Cause and Effect

Victoria Cheyne

C02061563

Prof. Sakovich

English 100

3, March 2012

Cause and Effect

The disaster on Chernobyl's power station was the worst nuclear accident of the 20th century. It happened during a system test on April twenty-sixth 1986 at reactor number four. The night was warm and nice. People were getting ready to celebrate May first, which is the Soviet Labor Day, and had no idea that their lives were about to change forever. Many people who lived close to the nuclear station had reported seeing the bright blue fire, but they had no idea how dangerous it was just to look at it. As stated above, the disaster began during a system test on April twenty sixth. It was a long chain of problems which led to the massive explosion. The main causes of the disaster were discovered after the disaster happened. There was an electrical problem and an emergency shutdown of electricity was attempted. The test that was conducted was against the safety policy; it was done by a small group of people who wanted to test the plant running on low-power. It led to the loss of water, which was used to cool down the uranium rods. The lack of coolant, lead to the reactor overheating and then to the meltdown of the rods. The effect was a series of explosions in reactor number four. There were massive administrative errors as well. Not having enough knowledge, due in part to the secrecy of Soviet government, and underestimating the problem, the management of the station made many mistakes at the beginning of the disaster, and this lead to lethal consequences. Chernobyl's disaster cost too many people dearly.

Many people got gravely ill and lost their lives. Numerous firefighters were taken to the local hospitals within the first hour, because they were showing signs of radiation sickness. In INSAG-7, The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, A report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, International Atomic Energy Agency, Safety Series No. 75-INSAG-7, 1992, (ISBN: 9201046928) this article stated that "Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning." Updated September 2011 Web. 18 March 2012. The local people did not know about the danger from this disaster ether, and they continued to live their everyday lives for the next couple of days. The fire was burning for eight days. It made many people feel sick. But, without having enough information many people did not know the real cause of their illnesses. At first, people were having headaches, body weakness, and nausea. Within first few weeks many people developed skin rashes. Some adults and children had swollen limbs which were very painful and made it almost impossible for them to walk. Over time, many more people especially children, were diagnosed with thyroid disease, and a lot of people had died from leukemia. Many women, who were evacuated earlier, had delivered sick babies born with cancer. All of these babies died shortly after birth. Because, people did not