Draft

Paper #2 - Did We Learn From the Past?

Since nuclear power has been introduced as a resource for alternative energy, there have been two accidents rated as a “seven” on the International Nuclear Event Scale that has shaped our views on how we energize our societies: the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011. Both of these accidents highlight important issues in harnessing nuclear energy and underlie our ongoing effort for safe nuclear reactor operation. 

There are multiple reasons as to why these accidents occured in the past, however, poor plant design and safety protocols were a root cause of both. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a forum on nuclear technology dating back to 1957, Chernobyl’s RBMK reactor 4 experienced a meltdown during a safety test due to flawed designs in the control rods, a build up of pressure in the core, and poor operator actions such as disabling the automatic shutdown mechanism. This resulted in a catastrophic explosion, projecting nuclear material and debris into the atmosphere due to the absence of a containment structure. 30 deaths ensued from the explosion and 49,360 citizens from the town of Pripyat were evacuated. This is a stark comparison to the casualties and damage engendered by the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, where nobody was killed following the nuclear accident. 

The World Nuclear Association details how nuclear material was ejected into the air and sea after an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor was caused by a 15 meter high  tsunami taking out multiple plant generators for water cooling. Unlike the Chernobyl disaster, a containment structure was in place and the boiling water reactor was much more facile in terms of control. 

Topics to talk about on the second page

· Transparency of governments

· Better reactor design

· Operation of reactor (process and automation)

· Terrapower 

· The cost both accidents

· 20% of power in the US is Nuclear

Prompt :