One of the most horrific disasters after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing was ‘Chernobyl’ which happened in the USSR on 26th April, 1986. It occurred at the No. 4 Nuclear Plant in Chernobyl near a city known as Pripyat. It was a really bad disaster, with the radiations reaching as high as 7 on the nuclear scale, which is considered hazardous for any living being be it an animal or a human. This nuclear plant was built mainly for providing electricity to the city and was supposed to be tested by a team of personnel. But, as it is seen by the disaster occurring, the personnel were totally unqualified for performing the tests on the nuclear plant. This was the only disaster that occurred due to technical problems in a thing as sensitive as a nuclear reactor which requires utmost care. USSR lost many lives as a nation in Chernobyl. People within 100 miles of Chernobyl got affected due to the humungous amount of radiation and it is highly imaginable what would have happened to the people who lived near Chernobyl! People could not even evacuate in time which caused deaths within a very short span of time. But after some precautions were taken, around 48000 people were evacuated and then the radius of the evacuation was increased.
I personally feel that this disaster could have been prevented had the government paid more attention to its technical personnel. It should have trained them better and educated them more on the nuclear reactions, uranium and the precautions that are supposed to be taken while handling something as sensitive as uranium which could harm millions with just its radiation floating in the air. Though the government had good intentions for the product, as a nuclear plant could generate a lot of electricity and the places which could not receive electricity at all would have it. But it failed in the core thing of a topic as important as the protection of its own citizens! Currently in 2019 there is a new accident related to Nuclear Energy that happened in the city of Sarov, Russia. The country was hardly aware of the disaster; the weather report alerted the citizens of isotopes in the air signifying danger for the citizens. It was regarded as the “New Chernobyl of Russia”. In my view the government is highly irresponsible as it let another accident happen which was similar to Chernobyl. The government has not learnt anything from its past mistakes.
