The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, disaster of April 1986 is known as the worst disaster in history. The disaster is not focused on one person's actions, but all that were involved in the controlling and building of it. A key contributor to the explosion though, was Anatoly Dyatlov, t the chief engineer who went against protocol (Discovery Channel disaster at Chernobyl). The Nuclear power plant was located 20 km south of the border of Belarus and 130 km north of Kiev (Chernobyl Accident 1986).
The Chernobyl nuclear accident is thought to be one of the beginning downfalls of the Soviet Union and can go as far as the end of the Cold War. The accident was a catalyst in the field of nuclear energy in the sense of safety procedures and features that were designed after the disaster.
The Chernobyl Nuclear accident was a horrific disaster that no one benefited from. The explosion of reactor 4 in Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not blamed on any one person due to the lack of skill the workers had that worked on the reactor, but one man imparticular was Anatoly Dyatlov. Anatoly was the chief engineer who had control of reactor 4 the day of the explosion (Discovery Channel Disaster at Chernobyl). Dyatlov was supposed to be running a test to see how long the turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of electrical power (Chernobyl accident 1986). Anatoly Dyatlov went against protocol to run the test the way he wanted it to be run, but that did not stop him from going through with the test and effectively blew the reactor up (Discovery channel disaster at Chernobyl). Many were victimized by the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power station. The total number of workers that died directly from ARS (Acute Radiation Syndrome) was only 134. Although, it is thought that as many as 5 million have been contaminated with the radioactive material Cesium-137. A large number of children have now developed Thyroid cancer due to the radiation that they inhaled or received from eating or drinking. As well as people, the wildlife and their habitats were affected by the radiation produced from the explosion. Some places in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine were contaminated by large quantities of radioactive materials that still reside there today but in a significantly smaller quantity. The Urban worker town of Pripyat was heavily contaminated but was not evacuated as soon as it should have been. The main concerns for the rural communities are radioactive cesium that has sept into the ground and will remain there for several decades. Forest food products like berries, mushrooms, and game will be contaminated for several more years to come. Another result of the radiation is the surrounding bodies of water and the creatures they contain became contaminated with radioactive materials. The contamination has decreased due to dilution and decay, but some radiated materials still remain trapped in the soil around the rivers and lakes(Chernobyl Nuclear Accident). All the radiation in the land and in the food surrounding the power plant and places that are in the same wind current are at risk of receiving wide range of diseases.
Chernobyl was a nuclear power plant that had plans of being one of the largest in the world with a total of 6 RMBK-1000 nuclear reactors. Reactors one and two were completed through 1970-1977 and units three and four in1983. The reactors that were built were the soviet designed RBMK-1000; which is a graphite moderated pressure tube type reactor, using slightly enriched(2% U-235) uranium dioxide fuel. It is a boiling light water reactor, with two loops feeding steam directly to the turbines, without an intervening heat exchanger. Water pumped to the bottom of the channels boils as it progresses up the pressure tubes, producing steam which feed 500 Mwe turbines. On April 25, prior to the routine shutdown, the reactor crew at Chernobyl 4 began preparing a test to