The Chernobyl explosion on April 26, 1986 caused the worst nuclear accident in history . The blast covered the western Soviet Union and Europe with radiation, causing the largest man-made environmental disaster. More than 100,000 people were evacuated and an exclusion zone of more than 30 kilometers was established that continues to exist today. The blast tore down walls and sealed off many rooms and corridors. Many tons of fissile material from inside a reactor spread throughout the facility, and the heat it generated melted sand from the reactor walls along with concrete and steel to form an intensely radioactive lava-like substance that oozed down to the lower floors. Thus, some 170 tons of irradiated uranium flooded the basement rooms of the reactor room, where it eventually cooled and hardened like a kind of coagulated lava.
Now, scientists monitoring the ruins of the nuclear power plant located in Ukraine have seen an increase in fission reactions in an inaccessible chamber within the complex called subreactor room 305/2 that neither human nor robotic eyes have contemplated since the beginning. disaster.
Will an intervention be necessary to prevent a runaway nuclear reaction?
The leftover nuclear fission fuel made from uranium has begun to react again in an “inaccessible room” deep within a damaged area of the closed plant and many are wondering, what could happen there? There is danger?
According to scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Safety Problems (ISPNPP) in Kiev, Ukraine, the increase in neutron activity readings is revealing and, although the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is surrounded by a megastructure massive called Chernobyl New Safe Confinement (NSC) in which there are hundreds of sensors working around the clock to monitor factors such as air quality, it has been in the fallen reactor room where scientists have noticed the increase in neutrons (neutrons are a fission signal and the division of an atomic nucleus results in the release of large amounts of energy).
At the moment, there is great uncertainty among the scientific community. Scientists may be required to intervene in the chamber to potentially prevent another explosion. The ‘silver lining’ of this situation is that the sensors mark a gradual but slow increase in the number of neutrons in the chamber, suggesting that we would have a few years left to figure out how to quell the threat (levels have risen by around 40 % since 2016).
What has caused this nuclear ‘awakening’?
The cause of the reaction is unknown , but it raises some rather worrying security possibilities. The possibility of an accident cannot be ruled out, say many experts.
Most importantly, how should this problem be addressed?
One of the proposed plans is to use a robot to drill holes in the hardened radioactive slope and insert boron rods, which act as a control rod in a reactor and reduce the amount of neutrons that are released, making neutrons less prone. to hit and split any uranium core.
With emissions increasing so slowly, the risk of hazards in the near future appears low. The worst-case scenarios would also fall far short of the 1986 catastrophe, but given the complex’s delicate situation and that room 305/2 is believed to contain around half of the reactor’s original fuel, even a small explosion could spew radioactive waste. far enough away to make its containment a real concern.
