Computer Button Error Leads to Nuclear Explosion, Killing 60,000 People
Strict safety standards are a crucial aspect of nuclear management, encompassing infrastructure readiness to the professionalism of human resources. Negligence in these areas can trigger fatal global disasters, as evidenced by the dark history of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion on 26 April 1986.
The absence of such safety standards sparked a humanitarian tragedy that claimed 60,000 lives. The impacts were far-reaching, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate and abandon their homeland, which is estimated to remain uninhabitable for the next 20,000 years.
For context, the Chernobyl nuclear site was the Soviet Union’s ambition to possess the world’s largest nuclear facility. Since 1977, the government had successfully built a 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor. This was sufficient to power an entire country for years.
From there, the Soviets continued to develop nuclear capabilities. By 1986, there were four large-scale nuclear reactors at Chernobyl with similar capacities. However, some nuclear reactors were still in the testing phase.
Cited from The Guardian, the test in question involved continuous cooling. Nuclear reactors must remain cool, so a water supply must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If not, the reactor could overheat and cause an explosion.
In the Chernobyl case, the Soviet nuclear team attempted to test the activation of a generator that would continuously discharge water from the turbine to cool the nuclear reactor.
The test occurred on 26 April 1986. In theory, water would be discharged from the turbine to continuously cool the reactor core. From this, the team would determine how long the turbine could remain operational.
Unfortunately, during the test, the individuals involved were incompetent. They were in denial and unreceptive to input. This occurred with Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov and Chief Engineer Nicholai Fomin.
Quoting Chernobyl: 01:23:40 (2014), Fomin was negligent and seemed to cover up the fact that the cooling power was sufficient. In reality, it was far from adequate. Fomin knew the reactor’s power was only 200 megawatts, below the minimum threshold of 700 megawatts.
Meanwhile, Dyatlov insisted the test must proceed that day. On the test day, the technicians had already thrown in the towel. They were unable to proceed. However, due to Dyatlov’s persistence and threats of dismissal, the technicians eventually complied.
This is where the catastrophe began. As night turned to dawn, the technicians activated the generator. The water turbine successfully engaged. However, midway through, the generator’s power dropped dramatically. It could not sustain continuous operation. As a result, the reactor core’s temperature rose rapidly. When this happened, the technicians rushed to press the SCRAM button on the computer.
This button is a computer command to the system to activate the generator. Unfortunately, the button malfunctioned because it had never been checked. Thus, the disaster unfolded. The nuclear reactor heated up to 3,000 degrees Celsius. Shortly thereafter, the nuclear facility exploded violently.
As nuclear radiation spread, many residents were still fast asleep. Consequently, they could not escape and were exposed to extremely high radiation levels. At the time, the radiation from the explosion could not be detected by instruments. The devices could not measure the radiation levels due to their intensity.
It was only when the sun rose that people were shocked to see dust scattered about. However, it was not ordinary dust, but nuclear fallout. Thus, the people there met their end.
The BBC records that 90,000 people died from nuclear radiation in the long term.
Additionally, 600,000 people were exposed to radiation but did not die. The WHO notes that nuclear radiation reached distances of 200,000 km as far as Europe. Meanwhile, Chernobyl itself will remain uninhabitable by humans for 20,000 years due to the severe radiation effects.