Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on April 20, 2016
Chernobyl and Fukushima: lessons not learned
Around 8,000 km and 25 years separate the catastrophic Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. There are clear differences between the Ukraine and Japan-based catastrophes, but what are some of the more subtle distinctions? And how were they similar?
Both power stations opened in the 1970s; Fukushima in 1971 and Chernobyl six years later. The Japanese plant was, then, operating for 40 years before the disaster and the Ukrainian just nine. At the time of each disaster, six reactors were running at Fukushima and four at Chernobyl.
Different causes?
At a first glance, the incidents appear to have different causes. The Chernobyl reactor explosion on April 26, 1986, was the result of an experiment carried out by plant personnel. The Fukushima meltdown, meanwhile, was triggered by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.
However, construction mistakes and negligence have since been cited as being behind both catastrophes.
So, what actually happened?
At Fukushima, the potential dangers of a large tsunami had already been raised, but ultimately ignored. The March 2011 ‘quake destroyed power lines and back-up generators, meaning the plant’s reactors could not be cooled. This caused severe damage, including meltdowns and an explosion.
Operators at Chernobyl made mistakes during the experiment they were carrying out and these errors were initially considered to be the main cause of the catastrophe But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later amended its conclusion.
The construction of the RBMK reactor (High Power Channel-type Reactor) used at the station is deemed one of the main reasons behind the accident. The reactor’s developers thought that a certain, disastrous combination of events could not possibly happen at the same time, so the protective systems to prevent such a situation were not created. But this chain of events did occur on the night of April 26; namely the deliberate disabling of the emergency protection equipment and breaking of operating rules. This resulted in a steam explosion inside of the reactor, a raging graphite fire and core meltdown.
Contamination
Both Chernobyl and Fukushima were ranked level seven events on the IAEA’s international nuclear radiological scale – its highest rating. It was concluded that both accidents caused a major release of radioactive material, which adversely affected people’s health and the environment.
But this does not necessarily mean that the Japanese catastrophe was as dangerous for humanity and the environment as Chernobyl, which remains the worst nuclear disaster of our era.
Due to its location, the explosion at Chernobyl caused significant contamination in countries neighbouring Ukraine, such as Belarus and Russia (all were Soviet republics at that time). It reached the whole of Europe in some form, except Portugal.
Radiation from Fukushima continues to seep into the ocean via ground waters – radionuclides have been found in seawater throughout the Pacific – but the contamination consequences for other countries are relatively insignificant. The new system to contain the leaking water was recently approved.
Partially cleaned water from the reactors will also be released into the ocean deliberately later in 2016.
Government reactions
On April 28, 1986, radiation was registered at a nuclear power station in Sweden. Its personnel soon realised that the radiation leak was not local. It would be the first hint that a serious disaster had happened in the Soviet Union. Soviet news programme “Vremya” (“Time”) made a 20-second announcement at the time.
“There has been an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of the accident are being remedied. Assistance has been provided for any affected people. An investigative commission has been set up.”
Life continued as normal in Pripyat, the town built for the plant’s workers until evacuation on the 27-th of April.
On May 1, the annual mass parade was held in Kyiv, just 130 km south of the nuclear plant, which was still burning out of control. Ukrainians turned to the international media in an effort to find out what was happening just next door.
Japan didn’t seem to have learnt all the lessons of the Chernobyl accident. Despite a fast evacuation when disaster struck, it took the Japanese government 2.5 months to admit that a meltdown did in fact take place in one of the Fukushima reactors.
On the ground, now
Exclusion zones are in place around both disaster sites: 30 km for Chernobyl and 20 km for Fukushima, with an optional extra 10 km.
Almost the same amount of people were relocated: official sources state 300,000 were displaced in Japan and 350,000 in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in 1986 and the years following.
Evacuees
Five years on from the catastrophe, many of the Fukushima evacuees still live in temporary housing. They have the right to visit their homes in the exclusion zone for five hours at a time.
Loneliness, split families, health risks. Japanese towns still struggle 5yrs post-#Fukushima https://t.co/vBniS9yG05 pic.twitter.com/kDeADsauSR
— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) April 10, 2016
Some 1,200 Ukrainians have returned to their homes in the exclusion zones in the 30 years since the explosion, despite this being illegal. Most returnees are elderly people, who work on the land there. In 2013, there were around 200 so-called self-settlers living in the zone.
21 Comments on "Chernobyl and Fukushima: lessons not learned"
makati1 on Wed, 20th Apr 2016 8:42 pm
Two down,400+ to go. We will never learn. Radiation is a slow poison that we don’t feel until it is too late. How many cancers are currently happening because of the mining, refining, transport, bomb testing, bomb use, and nuclear materials everywhere we go these days? Hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste to store for centuries, maybe millenia. And new nuke plants being built with tons more nuclear materials being mined, refined and used.
If that isn’t insanity, what is?
GregT on Wed, 20th Apr 2016 9:05 pm
The US Is Playing a Dangerous Game of Musical Chairs With Nuclear Waste
April 20, 2016
“OVER THE WEEKEND, a giant tank of radioactive sludge in Hanford, Washington, sprung a new leak. It wasn’t the first time, and it likely won’t be the last. Hanford is home to 177 of these decade-old tanks, and workers have been scrambling to shuffle nuclear waste from tank to tank as they become leaky with age. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the current plan for dealing with the US’s dangerous high-level radioactive waste.”
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/us-playing-dangerous-game-musical-chairs-nuclear-waste/
GregT on Wed, 20th Apr 2016 9:08 pm
Leak worsens in massive Hanford tank holding nuclear waste
“This is catastrophic. This is probably the biggest event to ever happen in tank farm history. The double shell tanks were supposed to be the saviors of all saviors (to hold waste safely from people and the environment),” said former Hanford worker Mike Geffre.
http://www.king5.com/news/local/investigations/catastrophic-event-at-hanford-prompts-emergency-response/140990679
Go Speed Racer on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 3:59 am
Ya gotta feel sad for all the ‘pro nuclear’ types. Because just like the Fundamentalist Christians, they have to recite a bunch of lies all week, and pretend to believe it.
peakyeast on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 4:22 am
Its no accident that Godzilla comes from Japan !!
🙂
Kenz300 on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 7:30 am
Nuclear energy is poisoning the planet…………
5 Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout
http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/05/5-years-after-fukushima/
arkieguide on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 8:22 am
Why can people not realize nuke power is very dangerous ? Regardless of what we are told, anytime we invent something and use it – when we can not store it, throw it away, burn it,are store it, then what is safe about it?
penury on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 12:14 pm
Why can people not realize nuke power is very dangerous ? Well If you seriously want to know review some of the nuclear propaganda from the 40s 50s and early 60s put out by the NRC and the power companies, This was taught in schools as proven science, No one ever died due to exposure to radiation there is always a different causal agent.
PracticalMaina on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 12:19 pm
Madam Curie was really partying it up in her off time, that’s what did her in…;)
peakyeast on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 1:45 pm
At every single accident – only the people that cannot be denied has died from radioactive exposure.
Some 30-40 people from chernobyl. – All the radioactivity that got spread has not killed ONE person. Thats their arithmetic.
More or less like saying that the pollution from cars, coal-burning, cigarettes never killed a single person.
Obviously, its wrong, but nonetheless the governments over the world likes this type of misinformation and deception.
Which is why at every single accident they have lied, denied, manipulated everyone.
One thing is that they didnt tell about the meltdowns – but remember that TEPCO put lead plates over the sensors – so that they could say that the workers didnt get exposed and there was no danger?
This is government and nuclear honesty.
And it is exactly the same the world over – its a big monolith of fucked up liars and killers.
Which is the main reason I am against nuclear power. Humankind is simply not ready for anything more powerful than a soap bubble machine.
If they on the other hand had been truthful, proactive and so forth my opinion could be different.
PracticalMaina on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 2:01 pm
Yeah it is some bullshit, something that will take ten years to build, costs billions, only has a service life of decades, and leaves behind poison that will linger for tens of thousands of years. If you have to constantly do maintenance on some type of storage for the waste for the next ten thousand years, EROEI negative IMHO.
peakyeast on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 2:19 pm
Btw. my geiger counter is still running – since 1980 when my father gave it to me.
I have no fantastic insight into what can influence the geiger counter, but it certainly beeps a lot more when I put it near my new chinese electronics..
I must look into this one day….
geopressure on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 2:34 pm
I doubt your Chinese electronics are a radiation source… Your Geiger Counter is probably picking up stray electrons… I can’t recall, but it seems like Geiger Counters react the same to any charged particle…
peakyeast on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 2:40 pm
@geopressure: I think you are probably correct, but I just dont know it.
peakyeast on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 2:42 pm
Perhaps the electronics in the old days were better screened than today?
Tim on Thu, 21st Apr 2016 6:57 pm
To the piece of garbage that compared nuclear power supporters to fundamentalist Christians:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
Nuclear power supporters are more informed than you solar cultists. The facts are nuclear provides more energy and at a lower cost than unreliable wind and solar and is actually safer. In fact, the article is an outright lie. The nuclear industry has learned its lesson from Chernobyl and Fukushima. 3rd and 4th generation reactors are safer than the older designs. The newest reactors will make nuclear even more safe than it is now.
It’s you Luddite solar cultists that has the faith-based power source.
Go Speed Racer on Fri, 22nd Apr 2016 6:09 am
Tim, go stand next to a blown reactor at the Fukushima site. You’ll be dead in an hour. While you are puking your small intestines out of your mouth from the radiation sickness, in your last hour, then maybe then you will figure it out.
Your ignorance is enjoyable, it’s nice you presume we want stupid solar panels and stupid windmills.
In my situation, I prefer Thorium molten-salt nuclear power. But people like you are too stupid to understand what that is, and why it is not a Uranium fuel cycle.
Sorry you are not able to comprehend what that is.
Kenz300 on Fri, 22nd Apr 2016 7:13 am
Wind and solar are safer, cleaner and cheaper forms of energy…………..wind and solar with battery storage are the future
NO fossil fuels…………….No Nukes………
Electric cars, bikes and mass transit are the future…..fossil fuel ICE cars are the past…………..
Think teen agers vs your grand father………………….
cell phones vs land lines…….
NO EMISSIONS……..climate change is real………
Kenz300 on Fri, 22nd Apr 2016 7:21 am
Fukushima Should Have Served as Wake-Up Call for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/10/fukushima-wake-up-call-nrc/
7 Top NRC Experts Break Ranks to Warn of Critical Danger at Aging Nuke Plants
http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/09/nrc-experts-warn-dangers-nuclear/
Kenz300 on Fri, 22nd Apr 2016 7:24 am
There are safer, cleaner and cheaper ways to generate electricity……and not poison the planet….
‘Ice Wall’ Is Japan’s Last-Ditch Effort To Contain Fukushima Radiation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/japan-ice-wall_us_56febfa4e4b0a06d5805afff?ir=Green§ion=us_green&utm_hp_ref=green
onlooker on Fri, 22nd Apr 2016 7:27 am
“Hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste to store for centuries, maybe millenia. And new nuke plants being built with tons more nuclear materials being mined, refined and used.
If that isn’t insanity, what is?” You said it Mak. That is the insanity we passed on to however more generations of humans are to live on this planet.