On a day like today, 1986, what is considered the largest nuclear accident in history. Human error led to an explosion Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as a result of which 50 people died immediately, and in subsequent years – several thousand more. It is considered a level 7 nuclear event. For a long time, the only event with such a rating in INES scale. In 2011, the disaster Fukushima joined Chernobyl at the top of the pyramid. But how to measure this level of severity?

The truth is, it’s not easy. International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) can be somewhat compared to the earthquake magnitude scale. It also follows logarithmic progression, so that each level represents an increase in an accident about ten times more severe than the previous level. But there is a difference. Earthquakes can be measured quantitatively thanks to devices such as seismographs. However, with nuclear accidents, everything is much more subjective.

For this reason, the measurement a posteriori and it’s not very useful for displaying help. For example, in the case of Fukushima, although the event occurred 11th of Marchthe INES classification happened just a month later, 11 April.

Why is Chernobyl at the top of the INES scale?

In a sense, the INES scale can also be compared to Fujita scale, which is used to measure the intensity of a tornado. This is based on the level of destruction they cause. And in fact, something similar is happening with INES.

It has seven levels, so 1 to 3 are considered incidents and 4 to 7 accidents. In accidents, those who local and municipal implications. In these cases, the amount of radioactive material is small enough to have no effects over long distances, but large enough to cause at least one death.

Then, at level 5, crashes occur with somewhat wider consequences. released some more radioactive materialseveral deaths occur and the reactor is damaged, exposing itself to a dangerous explosion.

Above, at level 6, the situation is more serious. Much more radioactive material is released, so countermeasures are always needed.

Finally, at level 7, the amount of radioactive material released is much higher, so that human health and the environment are endangered at much greater distances. Countermeasures are also necessary, and the consequences are very serious. Only Chernobyl and Fukushima they are considered at this level, although the truth is that in the case of the Japanese plant, some reactors were classified at a lower level.

INES, Chernobyl
Wikimedia Commons

The Importance of Security Measures

Chernobyl exploded due to human error. But also for the absence adequate security measures. Today, these measures are given much more attention. In addition, the place for the construction of nuclear power plants is chosen to last. Logically, it is not safe to make them at points with high seismic activity, so those that are fraught with very wide faults should be discarded as an option.

That is why there are only two accidents at level 7 so far. The last one was more than 12 years ago and the consequences for people were not as serious as in Chernobyl. Therefore, we see that security measures are improving. This is important to do as recent research shows that, at least for now, we have no choice but to continue to rely on nuclear power if we are to fight climate change. INES scale will continue to be there to evaluate every situation; but hopefully only smaller numbers should be used.

Source: Hiper Textual

Previous article10 tech news to start your day (26/04)
Next articleOpenAI decided to register the GPT trademark, but it turned out to be problematic

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here