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Organizational safety culture: Implications for aviation practice
Published in Neil Johnston, Nick McDonald, Ray Fuller, Aviation Psychology in Practice, 2017
The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the world’s worst nuclear accident. It led to 31 immediate deaths, many more delayed deaths, and spread radiation across a wide area of Europe. The accident was caused by a combination of poor reactor design and operator ‘errors’ (see Reason, 1987). The Soviet RBMK reactor type had an inherent design defect, which meant that the energy output could become unstable, and the reactor possibly explode, under certain conditions of low power operation. Such a situation had been foreseen by the reactor’s designers and operating procedures specified that the reactor should not ordinarily be operated at the low power level. However, to conduct an experiment on the reactor, ironically with the goal of improving safety in the future, the operators contravened Standard Operating Procedures by allowing the reactor power level to fall into the critical low power region. The experiment also required the disengagement of back-up safety systems which might have protected the reactor, allowing the first explosion to occur.
Managing pollution from radioactive substances
Published in Andrew Farmer, Managing environmental pollution, 2002
On 26 April 1986 the worst nuclear accident in history occurred at Chernobyl. Chernobyl at that time was in the Soviet Union, and today lies just inside the Ukraine on the border with Belarus. The accident resulted in two massive explosions, blowing the 1,000 tonne plate off the reactor and the roof off the building. The graphite blocks used to regulate the reaction fell into the reactor, and a large fire raged, sending smoke high into the atmosphere. It was not until the 6th of May that the reactor was stopped. During this period it is estimated that up to 8 per cent of the one billion curies contained in the reactor were released to the atmosphere.
Nuclear and Hydro Power
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Energy Security for The 21st Century, 2021
A nuclear accident causes the complete devastation of a large land mass; damaging its animal life, crops, water sources etc. Most accidents caused by the conventional power generators are usually limited to the immediate land and easily localized and recovered. A nuclear accident not only damages the local land making it into waste land forever, but it also emits clouds of radiation that spread and damage vast areas around the plant—damages which last a long time. In most cases, the radiated areas are rendered useless for many, many years—maybe forever.
Nuclear Energy, Environment and Public Safety: North-South Politics
Published in Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment, 2019
The reason that the subject of nuclear energy, despite its many advantages, is still broached with caution is due to the ethical dilemma regarding public safety. The main issue with nuclear power stations is that the uranium is radioactive and can produce disastrous impacts on human health. The two deadliest nuclear power accidents to date have been the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in 1986 and the Fukushima accident in 2011, which were both ranked as 7, the highest ranking of nuclear accidents. In the 1986 Chernobyl accident, huge quantities of nuclear waste were released into the atmosphere and spread across Europe. The accident was responsible for the deaths of large populations of people and livestock. The longer-term effects include increased risk of cancer and birth defects. The second deadliest nuclear accident happened due to a series of natural disasters, ultimately resulting in the release of radioactive waste from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. Other such disastrous nuclear plant accidents include the Kyshtym disaster in Russia and the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S. [18].
A Worker’s Fitness-for-Duty Status Identification Based on Biosignals to Reduce Human Error in Nuclear Power Plants
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2020
Historically, human error has been identified as the main cause of severe nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. After these accidents, minimizing human error has become an important target to improve nuclear safety. Through detailed examination of these accidents, researchers1–3 found a worker’s unfitness-for-duty status led to making mistakes. Fitness for duty (FFD) refers to workers’ physical, physiological, and psychological ability to competently and safely perform their work tasks.4 Thus, implementing an effective FFD program provides reasonable assurance of human performance; i.e., workers do not pose a safety or security risk to the operation of the facility.5
Process variables that defined the phytofiltration efficiency of invasive macrophytes in aquatic system
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2023
Yetunde Irinyemi Bulu, Nurudeen Abiola Oladoja
Natural radiation from external sources, such as radionuclides in the earth and cosmic radiation, and internal radiation from radionuclides incorporated into the body, ingestion of radionuclides through food and water, and inhalation, are primary routes of intake. Radioactive contamination of the environment as a result of nuclear accidents has been recorded. A notable example of nuclear accidents is the destruction of Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear complex in Ukraine in 1986, which released an estimated 1.2 × 107TBq of radioactivity (Hu et al.2010).