The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is located 130 kilometers north of Kiev in the former Soviet Union. It was the largest nuclear power plant built in the former Soviet Union in 1973 and started in 1977.
On April 25, 1986, Power Station No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began scheduled maintenance as planned. However, due to continuous operating errors, the reactor status at Station 4 was very unstable. April 26, 1986 was the day the tragedy began for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. At 1:23 a.m., two dull explosions broke the surrounding tranquility. With the sound of explosion, a column of fire more than 30 meters high opened the shell of the reactor and rushed into the sky. The entire protective structure and various equipment of the reactor were lifted up, and the 2000°C flames engulfed the machine room and melted the thick steel frame. Water vapor and dust carrying highly radioactive materials rose and spread with the thick smoke, blocking the sky and the sun. Although firefighters arrived at the scene 6 minutes after the accident, the strong heat radiation made it difficult for people to get close, so they could only rely on helicopters to drop sandbags containing lead (Pb) and boron (B) from the air to seal it. Reactor to prevent the leakage of radioactive materials.
The losses caused by the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were heavy. The concentration of nuclear fuel leaked during the explosion was as high as 60%, and until the reactor was sealed 10 days and nights after the accident, excessive amounts of radioactive elements continued to be released. Three days after the accident, nearby residents were hurriedly evacuated, but many people had been contaminated by radioactive materials during these three days. Two people died on the spot in this accident. By 1992, more than 700 people had died from the nuclear pollution in this accident. The radioactive contamination caused by this accident spread across 150,000 square kilometers of the former Soviet Union, where 6.945 million people lived. Due to this accident, a 30-kilometer area around the nuclear power plant was designated as an isolation zone. Nearby residents were evacuated, all crops were buried, and trees within 7 kilometers of the surrounding area gradually died. For half a century in the future, farming and grazing will not be allowed within 10 kilometers; within 10 years, milk production will be prohibited within 100 kilometers. Not only that, due to the spread of radioactive smoke, the entire Europe is also shrouded in the shadow of nuclear pollution. Extraordinary radioactive dust was detected in neighboring countries, causing huge losses to the production of grain, vegetables, and dairy products. The mental and psychological uneasiness and fear that nuclear contamination brings to people are even more incalculable. In the seven years after the accident, 7,000 cleanup workers died, one-third of whom committed suicide. 40% of the staff who participated in medical rescue suffered from mental illness or permanent memory loss. To date, of the 834,000 people participating in the rescue work, 55,000 have lost their lives, 10,000 have become disabled, and more than 300,000 have died of radiation injuries.
Although nuclear power is currently the newest, “cleanest” electricity resource with the lowest unit cost, nuclear pollution caused by possible nuclear leakage accidents has also brought unprecedented disasters to mankind. . So far, in addition to the Chernobyl nuclear leakage accident, nuclear leakage accidents have occurred at the Seraphim Nuclear Power Plant in northern England, the Brownsfield Nuclear Power Plant and the Three Island Nuclear Power Plant in the United States. In addition, there have been many nuclear submarine accidents in the world's waters. The harm caused to humans and the environment by these nuclear contaminations scattered on land, in the air and sleeping on the seabed is far beyond the reported numbers, because the incubation period of nuclear radiation is as long as decades.