Perhaps the atmosphere of the new Corona virus pandemic currently in effect is the most appropriate time to reread the history of one of the most violent moments for humanity on this planet, in which man nearly blew the whistle on the end of the world, according to scenarios much more violent than the worst imaginations of fantasy film directors in the world of Hollywood… We are talking about the Ukrainian city of Prapyt. This is a city that witnessed the worst nuclear and environmental disaster in the history of humanity, and it was completely radioactively contaminated to the point that it was called a ghost city. The reason for this is due to the Chernobyl accident, which spread its nuclear radiation to the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, in the eighties of the twentieth century.
Pripyat It is a Ukrainian city that can be considered an embodiment of the idea of a common destiny for the world. It was built in 1970 AD, when Ukraine was at that time part of the Soviet Union as a province. The Chernobyl reactor was built there in 1979 AD, for the purpose of building the civil nuclear program for electrical energy.
The end of the world…the first version
On Saturday, April 26, 1986, the nuclear reactor witnessed an explosion due to the error of the nuclear scientists working in it. The Soviet government evacuated more than 70,000 of its residents out of the city, knowing that the Pripyat River was still under nuclear radiation due to its passage through the Chernobyl forbidden zone. The beginning occurred when approximately 200 employees were working in the nuclear power reactor (1,2,3) while a simulation and experiment were being conducted in the fourth unit where the explosion occurred. The reactor structure also contributed to the explosion, as the nuclear process was controlled by graphite columns. Although the team leader noticed the danger and tried to shut down the reactor, causing the graphite columns to descend into the reactor core, slowing down the speed of the nuclear reaction and lowering the temperature, this method caused the temperature to increase for a moment before it began to decrease. Since the generator was unstable and the thermal cycle was disturbed by the effects of the test, this was the factor that led to the graphite columns being warped and unable to be dropped into the reactor core and causing the temperature to rise dramatically and ignite some of the escaping gases and cause the explosion. The defect resulted from an accumulation of human errors and the lack of experience of the young engineers on duty that night. This led to a disruption in the energy supply in the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, and led to the closure of factories and the disruption of farms, with material losses amounting to more than three billion US dollars.
Disaster area
Following the explosion, the authorities in Ukraine declared the Chernobyl zone a “disaster zone,” which includes the city of Pripyat, which was established in 1970 to house workers at the reactor. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the areas surrounding the reactor. After the explosion occurred, operations began to bury and cover the reactor with reinforced concrete to prevent the radiation from leaking out, which led to the death of a large number in subsequent years affected by radiation, especially thyroid cancer. Cracking was observed in the concrete shell, so there are studies to make a new shell that is thicker and better insulated.
Dramas
Chernobyl is a five-episode historical drama television miniseries, written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. Produced in partnership between the American network HBO and the British network Sky, the series premiered in the United States on May 6, 2019, and in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2019. It received notable praise from television critics.
City now
Since the Chernobyl disaster, the Ukrainian authorities have established a cordon around the city within a diameter of thirty kilometers from the site of the reactor, and evacuated more than one hundred thousand people from their homes there. The measures implemented by the Kiev government also included burying and encasing the damaged reactor with reinforced concrete, to prevent further radiation leakage. This cover has been exposed to cracks in recent years. As a result of these cracks, Ukraine, with international financial support, began constructing an additional steel casing, which will cost one billion dollars, and work on it was completed in 2012. One of Chernobyl’s reactors continued to produce electricity until the year 2000, and two years after that date, the plant was completely closed.
