for most, the idea of nuclear energy seems extremely dangerous. Growing up after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the looming threat of the Cold War, we as a society learned to fear radioactivity. Despite this, all evidence points to the contrary. Nuclear energy is much safer and cleaner than burning fossil fuels. This, of course, does not mean that nuclear energy production is foolproof. Things can go wrong, and when they do, the effects can be devastating. However, such incidents are unnecessary as long as safety protocols are followed properly. The best example of this is also the most famous in nuclear history, the Chernobyl disaster. Despite their small size, atoms contain almost unlimited amounts of energy. Some elements even have the ability to break their atoms due to the enormous amount of energy contained within them. These elements are defined as radioactive and are nothing new. It is known that naturally occurring elements such as uranium and radium are radioactive (“Historical notes” 1). It has always been there, but we have not always had the ability to use this power for practical purposes. It was only in 1942 that the first nuclear reactor was built, even though uranium had already been discovered in 1789 (“Historical notes” 1 and 5). It then took another 20 years for nuclear reactions to be used as a commercial means of producing energy, and another 10 years later for them to become popular (“Historical Notes” 7). There are many different types of nuclear reactors, but the type used at the Chernobyl power plant was called the RBMK reactor. This was a design seen primarily in the Soviet Union starting in the 1970s and is quite unlike any other nuclear reactor ever built. RBMK s......middle of paper......and tests. With the turbines repaired it was thought that the test could be completed successfully the following year (sequence of events 1). Unfortunately this was not the case. The test started as expected and for the first few hours everything ran smoothly. It wasn't until around 12.30am that the first serious error occurred. At this point it should be noted that the International Nuclear Safety Group prohibits operating reactors at power levels below 700 MWt. This warning was inappropriately ignored during testing, as the power level was deliberately lowered to 500 MWt. This, in itself, would not necessarily have caused a problem, but either the operator forgot to ask the reactor to maintain this power level, or the reactor did not follow this command, because the power level began to decrease quickly up to 30 MWt, an insanely high figure. low power level (sequence of events 4).

Topic > for most, the idea of nuclear energy seems extremely dangerous. Growing up after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the looming threat of the Cold War, we as a society learned to fear radioactivity. Despite this, all evidence points to the contrary. Nuclear energy is much safer and cleaner than burning fossil fuels. This, of course, does not mean that nuclear energy production is foolproof. Things can go wrong, and when they do, the effects can be devastating. However, such incidents are unnecessary as long as safety protocols are followed properly. The best example of this is also the most famous in nuclear history, the Chernobyl disaster. Despite their small size, atoms contain almost unlimited amounts of energy. Some elements even have the ability to break their atoms due to the enormous amount of energy contained within them. These elements are defined as radioactive and are nothing new. It is known that naturally occurring elements such as uranium and radium are radioactive (“Historical notes” 1). It has always been there, but we have not always had the ability to use this power for practical purposes. It was only in 1942 that the first nuclear reactor was built, even though uranium had already been discovered in 1789 (“Historical notes” 1 and 5). It then took another 20 years for nuclear reactions to be used as a commercial means of producing energy, and another 10 years later for them to become popular (“Historical Notes” 7). There are many different types of nuclear reactors, but the type used at the Chernobyl power plant was called the RBMK reactor. This was a design seen primarily in the Soviet Union starting in the 1970s and is quite unlike any other nuclear reactor ever built. RBMK s......middle of paper......and tests. With the turbines repaired it was thought that the test could be completed successfully the following year (sequence of events 1). Unfortunately this was not the case. The test started as expected and for the first few hours everything ran smoothly. It wasn't until around 12.30am that the first serious error occurred. At this point it should be noted that the International Nuclear Safety Group prohibits operating reactors at power levels below 700 MWt. This warning was inappropriately ignored during testing, as the power level was deliberately lowered to 500 MWt. This, in itself, would not necessarily have caused a problem, but either the operator forgot to ask the reactor to maintain this power level, or the reactor did not follow this command, because the power level began to decrease quickly up to 30 MWt, an insanely high figure. low power level (sequence of events 4).