Nuclear plant of Tchernobyl

The nuclear plant of Tchernobyl , also called nuclear plant Lénine , is a Nuclear plant currently with the stop, located in Ukraine in the town of Pripiat, to 18 km in the North-West of Tchernobyl, 16 km of the border between the Ukraine and the Bielorussia, and approximately 110 km in the north of Kiev.

The engine n°4 was at the origin of the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl in 1986, but the power station continued to function with the other engines until December 2000 whereas the towns of Tchernobyl and Pripiat had practically become of the phantom cities.

From 1986 in December 2000, to 9000 people worked with the power station. Today, even with the stop, it employs approximately 3000 more people for her monitoring. Until 1986, the workers lived for the majority at the new city Pripiat built at the same time as the power station. Because of the evacuation of Pripiat after the catastrophe, the workers live from now on Slawutytsch, a city built to replace Pripiat. After 1986, a work in Tchernobyl was gravitational in spite of the high amounts of Radioactivité, because of the wages exceptionally high and of a rate of 2 weeks of travail/2 weeks of vacation.

Construction

The power station had 6 Nuclear reactors of the type RBMK 1000 to produce electricity starting from the nuclear energy. The construction of engines 1 and 2 begins in 1971; first into service in 1977, the second, the following year is brought. Engines 3 and 4 are put in building site in 1975; their exploitation starts respectively in 1981 and 1983. The construction of engines 5 and 6, also of a power of 1000 MW, is stopped by the catastrophe.

In 1985, the Soviet Union then has 46 nuclear reactors under operation in the country, of which about fifteen specimens of the type RBMK 1000 of an electric output of 1000 megawatts each one. At that time, the share of the nuclear power in Soviet Union accounts for approximately 10% of produced electricity, and the power station of Tchernobyl provides 10% of electricity in Ukraine.

Catastrophe

Consequences

The power station still functions during 14 years

Following the accident, the three engines remaining were stopped, because the site was highly contaminated by radiations. However, after a cleaning inside the power station and in the neighborhoods, engines 1 and 2 were started again with the end of the year 1986. After a cleaning more pushed, the engine 3, which was localized in the same building that the engine destroyed n°4, was started again with the end of the year 1987.

Engine 2 undergoes a Nuclear accident in October 1991, after which it was not started again because of the high cost of repairs. Engine 1 was definitively stopped in November 1996. The engine n°3, which was the last engine still in service with the power station, was definitively stopped in December 2000.

The ruins of engine 4 will remain radioactive during the centuries to come. The Plutonium 239, which is one of the radioactive elements present inside the engine, has a Demi-vie equalizes with 24 000 years.

Medical consequences of the catastrophe

Consequences in Europe

Following the catastrophe of Tchernobyl, a Débat on nuclear energy was held in several countries using nuclear energy. The put Italian government very quickly works of it a plan of Sortie the civilian nuclear, followed by the Belgian government in 1999 then the German government in 2000.

Consequences in France

In France, in the days which followed the catastrophe, the Central service of protection against the ionizing rays (SCPRI) minimized the Conséquences of the catastrophe of Tchernobyl in France. To obtain information on the nuclear power independent of the owners of the nuclear power, of the State and all political parties, several personalities Antinucléaire S Frenchwomen based the Commission of independent research and information on the radioactivity (CRIIRAD). The SCPRI was renamed Office of protection against the ionizing rays (OPRI) in 1994 then integrated into the Institut of Protection against radiation and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in 2002.

External bonds

the site of the power station of Tchernobyl
Seen satellite on Wikimapia: Engines 1-2-3-4 of Tchernobyl
Photographs of the abandoned city of Pripiat and engine of the section No 4 (2006)

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