- "Chernobyl was an unforgivable tragedy, the result of a unique combination of human error, outdated Soviet technology and a misunderstanding of the risks." – Mikhail Gorbachev (former President of the Soviet Union)
Hardly any other quote sums up the Chernobyl nuclear disaster so succinctly. The Chernobyl disaster set new standards for how we deal with nuclear power: for the public, but especially for engineers. Together we will look not only at how the explosion at Chernobyl happened, but also at what happened afterwards.
Why did it take so long to evacuate? Why did no one know about the nuclear accident for so long, and what is the situation in the ghost town of Prypiat today? Let's start where it all began. When nuclear power was known as the "energy of the future".
Nuclear Power Before Chornobyl: Energy of Unlimited Possibilities
From the end of World War II until the 1950s, there was a real euphoria about nuclear power. After the horrors of war, nuclear energy was seen as a sign of progress and technological achievement. The aim was never again to use nuclear power as a weapon, but for peaceful purposes. Especially for the production of electricity.
Not only large corporations, but also ordinary citizens were enthusiastic: there were so many possibilities! Who needed oil and gas that could easily catch fire and explode? Nuclear power was considered completely safe. And industry followed suit. There were even plans to power cars with small nuclear power plants in the future. Hydrogen had not been used since the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. It was too dangerous.
Nuclear power became an investment on a grand scale. Numerous nuclear power plants were built, and entire towns were built around them for the workers and their families. Family-friendly living and modern housing in close proximity to the reactors attracted thousands of people. As a result, many settlements grew into small towns. At the time, no one really knew how dangerous this was.
First Nuclear Accidents Before Chernobyl
In the 1960s and 1970s, however, attitudes toward nuclear power changed. It was not only experts who began to have reservations. The changing mood was also felt by the general public. Chernobyl was not the first major nuclear disaster, but it was one of the best known.
29 Years Before Chernobyl: Kyshtym Accident
The first known nuclear accident with devastating consequences occurred in May 1957. Although it is not often mentioned today, it was one of the largest nuclear disasters in history. Unlike later Chernobyl, Kyshtym was not a nuclear power plant for electricity generation. It was a fuel reprocessing plant. More precisely, the plant treated radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.
In May 1957, a fatal coolant leak occurred in one of the tanks. It was filled with highly radioactive liquid waste. There was a huge explosion that sent the radioactive material into the atmosphere. What happened next? Did nuclear power suffer its first serious setback? Were safety standards raised?
Unfortunately not. In fact, the incident was covered up by the government and only became known to the public in the 1970s through whistleblowers. The exact effects of this nuclear accident are still not officially known.
6 Years Before Chernobyl: Nuclear Meltdown at Three Mile Island
Another serious nuclear accident occurred some time later in Pennsylvania, USA. On March 28, 1979, a technical fault at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant led to a loss of coolant in the reactor core. Several fuel rods fell victim to the high temperatures of the ensuing core meltdown.
To prevent the reactor from exploding, the pressure was relieved from the vessel. An explosion was prevented by releasing the radioactive steam. The containment system worked as intended, limiting the release of radioactivity to the immediate vicinity of the nuclear power plant.
This successful emergency measure prevented the worst from happening, but the accident led to a definitive rethinking of nuclear power. The public became concerned: how safe are nuclear power plants?
Anti-Nuclear Movement and Environmental Awareness
Public opinion on nuclear power changed more and more, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Even before the Chernobyl nuclear accident, an increasingly strong anti-nuclear movement was forming. More and more people opposed the further expansion of nuclear power as a source of energy. The core issues of these protests are still familiar to us today:
- Problematic disposal of radioactive waste
- Risks to human health and the environment
- Environmental awareness and focus on renewable energy
Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Despite numerous protests and growing public awareness of the dangers of nuclear power plants, more and more plants were built. Nuclear power was particularly popular in the former Soviet Union.
Here, nuclear power scored over conventional coal-fired power plants with its significantly higher efficiency. As a result, more nuclear power plants were built in the Soviet Union. One of them was Chernobyl.
Pripyat: Life at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
From today's perspective, it may sound not only reckless, but downright absurd: but life in the immediate vicinity of nuclear power plants like Chernobyl was modern and pleasant. Entire workers' settlements grew into small towns. Modern living, short commutes to work, and a focus on family friendliness. It's no wonder that such settlements were very popular.
The modern workers' settlement of Prypiat was established in 1970. It was available to workers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and welcomed them and their families with open arms. Located about 100 km from today's Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the small settlement quickly grew to about 50,000 inhabitants. Prypiat was thus the size of Greifswald in northern Germany.
However, unlike many comparable towns, Prypiat had a very well-developed infrastructure. This included several schools and recreational facilities. The amusement park, which is probably one of the most photographed places in the settlement, is still well known today.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant: Facility
Chernobyl was considered the most modern and safest nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. Lessons had been learned from past mistakes, and the goal was to make the nuclear power plant's safety a top priority. A reasonable decision.
Nevertheless, in 1986 there was a huge explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And the plant was not one of the smaller ones, on the contrary. The destroyed reactor alone contained 200 tons of uranium, several kilograms of plutonium, and other radioactive material. Not in solid form, of course, but as a lava-like mass. Even today, the radiation around the reactor is about 100 times higher than our normal radiation exposure in Germany.
How did the Chernobyl explosion happen? Who is responsible and what happened after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster? We will answer these and other questions together. But first, let's take a look at how a nuclear power plant actually works.
How does a nuclear power plant work?
The way a nuclear power plant works may seem complicated at first – but it is not. The place where the interesting part of the process takes place is, as the name suggests, the nuclear reactor.
Water flows through this reactor while a reaction takes place. The nuclear fission gives off its energy to the water and it evaporates. This water vapor rises and drives the turbines above it.
The movement of the turbines soon causes the connected generators to run at full speed, eventually converting the energy from the nuclear fission into electricity. The steam then cools and condenses. The condensated water flows back into the reactor, where the reaction begins again.
Something very similar happens when coal or oil is burned. Also here, water is heated and the steam drives turbines, which transfer their kinetic energy to generators. This is how electricity is produced. However, nuclear power has a special feature: the energy density obtained is about 1 million times greater than that obtained by burning coal or oil. So it's no wonder that nuclear power has caused such a stir.
Special Features of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
In describing the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, we have already mentioned that it was one of the most modern. This is mainly due to one special feature. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant had a modern boiling water pressurized reactor. Interesting, but what does it mean?
Unlike other plants before it, the reactors did not have a single pressurized boiler. Instead, the Chernobyl plant was equipped with numerous pressure tubes containing nuclear fuel. Special control rods were used to control the chain reaction in the reactor. These control rods absorbed neutrons and were able to slow down or stop nuclear fission.
To do this, the rods were inserted into the reactor and absorbed neutrons. This slowed down the reaction until it was possible to stop nuclear fission completely. It was hoped that this system would provide additional safety at Chernobyl.
But Chernobyl had more to offer than just safety. Its performance was also unparalleled. The most advanced reactor technology enabled the reactor to achieve an electrical output of about one billion watts (1 gigawatt). This is roughly equivalent to the output of a modern coal-fired power plant. Chernobyl thus had the most powerful reactor in the world at the time.
So we have an extremely advanced and powerful reactor, which should also be extremely safe thanks to a new system. And yet this tragic accident happened. How could that be? What went wrong if the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was so modern and safe?
Chernobyl Disaster in 1989
Today we know: The real reason for the nuclear accident was a safety test. There was no failure of the plant under load, no wear and tear, just a single safety test that went wrong. But what exactly happened?
On April 26, 1986, the engineers in charge of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were given a routine task. They were to shut down the reactor for an inspection. In other words, simple maintenance. They took the opportunity to perform a small safety test on one of the Chernobyl reactors.
Chernobyl Accident: Just Safety Test
Their goal was to test the plant's behavior in the event of a power failure. Would all the automatic emergency measures work? After all, the plant was one of the most modern in the Soviet Union. There was no potential for danger.
Despite the lack of electricity, the remaining rotational energy of the turbo-generators should generate enough energy to start the emergency generators. With this residual energy, it should be possible to easily bridge a period of about 1 minute without electricity. Before this simulation, however, the reactor had to be shut down to 25% power. And when does a city usually use the least amount of electricity? At night or early in the morning.
Preparations began, and on the morning of April 25, 1986, engineers reduced the reactor's output by lowering the control rods into the core. The fission reaction was already slowing down when officials learned that the city of Kiev was unexpectedly consuming more electricity.
As a result, the safety test was postponed and postponed, until in the evening the go-ahead was given to reduce the reactor's output to the required 25%. The simulation of a blackout at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was thus imminent.
Problems at Chernobyl: Everything Under Control?
But there was a problem with the reactor. Its power did not remain stable, but continued to decrease. The simulation was supposed to start at a stable 25% of power, but this simply did not work. The engineers monitored the drop in power well into the night.
Then at midnight came the shift change. Those in charge were now perplexed by a reactor that was getting weaker and weaker. Even the new group of experts could not explain it. Not only was the power decreasing, but the reactor was no longer responding to the controls. It continued to shut down at its own pace.
In the end, the output was only about 1%. It was officially forbidden to restart the reactor. However, the senior engineers decided otherwise: a fatal mistake. They tried to bring the Chernobyl reactor back up to 25% so that the test could finally take place.
To do this, the engineers were instructed to gradually pull out the control rods. The power actually increased. Nuclear fission began again. But too slowly in the eyes of those in charge. They did not want any more delays. The inevitable happened: all the control rods were pulled out completely. The beginning of the end.
Chernobyl Reactor Explosion
Shortly after, everything went out of control. Control lights flashed, alarms sounded, the kind you only see in movies. The computer connected to the Chernobyl plant warned of an uncontrollable reactor reaction.
The only way out: an emergency shutdown of the reactor. The engineer in charge wanted to take this step immediately that night. But his supervisor saw the situation differently. He insisted on continuing the safety test. Even under these circumstances.
So the human part of the whole thing had failed, leaving only the technology. At that time, every nuclear power plant had automatic containment measures in the event of an accident. The problem was that when the Chernobyl plant was tested, all the safety measures were usually bypassed in order not to falsify the results. This meant that technology alone could not intervene to prevent what was to come.
So the simulation of the power failure was carried out as planned. The water pumps were driven only by the running generators. In the end, the entire system was not stable enough. As a result, less cooling water reached the reactor. Less cooling means a rising temperature. And that quickly became a problem.
It was only then that managers realized they needed to take urgent action. Their first reaction was to jerk the control rods back into place, all of them. The idea was to slow down the fission so that the remaining cooling water would be enough to stabilize everything. But there was one thing the engineers hadn't considered.
In theory, retracting the rods could have saved the situation, but a peculiarity of the pressurized boiling water reactor had to be taken into account. The abrupt retraction of a fully extended control rod caused a violent reaction in the reactor core. Only briefly, but strong enough for a spontaneous catastrophe.
Before the neurons could be absorbed by the rod, the power and heat shot up so violently that the system was suddenly overloaded. Even the immediate emergency shutdown and the insertion of all control rods could not stop the reaction.
The 2000 ton reactor head was blown off by the pressure of the explosion and flew 12 meters into the air. A column of smoke, consisting of gas and molten radioactive particles, rose to a height of 1,200 meters and spread rapidly as a cloud.
Chernobyl Disaster: First Hours After Accident
The accident had happened, and the consequences were unstoppable. But how was it dealt with? An immediate evacuation, an effort to quickly inform all the regions over which this radioactive cloud would pass? Perhaps other innovative measures to somehow contain it? Sadly, no. None of the above.
Chernobyl Firefighters: Tragic Heroes
The Chernobyl plant fire brigade was immediately called in to help. But only to extinguish the burning reactor. The fact that it was a nuclear accident was concealed from them – even though the radiation dose from the reactor was three times the lethal dose.
Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. They extinguished the fire next to Reactor 4 and also the burning Reactor 3. The high radiation dose caused all of them to die within a few days. Even today, any treatment would be ineffective at such high radiation levels.
The only way to survive such a dose in the vicinity of a power plant like Chernobyl is to take iodine tablets immediately. And even then, the chances of survival would be anything but high. The severity of the accident was concealed. There was no emergency evacuation of Prypiat in the first 24 hours. No one there suspected anything.
Reactor Explosion in Chernobyl: Evacuation and Exclusion Zone
It was not until the next day, the morning of April 27, 1986, that the first measures were taken to evacuate and contain the radiation around Chernobyl. Of course, it was already too late. All the residents of Prypiat were told by loudspeakers to pack their papers and provisions for a few days and get on the buses. Let's not forget: there were about 50,000 people.
A total of 1,200 buses were needed for the evacuation. No questions were answered. The government was also silent. But it was not only the people of Prypiat who had to leave the Chernobyl area. An area of 30 km around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was declared an exclusion zone. Another 120,000 people left their homes while precautions were taken to contain the radiation from Reactor 3.
Chernobyl After Accident: Containment by Liquidators
The Chernobyl disaster had long since run its course. Efforts were now made to minimize the damage. So-called liquidators were to ensure that further radiation from the reactor was contained. This is not easy, if not impossible.
Military helicopters were sent to drop sand and other materials over the Reactor 3 core. The goal was to bind non-reactive materials to the lava-like core and slow down further fission. But even from the air, the radiation over Chernobyl was still dangerous.
Each helicopter team had only 30 seconds to drop its material. Despite this short time over the Chernobyl reactor, many crew members suffered damage. One helicopter got stuck on a crane cable and crashed. All four people on board died. In total, the liquidators poured about 5,000 tons of sand, lead, boron, dolomite, and clay over the melted core.
Many of those involved suffered direct damage from the high doses of radiation. Some died after a few days, despite special treatment, while others died years later as a result of the high radiation exposure. It was mainly young men who were sent out, as it was assumed that their bodies would handle the radiation better. But it probably made no difference.
Period After Chernobyl Disaster
It was not until May 14 that the government made a public statement about the extent of the accident. This was only because neighboring countries gradually became aware of the strong radioactive cloud that once drifted across Europe. Previously, even the local media had assumed that it was a fire with no far-reaching consequences.
It should be noted that a radioactive cloud from a reactor core explosion rises much higher than the mushroom cloud from a bomb explosion. The contamination is more than twice as high as after the impact of an atomic bomb. This is what makes reactor accidents like Chernobyl so dangerous.
Within a few days, the radioactive cloud spread across Belarus, Sweden, and central, western, and southern Europe. Even today, there are regions where it is forbidden to eat or offer mushrooms and vegetables that store radioactivity in their fruiting bodies.
Tunneling Under Chernobyl
But the cloud was not the only problem. Another was eating away at the Chernobyl site. The radioactive mass in the reactor core still reached an average temperature of about 2,000 °C. It was slowly burning through the soil. And under the reactor, it could have reached the groundwater. Radioactive contamination of the groundwater would have been absolutely catastrophic.
To prevent this contamination, a tunnel was dug 12 meters below the plant. The tunnel was reinforced with concrete and filled with liquid nitrogen. This cold wall cut off the radioactive lava from its way down. But again, the workers responsible for the tunnel were seriously injured.
Chernobyl: Sarcophagus for Reactor
The immediate dangers of the remaining radioactive mass had been dealt with. Now it was time to pick up the pieces and think long term. In preparation for further radiation mitigation measures, the liquidators were initially tasked with clearing the area around the Chernobyl plant of radioactive material.
However, these 600,000 to 800,000 people did not wear any modern radiation suits. They didn't even know the extent of the danger they were exposing themselves to. They were not informed of the severity of the radiation exposure. Most of them became ill in the following months and years, and about 112,000 to 125,000 of them are believed to have died from the long-term effects of radiation.
While the liquidators were cleaning up the site, engineers were hard at work designing a 170-meter-long, 65-meter-high, 70-meter-wide concrete and steel structure: a sarcophagus for the exploded Chernobyl reactor. Using 300,000 tons of concrete and 7,000 tons of steel—significantly more steel than was used to build the Eiffel Tower—a massive above-ground tomb for the reactor was created.
The parts were assembled outside the danger zone and then assembled above the reactor. A huge system of pipes under the roof ensured that the reactor core could be sprayed with a mixture of drilling water to bind radioactive dust, without the workers themselves getting too close to the radiation source.
It took about six months to build the Chernobyl sarcophagus. And it was successful. The area around the plant was successfully shielded from further radiation. However, there was one problem: concrete and steel are also affected by radiation of this magnitude. Even before it was built, the Chernobyl colossus was expected to last only about 30 years.
New Safe Confinement (NSC) or Chernobyl Safe
In fact, it took less than 25 years for the first problems to appear. Radiation gradually dergraded the concrete. Chunks fell out, cracks and holes appeared, and radiation leaked out. Quick action was needed.
Engineers had been thinking about it for years, and the idea took shape. A gigantic steel and concrete structure was planned for Chernobyl. Much larger than the sarcophagus, it would be safer and more durable. A movable structure with a length of about 162 m, a width of 257 m, and a height of 108 m. This made it the largest movable structure in the world. For size comparison, Notre Dame Paris would easily fit underneath.
This Chernobyl safe was to completely enclose the reactor and reliably seal it off from the outside world in the future. The cost: more than 2 billion euros, an expensive undertaking. But the NSC also had a lot to offer in return.
Special features of the Chernobyl safe:
- Resistant to temperatures from -30 °C to +50 °C
- Withstands a magnitude 6 earthquake and a level 3 tornado
- Reduces radiation inside the building for future work and decontamination efforts
- Interior equipment allows access to specific areas of the reactor without risk of radiation exposure
Construction and Operation of NSC Tschernobyl:
Construction began in 2010, and the Chernobyl Shelter has been located above the reactor since 2016. The complete shielding of radiation has been proven successful. However, criticism has been voiced here and there. Was such a structure really necessary?
In fact, the radiation in the reactor was no longer that high. With and since the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, about 90% of the radioactive material had long since leaked out. And the remaining 10% had a rather moderate level of radiation. Such a huge vault would probably not have been necessary.
But the mere possibility of being able to implement such a protective measure in such a short time is undoubtedly reassuring. Even if, hopefully, we will never again need a radiation shelter like the one in Chernobyl.
Chernobyl Today: What's Next?
The dilapidated reactor under the Chernobyl Shelter was supposed to be completely dismantled by 2065. But that plan quickly came to a halt. It wasn't just the coronavirus pandemic that put a serious damper on the whole thing. As we know, Chernobyl is now in the Ukraine. And Russia declared war on it during the pandemic.
Dismantling and Occupation of Chernobyl in Ukraine War
Russian troops occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the 30 km exclusion zone around the plant. Although this Russian occupation of Chernobyl lasted only from February 24 to the end of March 2022, it had catastrophic consequences.
A number of facilities and equipment were destroyed or stolen. Among them was a laboratory used to study radioactive waste. Numerous documents and computers with their digital data were destroyed, vehicles were destroyed and blown up. An absolutely unnecessary level of violence that set back research and dismantling plans by years. And it was a fire hazard, because about 230 m³ of radioactive waste were stored there.
Until then, Chernobyl had been used as a central repository for the decommissioning and treatment of nuclear waste. However, the looting forced the Ukrainian Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend all licenses for several months until the necessary safety could be restored. First at the end of 2023, the projects for decontamination and final storage of nuclear waste were extended for another six years.
Memorial to 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is one of the world's best-known nuclear accidents. A year after the accident, the novel "The Cloud" by Gudrun Pausewang was published. It is a young adult novel that tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who was contaminated by a reactor explosion similar to the one in Chernobyl and lost both her mother and brother as a result.
What would happen if something like that happened near us? And what would such a nuclear disaster do to the survivors? These questions went around the world with the novel. Decades later, the story was made into a movie.
Even today, interest in the fate of the people of Prypiat has not waned. The settlement near Chernobyl is still talked about as a lost place. Since 2011 at the latest, the ghost town of Prypiat has been open to tourists with a permit. In 2017, a hostel was even opened there, where particularly daring urbexers can rent rooms.
In this context, several television teams were granted permission to film, including the German Galileo team, whose reports on Chernobyl we would like to recommend here. Also worth watching is the 2019 TV series "Chernobyl", which takes a comprehensive look at the Chernobyl nuclear accident and its consequences. The producers based it on real events and reports from contemporary witnesses. The series was awarded a Golden Globe in 2020.
Chernobyl: Life in Exclusion Zone
Chernobyl's other reactor units have also been decommissioned. The last one was shut down in 2000. Some of the houses in Prypiat have been renovated and are used as housing for workers. Otherwise, the area around Chernobyl was never completely deserted. Some residents of the region refused to leave their homes, then as now. Or they returned after the accident. As a result, some people still live inside the exclusion zone.
Animal Mutations in Chernobyl Region
The wildlife has also recovered since the Chernobyl accident. In fact, there are more species and individuals living there today than ever before. Despite the high radiation exposure, the animal kingdom seems to have adapted without any problems. Interesting anomalies or mutations caused by radiation continue to appear.
For example, it has been shown that immigrant wolves do not become more susceptible to cancer as a result of exposure to radiation, but actually build up genetic resistance to such diseases. A fact that could point the way forward for modern cancer research.
Can Chernobyl ever be resettled?
Not for next thousands of years. Although radiation levels in the areas around the reactor are steadily decreasing, it does not seem reasonable to repopulate Chernobyl for good. After all, the soil will remain contaminated for a long time. The consequences of the reactor explosion in Chernobyl will be felt for a long time to come. Humans are much less able to cope with the increased radiation than animals and plants.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still the largest nuclear accident in our history. This event is still affecting the lives of people all over Europe. Even thousands of years after us, mushrooms will still be absorbing radiation from the soil before being eaten by wild boars, which will also absorb the radioactivity along with them.
Black Fungus in Chernobyl Reactor
An interesting fact is a black fungus that has been growing in the destroyed reactor block since 1991. Exactly where the deadly radiation should have made life impossible. And the most exciting thing about it is that it seems to feed on radioactivity in order to grow faster. It does this by decomposing the radioactive material in its environment.
In the future, this fungus could be used to help cancer patients or to better protect spacecraft in space from radiation. With further research into such organisms, it is conceivable that we could one day find ways to make radioactively contaminated areas usable again for humans. So there is still hope for Prypiat, the ghost town near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Rehabilitation: Victims of Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster caused a sensation not only in Europe, but around the world. And, above all, for a definitive rethinking of nuclear power. The unfortunate combination of human error and faulty technical innovation led to the worst nuclear disaster in our history.
The worst hit were the liquidators. The operation was a real suicide mission. Many of them did not even know what they were getting into and were exposed to this devastating radiation without any protective clothing.
Whether in their helicopters, as miners digging the tunnel under the reactor, or as cleanup crews after the disaster, many of them died from the radiation, whether days or decades later from the long-term effects. There are no exact figures on the number of deaths at Chernobyl. In 1986 itself, the number of direct victims of the Chernobyl reactor explosion rose from 2 to 31.
To date, there have been 50 confirmed cases of death directly related to the nuclear accident. Of these, 15 are children who died of thyroid cancer. Caused directly by radiation exposure following the accident. 137 other people suffered from acute radiation sickness.
The memorial to the firefighters, who were the first to try to prevent the worst in Chernobyl, is representative of all the liquidators. But also for people who desperately tried to limit the consequences during and after the disaster.
Engineers Proskuryakov and Kudryavtsev left the control room after the explosion to find the control rods. They hoped to push them back into the reactor by hand to slow down the reaction so that the escaping radiation would decrease. In the end, they were both fatally irradiated the moment they looked into the exposed reactor core. They died a few weeks later.
Chief reactor engineer Toptunov also received a fatal dose of radiation when he tried to restore the water supply to the reactor. However, it was too late to get the cooling water into the melting reactor core.
These and many other people risked and ultimately lost their lives doing everything they could to somehow contain the consequences of the reactor accident. But at the time, no one expected a disaster of this magnitude.
Conclusion: What remains of the Chernobyl disaster?
What remains are the fates of people who are still alive today. In spite of our fast-moving media world. Even today, the safety of nuclear power plants is no more advanced than it was at the time of the Fukushima incident in 2011.
As a result, Germany decided to phase out nuclear power completely. The last three German nuclear power plants have been gradually shut down and will be closed in 2023. In other countries, especially where alternative energy sources are scarce, nuclear power is still ubiquitous. Hardly any other process produces so much energy with so little effort. Safety is often only an issue when something goes wrong.
We need only remember the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as a warning. Especially in the construction industry, safety is an aspect that undoubtedly deserves the highest priority. In the case of power plants in general, the responsibility borne by engineers is particularly heavy. After all, one mistake can have devastating consequences.
This burden on our shoulders should be treated accordingly. Not only by engineers and other stakeholders, but also by the general public, politicians, and the media. During the war in Ukraine, there was even talk of reconnecting nuclear power plants to the network to compensate for the lack of gas supplies from Russia. Such a shortage should never lead to the serious consideration of a return to nuclear power in Germany, which is potentially dangerous for the whole of Europe.
Safety comes before profit and profitability. There have to be other ways than nuclear power. Always. Because nuclear power plants are not safe, they will never be safe. The use of nuclear energy is too prone to problems and even a small mistake can lead to catastrophes.
In the case of Chernobyl, it was bad decisions and innovative plants that had a serious flaw. As a result, what should have been a simple safety test turned into the world's worst nuclear disaster – with scores of victims and radiation that will linger for thousands of years in far-flung areas.
We should never forget these facts when we are worried about the next electricity bill. And politicians should keep in mind the long-term consequences they are playing with when they use the solar lamps in the Bundestag to debate whether we should turn on our nuclear power plants again to get energy as cheaply as possible. Sunlight, wind and water power are free. Nuclear power costs lives.
