Chernobyl
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On April, 26 1986 an accident occurred at Chernobyl. It began with a steam explosion. The explosion occurred in reactor 4. This explosion then led to a series of events that happened rather quickly. Next, a fire began to spread in the fourth reactor. Finally, a nuclear meltdown occurred which released nuclear debris into the atmosphere and contaminated everything near and around the nuclear power plant. This event is important to me because it was a major event the year of my birth. Furthermore it has great significance to the world because it led to more safety measures and precautions when it comes to handling nuclear power.
When the incident first occurred the Soviet Union tried to keep it a secret from the rest of the world. But information about the accident was too difficult for the Soviets to cover up. The people of the surrounding towns were not even aware of the accident themselves (Feinstein 51). The evacuation of the people began almost a day after the initial accident which caused many to be exposed to the radiation (Feinstein 51). As for solving the problem firefighters arrived on the scene about thirty minutes after the fire began. They were not prepared for the accident with proper nuclear protective suits; this exposed many of them to the gamma rays and caused many fatalities.
Once the fires were extinguished there was one major problem still at hand. The Soviets had to find a way to prevent the release of the radiation. This was accomplished with the building of the sarcophagus, which is a combination of steel and concrete that was used to cover reactor four (Bleickardt, Quirk, and Beegle 2005). Then began the clean up efforts the buildings exposed to were washed down and trucks sprayed chemicals that would help prevent the spread of the radioactive particles.
If not for the accident a Chernobyl many safety measures might not have ever been put into practice. This could have led to an even worse nuclear catastrophe than Chernobyl. In a way this event was needed as a wakeup call to the world when it came to nuclear safety. There are many automated systems that would reduce the likeliness of this from happening again.
In conclusion, the accident that occurred at Chernobyl has great importance to me. I can feel safe in todays world that the likely hood of an event like this happening again is slim to none. The reason this is an important event to the world is because today