Tragic! 60,000 People Die Due to a Faulty Computer Button

Only because of one human error, tens of thousands of lives were lost in an instant. This tragedy is known as the Chernobyl Disaster, which occurred on 26 April 1986.

The event was inseparable from the Soviet Union’s grand ambition to become the world’s largest nuclear technology owner. Since 1977, the government had successfully built a 1,000-megawatt reactor, a capacity capable of supplying electricity to an entire country for years.

The development of nuclear energy continued until it reached its peak before the disaster occurred. At that time, there were four large-scale nuclear reactors operating in Chernobyl, with several others still in the testing phase.

However, this grand ambition turned into the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the history of global nuclear energy.

Quoted from The Guardian, the test was conducted to ensure the cooling system worked non-stop. The nuclear reactor had to be in a cold condition, so the water supply had to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If not, the reactor could overheat and trigger an explosion. During the test, the Soviet nuclear team activated the generator so that the turbines would continuously release water.

The test took place on 26 April 1986. In theory, water would be expelled from the turbines to continuously cool the reactor core. From this, the team would know how long the turbines could remain operational.

Incompetent Leadership

Unfortunately, during the test, the people involved were incompetent. Moreover, the leaders were closed off and ignored input. At least, that was the attitude of Deputy Chief Technician Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov and Chief Technician Nicholai Fomin.

Quoting Chernobyl: 01:23:40 (2014), Fomin was negligent and seemed to cover up the fact that the coolant power was sufficient. Whereas it was far from the case. Fomin knew the reactor’s power was only 200 megawatts, less than the minimum threshold of 700 megawatts.

Meanwhile, Dyatlov insisted that the test must be carried out that day. On the other hand, on the day of the test, the technicians had already thrown in the towel. They were unable to do it. However, because Dyatlov persisted and issued threats of dismissal, the technicians eventually complied. This is where the disaster began.

The Computer Button Malfunctioned

As night turned to day, the technicians activated the generator. The water turbines then successfully entered. However, midway through, the generator’s power dropped dramatically. It couldn’t stay on continuously. As a result, the reactor core 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 did not function because it had never been checked. Thus, the disaster occurred. The nuclear reactor heated up to 3,000 degrees Celsius. Shortly afterwards, the nuclear reactor exploded violently.

When nuclear radiation spread widely, many residents were still fast asleep. As a result, they could not escape and were forced to be exposed to extremely high radiation. At that time, the radiation from the nuclear explosion could not be detected by instruments. The devices could not measure the radiation levels because they were so high.

It was only when the sun rose that people were shocked to see dust scattered around. However, that was not ordinary dust, but nuclear dust. Thus, the people there perished.

The BBC records that 90,000 people died from nuclear radiation in the long term. Then, there were 600,000 people exposed to radiation but did not die. The WHO notes that nuclear radiation reached a distance of 200,000 km to Europe. Meanwhile, Chernobyl itself cannot be inhabited by humans for 20,000 years due to the severe radiation effects.

From this calamity, several important lessons can be drawn. First, wise leadership and healthy teamwork are needed to carry out a project, especially if the risks are great to human safety.

Second, detailed testing with adequate procedures is crucial for carrying out a large project. Hopefully, this information is useful!