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Essay / Nuclear Industry: History of Invention and Consequences
In 1789, Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, discovered uranium and it was named after the planet Uranus. The neutron as a part of the atom was discovered in 1932 by James Chadwick. Walton and Cockroft also achieved nuclear transformations by bombarding atoms with accelerated protons in 1932. Later, in 1934, Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie discovered that a much wider variety of artificial radionuclides could be formed when neutrons were used. instead of protons. This is where the history of nuclear energy begins. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayThe first scientist to be responsible for discovering the atomic bomb was British. Two scientists, Peierls and Frisch, wrote the Frisch-Peierls memorandum according to which an amount of about 5 kg of U-235 could make a very powerful atomic bomb, equivalent to several thousand tons of dynamite. In particular, they explained how it can be used and what additional effect it could provide. To further research into atomic bombs, the MAUD committee was established in Great Britain. And the research work was carried out at the universities of Oxford, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge and Liverpool. People have started using nuclear power for energy because this option provides low-carbon electricity and has some privileges such as low cost and less damage to the environment. And from the 1950s, the nuclear industry began to show its weaknesses and bring non-invisible threats. The first accident at the nuclear power plant was in 1957. The core of the Windscale 1 unit, which was located in Cumberland (now Cumbria), United Kingdom, caught fire and melted on October 10. This resulted in the release of large amounts of radioactivity into the environment. As this accident was the first in history, the British government decided to hide the information from the public, as it did not want to sow chaos and distrust among the population. In just twenty years, they published that the Windscale Fire caused 32 deaths and 260 cases of cancer due to the radiation release. Dairy farms near this factory were closed for two months because the milk could contain radioactive iodines. The first nuclear accident occurred in the United States in July 1959 in Los Angeles, California. “A partial meltdown occurred at the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) due to a blockage in the cooling flow that caused the reactor core to overheat. This accident was stopped fairly early and therefore did not cause serious damage. Another accident occurred in Idaho Falls, Idaho on January 3, 1961. It was an explosion that was cleared up very quickly, but all three workers involved died immediately. The history of the United States also knows two other cases. Enrico Fermi Unit 1 was located in Frenchtown Charter Township, Michigan. The accident occurred on October 5, 1966, but the unit was shut down in time, so radionuclide releases were minimal and not harmful, but the plant never operated again. Another was in Middletown, Pennsylvania on March 28, 1978, known as Three Mile Island. It was the most serious nuclear accident in United States history, although environmental releases were minor. Regardless, residents of local areas were evacuated and the reactor had to undergo a twelve-year cleanup, costing $1 billion. An accident happened not long ago inFukushima, Japan, in March 2011. The country was suffering from earthquakes and tsunamis and these two disasters caused this event at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. As a result, around 500,000 people had to be evacuated. The world's worst nuclear disaster to date occurred on April 26, 1986, and it affected the surrounding environment and populations. The Chernobyl disaster occurred in the middle of the night from Friday April 25 to Saturday April 26. It was all a routine procedure. The unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was about to close. But they decided to take advantage of the opportunity and do several tests, which had been postponed earlier. Alexander Akimov, who was at the main control panel, and Leonid Toptunov, who was team leader and engineer, noticed that the automatic shutdown system was disabled because of the tests, which made them nervous. “Akimov and Toptunov had the great responsibility of ensuring that the reactor remained under control.” That night, they had electrical problems at the plant, but that didn't stop them from stopping the tests. Around midnight, Akimov and Toptunov realized that the reactor's power was too low for the test to take place. They were supposed to shut down the reactor and abandon the tests. But the deputy chief engineer of Unit 4, Anatoly Dyatlov, was growing impatient. Akimov and Toptunov obeyed. At 1 a.m. the power was too high to start testing and an instant later the power surge was enormous, the flow of water through the reactor core increased, putting pressure on the pumps. At 1:23 a.m., the dials indicated a pernicious increase in power and radiation. “Reactor 4 had exploded. The force of the explosion was so great that it blew the 2,200-ton steel cover off the top of the core and dislodged the outer concrete shield. A huge fire ensued.” Lila Sipkina is one of the eyewitnesses: “For a moment everything went black. The sky was lit up. These lights were like a fairy tale. » The radiation level was so high that the dosimeters did not have enough scale to measure it. “What am I supposed to measure?” The counter has gone off the rails,” said a dosimetrist. One of the first firefighters, Boris Aleshaev, commented on the situation when extinguishing the fire: “I started to feel tired. I felt sick. I wanted to lie down and rest - forget everything. My body and face were glowing…” 135,000 people were evacuated from the 19-mile zone around Chernobyl. Animals near this area were lying dead and trees were felled. The wind, spreading its fallout, turned south and west and brought radioactive nuclides to almost every country in Europe. On April 28, Swedish monitors detected high levels of radiation. Many countries have been ordered to destroy milk and leafy vegetables due to their high radiation content. In Poland, Germany and Austria, children had to take iodine tablets to protect themselves from radiation. The United Kingdom had approved certain restrictions on the sale of lamb. This accident exposed people to radiation 100 to 200 times higher than that caused by the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion. “In the five years since the accident, cases of cancer among children in Ukraine have increased by more than 90%. More than 5,000 cancer deaths linked to the Chernobyl disaster. The release of radioactive nuclides has caused many mutations in the nature of animals and humans. In 1990, approximately 400 deformed animals were born with facial malformations, extra appendages, coloring..