Chernobyl Nuclear Accident is a tragedy that happened on April 26, 1986, in Ukraine.

That day,
one of the reactors of the nuclear power plant in Chornobyl exploded and became a real
disaster in the region as it caused many deaths.
Two main factors caused the nuclear accident: an error in the design of the power plant and
errors that were made by the management and operating staff of the power plant (Front,
2000). The first reason was that the reactor core was built in a way that it was hard to control
the reactor at low power. In addition, the reactor lacked a containment structure and it did not
have a system aimed at filtering exhaust gases. Management of the plant has also made some
mistakes that led to the explosion of the fourth reactor of the Chornobyl plant. They ran the
plant at a low power level, strictly prohibited, and had less than 30 control rods inserted into
the core. These two factors caused the explosion and deaths of millions of people.
Because of the nuclear accident, tons of radioactive metals were released from the nuclear
reactors. As a result, the accident caused radioactive contamination of the environment. A very
large territory was contaminated with radionuclides, and terrestrial, atmospheric, urban, and
aquatic environments have been polluted (IAEA, 2006). When the weather was dry, trees, roofs
of houses, and buildings became contaminated, while in the rainy weather lawns and soil plots
received a great share of radiation. Agricultural plants and animals who consumed them
became the victims of contamination. Water systems in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Eastern
Europe were also contaminated.
As a result of the Chornobyl accident, many new regulations were adopted (WISE&NIRS, 2011).
The main reason for adopting new rules was that there was great public concern about the
consequences of the accident. In 1990, the first international standards in radiation protection
were developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. In addition, there
were many standards for radionuclides introduced in Ukraine, post-Soviet and European. These
standards included the maximum limit of nuclides in the human body, and levels of
radionuclides in timber, drinking water, food, etc. Also, many technologies were developed to
improve safety measures and prevent further accidents.
Many things could be done to prevent this man-made disaster. For example, in the times of the
Cold War, the Soviet Union did not care much about the safety of its nuclear energy production.
There was no time to concentrate on the design and construction of the nuclear plant that
could be operated with minimum risks of explosion. It can be said, that the Soviet Union did not
have a culture of safety, and one of the consequences was the Chernobyl accident. If the plant
was built by all safety standards, it would not be exposed to the high risk of reactor explosion.
Also, if people were trained better and had a better attitude toward their work, they would not
make critical mistakes that resulted in the explosion.
The explosion of the Chornobyl plant reactor has become one of the largest man-made
accidents in the history of humankind. It had an extremely negative impact on the environment
and caused the deaths of millions of people. Thus, it is very important to do everything possible
to avoid such accidents in the future.