firstly, I am going to explain the definition of the hazard and its types. Hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property or environment. It is divided in two groups, natural and human hazards. Natural hazards could be predicted but mainly they just happen out of nowhere. They cause a lot of damages whether on infrastructure and environment or on human's life. Human hazards could not be predicted and the main reason for them are mistakes done by people.
An earthquake is a sudden and brief period of intense ground shaking. The movement of the ground can be both vertical and horizontal. The main reason why people live in these areas is because of their early settlement and cultural tradition. People have been living there for ages and through centuries their population have increased rapidly and they invested a lot of money for expanding and developing their environment. One example of this is Tokyo. Massive city on the east of Japan which is really capable of frequently tremors followed by tsunamis. Nearly 14 million people is living there and there is not any possible solution for them to leave all their homes and city's infrastructure just because of earthquakes. Despite of that, where would people move if they ever decide to leave ? It is totally unfeasible.
A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust from which lava, ash, and hot gases flow or are ejected during an eruption. Volcanoes have a wide range of effect on humans which can be problematical or beneficial. One of the reasons why people live close to volcanoes is geothermal energy. It can be harnessed by using the stream from underground which has been heated by Earth's magma. This stream is used to drive turbines in geothermal power stations to produce electricity for domestic and industrial use. Iceland is one of the countries that uses this method. Another reason why people live close to volcanoes is minerals from the heart of the Earth. Lava contains minerals which can be mined once the lava has cooled. These include gold, silver, diamonds and other and mining towns often develop around the volcanoes. Active and dormant volcanoes are rich sources of minerals. Volcanic rocks are rich in minerals, but when the rocks are fresh the minerals are not available to plants.The rocks need thousands of years to become weathered and broken down before they form rich soils. When they do become soils they form some of the richest ones on the planet. One of the examples is The Naples area. It include Mount Vesuvius that had large eruptions 35,000 and 12,000 years ago. Both eruptions produced very thick deposits of ash and broken rocks which have weathered to rich soils. Nowadays, on these soils are cultivated different type of plants such as, grapes, oranges, lemon trees, vegetables, herbs and specifically the area of the Naples has become major tomato growing region. However, one of the main reasons is tourism. It attracts millions of people to visit that areas from different reasons. Around the volcanoes ay be warm bathing lakes, hot springs, bubbling mud pools and geysers which are always popular for tourists. One of these attractions is Old Faithful in the Yellowstone National Park, USA.
A cyclone is a violent storm originating over tropical or subtropical waters, characterized by violent rainstorms and high-velocity cyclonic winds between 5-25 degrees North and South from equator. The main reason why people live in areas that are capable of cyclones is because of its benefits. Cyclones bring rain to dry areas and help crops to succeed. Also they could bring advantage for the ships to navigate through their weaker western side. The example of this is Bangladesh where we can see a lot of dangerous disasters that are killing people but they are not leaving their country because of the benefits they get but the major reason is poverty.
To conclude, the main reason why people live in hazardous environment is because of the benefits they are bringing to them. In this essay I stated the main reasons for each disaster including examples from whole around the world. To summarise, people are conscious of the consequences that the hazards could make but in order to survive in future, they need a treasure that hazards are bringing with them. That treasure is making people to stay regardless of the major problems that they could experience.