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Engineering is arguably one of the most important professions in the world. Engineers create the bridges society uses everyday to get from place to place, engineers create the cars society uses to cross those bridges and engineers are even the reason why society can power those cars. These are only a few of the things engineers create, the list goes on and on. However, all these elements have one thing in common which is the involvement of heavy parts, fast speeds and dangerous chemicals. Engineers have a duty to society to create these dangerous goods, in a way that society can safely use them. Although society uses bridges, cars and chemicals almost everyday with no issues, engineers are only human and sometimes tragedies arise. However, one of the most tragic engineering disasters was at a nuclear plant in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Many of the objects engineers create pose no threat to society, and many humans will and have gone their full lifetime with only encountering the luxuries the engineering profession creates for them. Unfortunately, however there are people that have been killed and severely injured changing their lives forever, caused from engineering disasters. The common element all the engineering disasters have in common is, somewhere along the building or operational process someone did not follow the proper engineering profession ethics. The main rule in engineering ethics is public safety before anything however, unfortunately history recalls that many of these disasters are caused from engineers not putting public safety first and being more focused on making deadlines, so they dont get fined or lose money from their production process taking longer. A common cause of a project taking longer is when the proper procedure and parts take longer to put together or order. This causes some engineers to buckle under the pressure, by using below standard materials to meet deadlines and/or be persuaded by superiors that an existing project is structurally sound implying time and money should not be spent on reconstruction. A few disasters seen recently are directly caused from one of the issues stated for example the Quebec Bridge, Tacoma Bridge and especially the Chernobyl Disaster. Arguably one of the most horrific and tragic disasters in the history of engineering happened in the nuclear energy field on April 26th, 1986.
Nuclear energy is one of the most important resources society has, one day when fossil fuel supplies are run dry, Nuclear power will be one of the few answers society will have. Nuclear energy is the process that brings subatomic particles together fighting magnetic forces inside a reactor and the outcome of this process creates one of the most powerful sources of energy engineers have ever seen. On the contrary to Nuclear energy being so powerful, the process in which it is created, stored and disposed of is extremely dangerous and poses a large risk to society around the globe.
Chernobyl is a Ukrainian town located just outside the populated town of Pripyat, which was home to about 50, 000 people in the year 1986 (live-science. com). Unfortunately, the beautiful town of Pripyat fell to be a victim of an engineering disaster. It all started during the night shift on the 25th-26th of April 1986, when two senior nuclear engineers and one Chief deputy engineer by the name of Anatoly Dyatlov were beginning a test on the Nuclear plants reactor number 4. The test being performed was a safety test to observe what would happen if there was a power outage or power shortage going to the regulator, the reason for this is because during that time in history the Russian government had fears of attacks from one of their many enemies. The government felt that their Nuclear plant would be a large target, due to the Russians being the most advanced in the world at that time in the Nuclear energy field. The test was first performed a year before in 1985, however the test failed due to faulty voltage measuring devices. Engineers designed voltage meters that were ready to be put to the test. However, on the night of April 26th the shift did not start off as it should have.
To begin the Deputy Chief Engineer Dyatolov was known to be a very hard man and uneasy to communicate with, and at the same time the control room which was the drivers seat of the whole plant was getting extremely low voltage readings from reactor number four. The reading was indicating that voltage was extremely low, however Dyatolov did not see an issue and believed it was just another faulty measuring device. He was ambitious to get the task done, so he ordered the engineers to proceed. The younger engineers in the control room, pleaded with Dyatolov to stop the test and begin trouble shooting. The deputy did not listen and carried on, not long after the system encountered zero voltage. This caused a major concern, because the lower the voltage the more unstable the system becomes, due to the reason the plant works by the splitting of uranium atoms which creates heat turning water into steam turning a turbine. The system also contained boron rods that contributed to the reaction, by being the objects operators used to control the system.
The major technical issue observed that night on the 26th of April was that when the system reached zero on the voltage scale, the two major contributing factors to the disaster was the fact the engineers removed the boron rods (control rods), as well in addition to one of the many faulty components from the plant design. One of the faulty designs that contributed to the disaster was the void effficient . In most modern day properly designed nuclear plants, the reactors are engineered to create a negative void which uses the water that is supposed to be created into steam as a coolant for the system. This process is done by the increase in steam, triggering a decrease in reactivity. However, in 1986 this was not known to the engineers who built that facility as well, the engineers in the operation room were not aware of this. When the boron rods were removed reactions in the core of the reactor increased, caused by a positive void co-efficient. The power that was building in at the core of reactor number four was not detected by the engineers in the control room. Dyatolov ordered his engineers to continue to carry on with the test. Unfortunately, shortly after an explosion was the result of the hot spot inside the reactor. The explosion that came in result to the hot spot inside reactor number four, was extremely severe. This was not just a fire, it was a radioactive fire that released 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere, killing two workers.
On the night of the explosion two workers died and many died within a short amount of time after the tragedy, and some still suffer today from the radiation and fire from that day. People in the nearby town of Pripyat approximately one mile from the Nuclear site, were infected with radiation. The people at the facility that night and the people nearby, will forever suffer Acute Radiation Syndrome. The acute radiation syndrome is what most people in the facility and nearby town were infected with, the syndrome eats away at tissue in the body and is engrained in ones DNA. Which means their genetics will contain the syndrome. Furthermore, the radiation from the disaster polluted the air and tracked all over the Northern Hemisphere attacking civilians in more than just one country. The Professional Engineers Ontario Code of Ethics, Section 77 of the O. Reg 941-77 states A practitioner, shall regard the practitioners duty to public welfare as paramount. This is the most important rule in the engineering handbook and was not followed during the nightshift on April 26th, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. As well, before this night the facility was not engineered properly.
Firstly, on the nightshift on the 26th of April the engineers in the control room were having issues with reactor number four. The voltage readings were extremely lower than they should have been in general, and 5much too low to attempt running a safety test. The Chief Deputy Engineer did not abide by the parameters and believed there was nothing wrong with the reactor that night. Chief Deputy Engineer Dyatolov, did not put the publics well being as paramount, he put his interests first and ran a dangerous piece of equipment with major issues, until it exploded. A couple factors contribute to the reasoning why Dyatolov was so anxious to run the test, and this was because he was close to being up for promotion which would get him out of the control room. As well, he was in trouble with the government already for unethical behaviour when installing nuclear systems in Russian submarines. Secondly, although Dyatolov was not an ethical engineer the Russian governmental party at that time was extremely determined to get the Nuclear plant running and cut down construction time by cutting corners to make the party appear as they can get anything done. However, the governments interests came first, and public safety was far behind in second. The first problem with the Nuclear plant was, the original design for the roof was to be built with non-combustible materials, however the roof was made with a mixture of highly combustible materials. The effect this had on the explosion on the night of April 26th was extremely great. Once the explosion happened in the core of reactor number four, a fire broke out and the highly combustible roof went up in flames extremely quick, when it was ignited. The second major design flaw was mentioned earlier and was the fact the reactor was designed to have a positive-void effect which increased the reactions in the core, when the reactor was turned off. This was because the design used different materials for the moderator and coolant, which causes increased pressure and neutron absorption leading ultimately to an increase in reactions at the core.
The disaster that happened in Chernobyl in 1986 was a tragedy that could have been avoided. At the time of the construction and disaster of the Nuclear Facility, the Soviet Union was going through a period where they were adapting to a communist government and important people such as engineers like Dyatolov wanted to prove themselves to get promoted. As well the government speeding up the construction by taking shortcuts in the materials used was not ethical. The engineers and the Russian government itself are responsible for the tragedy that happened on April 26th, 1986. There were many excuses from both the engineers and government, both who blamed each other. However, the bottom line is, the well being of the public was not paramount, therefore many innocent civilians not only in Pripyat but people, animals and eco-systems over the world were affected by faults in the Nuclear facility and reactor number four.
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