Black Dates. Chernobyl, Tomsk; Digest--Collection of Materials and Documents re 10 years of Chernobyl Accident and 3 Years of Serious Incident in Tomsk Region

Tomsk: 1996. Wraps. 56 pages. Minor ink corrections to text noted. Illustrated front cover. Scuff on front cover. Format is 5.75 inches by 8 inches. The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred on 25–26 April 1986 in the No. 4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, in northern Ukraine, approximately 104 km (65 mi) north of Kiev. The event occurred during a safety test which simulated a station blackout power-failure, in the course of which safety systems were intentionally turned off. A combination of inherent reactor design flaws and the reactor operators arranging the core in a manner contrary to the checklist for the test, resulted in uncontrolled reaction conditions. Water flashed into steam generating a destructive steam explosion and a subsequent open-air graphite fire. This fire produced considerable updrafts. These lofted plumes of fission products into the atmosphere. The estimated radioactive inventory that was released during this phase approximately equaled in magnitude the airborne fission products released in the initial destructive explosion. This radioactive material precipitated onto parts of the western USSR and Europe. The explosion of a nuclear reprocessing facility in Tomsk-7 dispersed large amounts of radioactivity over an area of 120 km², exposing tens of thousands of people to increased levels of radiation and contaminating air, water and soils for many generations to come. It is considered the most serious Russian nuclear accident after Chernobyl and the Kyshtym accident at Mayak. Tomsk-7 was a “secret city” in Siberia until 1992, when it reverted to its historical name of Seversk. It housed several nuclear facilities for large-scale production of plutonium and uranium for nuclear fuel and weapons, including reprocessing of spent fuel. The closed city was home to about 100,000 workers and their families. Workers were pouring nitric acid into a tank in order to separate plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. It is not clear whether the accident was caused by human or technical error, but it is believed that a lack of compressed air caused the mixture of nitric acid, uranium and plutonium to overheat and reach critical temperatures within a few minutes. The ensuing explosion knocked down walls on two floors of the complex, started a fire and released about 250 m³ of radioactive gas, 8.7 kg of uranium and 500 g of plutonium to the environment. Condition: Good.

Keywords: Tomsk-7, Chernobyl, Nuclear Accidents, Radiation, Environmental Impact, Reprocessing, Seversk, Uranium, Plutonium, Nuclear Fuel, Fission Products, Fallout

[Book #75217]

Price: $50.00