Problem-Solution

Choose one recent "engineering disaster" that has affected the environment in one country and explain how could it be avoided.

[Edited]

The Chernobyl disaster is the most serious nuclear plant accident in history. Together with the explosion of reactor unit-4, the radioactive material it released polluted almost all the countries in Europe. The city was abandoned; overall 56 people died within a few months. Also, it raised the possibility of the people live in affected area from getting cancer and even a handicapped baby. These impacts are caused by the flawed reactor design, besides some consecutive serious mistakes made by the plant operators. Obviously, the horrible disaster can actually be avoided. Modern reactor is highly emphasized with safety property. It was designed in such a way that zero radioactive material will be spread when it explode, even though the chance of explosion is almost null. On the other hand, in order to cease man made mistake, automatic safety property should be introduced. For instance, control rods will be inserted in reactor at once automatically when the temperature or pressure over the standard range, while ensure the power supply of control rod and monitoring system. The disaster had taught us that something should be done to prevent the radioactive material from spreading. Thus, a fallout shelter which performs the task should be build for any nuclear-based facilities, including nuclear power plant. Another approach to prevent the disaster happen is to ensure all plant operators are clear with the safety guidelines, besides the knowledge of nuclear science. The ultimate method to prevent the disaster is, of course, not to build a nuclear plant at all! This is possible with the development of alternative energy source such as solar power and fuel cell.

My blogging buddy was Tiffany. =)

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Here are some facts regarding Chernobyl power plant:

"The agreement to build the Chernobyl power plants dates from 1966, when the former Soviet Union decided to develop nuclear production of electricity. The RBMK reactor design also dates from this period. Six 1 000 MWe reactors were planned at that time.

Unit 1, which begin production in 1977, stopped in November 1996. In December 1997, it was decided to decommission.

Unit 2, which was first connected to the grid in December 1978, was stopped in 1991 after damage due to fire. The Ukrainian national authorities decided to definitely close this plant in March 1999.

Unit 3, which started in 1981 has had many shut downs for maintenance, inspections and repairs since 1997. In June 2000, the Ukrainian authorities decided to close it definitely on 15 December 2000.

Units 5 and 6 were under constructions at the site at the time of accident, but were never finished."

-http://www.nea.fr/html/rp/chernobyl/c08.html