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Scientists are deeply concerned about a new Chernobyl nuclear accident. Although 35 years have passed since the 1986 accident at reactor 4 of the Nuclear Power Plant, fission reactions continue to take place in masses of uranium fuel buried deep inside a damaged reactor chamber.
As Neil Hyatt, a nuclear chemist at the University of Sheffield, explains, "it's like coals in a barbecue pit." Ukrainian scientists are now trying to see if these reactions stop on their own or if interventions are needed to prevent another accident like the one on April 26.
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For this reason sensors monitor an increasing number of neutrons (fission trail) emerging from a room where there is no access. According to Maxim Saveliev of the Institute for Nuclear Safety Problems (ISPNPP) in Kiev, Ukraine, "there is uncertainty, but we can not rule out the possibility of an accident. "Neutron counts are slowly rising, indicating that administrators still have a few years ahead of them to find a way to deal with the threat."
It is noted that the risk of a new accident at Chernobyl would be removed after the installation of the NSC (New Safe Confinement) in 2016.
It is a structure that cost € 1.5 billion and which aims to reduce the residues of the reactor unit 4. Since then, the number of neutrons in it has stabilized and is falling, however in some places they began to rise. In fact, in room 305/2 they doubled in four years. Thus, it has signaled an alarm, as fission reactions could lead to an uncontrolled release of nuclear energy.
What happened in 1986:
The Chernobyl nuclear accident took place on April 26, 1986, in reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant of the Soviet Union, which is currently located in Ukraine. The accident was on the order of the maximum predicted accident on the International Nuclear Scale, seriously disrupted the economic and social conditions prevailing in the surrounding areas and had a significant impact on the environment and health.
Two of the station workers died on the spot from the accident. Within four months, radiation and heat burns killed 28 firefighters who rushed to the scene of the accident and 19 more were killed by 2004. In addition, the health of hundreds of thousands of people is estimated to have been affected by the radioactive environment. . Cancer rates increased by more than 15% in the exposed populations, with thousands of cancer and leukemia deaths linked to the accident. The devastation caused by the accident was evident from its aftermath: the area was evacuated, there was a large leak of radioactivity, many people were exposed to radioactivity and workers left their workplaces.
The Chernobyl accident was the result of a series of unforeseen manipulations and errors, and is largely due to design defects in the RBMK-1000 reactor used by the plant. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency reassessment of the accident in 1992 (INSAG-7), the following factors may have caused the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident:
The reactor had a dangerously large positive vacuum factor. The vacuum coefficient expresses the way the reactor behaves when steam bubbles are created in the cooling water inside. Most reactors have a negative vacuum factor, but toner reactors - like the Chernobyl one - have a positive one.
The most important mistake is to use toner at the end of the control rods. With this design, when the rods are lowered from the highest possible position, their reactor power increases for a few seconds. Reactor operators were unaware of this behavior.
The design of the RBMK-1000 reactors had other shortcomings and defects, and did not comply with acceptable safety standards for nuclear reactors.nuclear accident
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