Word: reactor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...month, the name of a once obscure Soviet plant has become a global household word, a new entry on the list of late-20th century technological disasters and a rallying cry for all those who fear and oppose nuclear power. The April 26 explosion and fire that destroyed reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine spread radioactive fallout around much of the world. Now the accident is transforming the East-West political climate and perhaps altering diplomatic relations between the U.S. and its European allies...
...Soviets for first concealing the disaster from the world and then providing scant information. Many Soviet citizens are also resentful because they were not warned of the danger until more than a week after the accident. Residents of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, 80 miles from the crippled reactor, took no safety precautions in the same period. Many now fear that they suffered radiation damage. Some pregnant women are reportedly being advised by doctors to have abortions...
...Advanced reactors under development in the U.S., Europe and Japan may prove more promising. Known as "inherent safety" devices, all are designed to eliminate vulnerable cooling systems and human errors and shut down immediately in case of malfunction. One such machine is being developed at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago. Any sudden rise in temperature will halt the experimental reactor within minutes. The system performed flawlessly in its initial test last April. A similar Swedish unit called PIUS (Process Inherent Ultimate Safety) floods with water in the event of a mishap; the boron-treated liquid instantly stops the reactor...
Thousands of laborers set about sealing off the reactor and cleaning up nearby areas last week. Helicopters continued to drop tons of sand, lead and boron onto the reactor each day to keep radiation from reaching the air. On the ground, crews worked to seal off the 570 degrees mass from the soil and water below. The news agency TASS reported that at one crucial point, three men in protective garments dove into a pool that had collected beneath the reactor and opened valves to let the water out. That ended the danger that the reactor could fall into...
Ivan Yemilianov, a senior designer of the stricken unit, said Soviet engineers planned to entomb the reactor in concrete for hundreds of years to allow the radioactive substances to decay. The scheme will require workers to pump an insulating layer of liquid-nitrogen refrigerant into a tunnel just beneath the reactor. The crippled unit will then be encased within a concrete barrier that will descend 96 ft. into the ground. Engineers were also spreading a plastic film over some 300,000 sq. yds. of soil a day to prevent further contamination and hold tainted earth in place...