The Explosion and Aftermath
The chain of events to cause the Chernobyl explosion is complete. At 1:23:40, the AZ-5 button was
pushed. This instantly inserted all control rods into the core. As the rods descended, the graphite
tips entered first. The disaster was now unavoidable. Because so much graphite was suddenly
entering due to the amount of control rods that had been retracted, the reaction skyrocketed. We
don’t know how much power Chernobyl began producing, as there was nothing left to measure it.
Reactor 4 was meant for a max output of 3200 megawatts. The max reading, and the one it showed
that night, was 33000 megawatts. More than 10 times the maximum. Fuel channels begin bursting,
jamming the control rods in place, with boron part the control rods arriving fatally late. All the
cooling water entering the reactor instantly turned to steam, creating enormous pressure on the
reactor lid. The first explosion occurred at 1:23:58, the reactor lid is blown off, oxygen rushing into
the exposed core. The second explosion, about 2 to 3 seconds after, is generally recognised at the
main explosion. The reactor building was shattered. The north wall collapsed outright, exposing the
generators and steam pumps. The 2000-ton reactor lid was catapulted through the roof like a paper
weight, before falling back into and coming to rest in the reactor pit, mangled remains of fuel
channels sticking out of it. Superheated and smashed remains of graphite form both the control rods
and the blocks of graphite which contained the fuel channels, where launched high into the air,
coming to rest all around and inside the plant. Numerous fires, including one on the roof of
neighbouring reactor 3, were ignited. The core of the reactor was exposed to the open atmosphere,
expelling around 5.6 roentgens of radiation a second. For reference regular background radiation at
most is nearly 15 times lower, and the Chernobyl would give a lethal dose of radiation in less than a
minute. As firefighters arrived to douse the flames, they we not wearing protective clothing as they
didn’t know about the radiation. Many of them would die. The communist government of the USSR
at the time attempted to hide the disaster from the world. Until air detectors in Sweden picked
radiation traces originating the USSR on April 28th. Soviet officials admitted an accident had
happened, but falsely stated it was under control. The Chernobyl accident and its direct
consequences would kill 30. 2 in the explosion and 28 resulting from radiation among the firefighters
who bravely fought the fires while being exposed to lethal doses of radiation. The infamous
Chernobyl liquidators, which were called upon to clean up the disaster. 10% (60,000) of them would
die on top of another 165,000 left disabled according to Vyacheslav Grishin of the Chernobyl Union,
although this number has been disputed. The European Green Party estimated that by 2065, 60,000
people will die due to the effects of Chernobyl. The WHO (World Health Organisation) has put the
total death toll of Chernobyl at 4000. The UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the
Effects of Atomic Radiation) has said that even the latter number could be too high. The city of
Pripyat, a city built to house the workers and relatives of Chernobyl, had to evacuated. A 2,600
square km exclusion zone was declared on April 27, with the current borders being finalised in 1991.
The Chernobyl exclusion zone remains closed to unauthorised entry. In the months after the
disaster, the liquidators worked to build a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor. Soviet scientists
said this would only last 20-30 years, before requiring restoring work. In 2010, a new sarcophagus
was built next to the reactor building, and in November 2016 the New Safe Confinement building
was rolled over the reactor building, allowing the disassembly of the old one, which is deteriorating,
as well as further removal of radioactive material. It is set to last 100 years. Chernobyl is the world’s
worst nuclear disaster. Being one of only two nuclear accidents to be given the highest ranking (7),
on the INES, along with Fukushima Daichi in 2011. Chernobyl is the world’s deadliest nuclear
accident. And the effects were felt all over the world.
