Hazards in Infrastructure - Case Study Example

Civil Nuclear power was introduced in the world to be generating a large amount of energy using a small quantity of uranium fuel. The generation of electricity was seen as the major advantage of the Nuclear power plants and the risks associated with these plants were not given a lot of consideration basing on the investigations that were done after the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. This article will discuss the hazards of the two accidents and assess the risks that are linked to Nuclear Power Plants.

It will also view how the current organizations like the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators (INPO) in the United States, the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), and IAEA are being responsible to certify and monitor the designs of the Nuclear Power Plants.The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is situated on the border area between Ukraine and Belarus. The failure at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) happened in the early hours of 26 April 1986. It occurred after a testing error of a turbo generator that caused an explosion at the Chernobyl power station that was situated in northern Ukraine.

After this explosion, it was followed by a radioactive fire that burned for ten days, where 190 tons of toxic materials were released into the atmosphere and through the wind, 70% of the radioactive material was blown over large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. Up to today, the people of Belarus are still suffering the effects of the failure, they suffer medically, economically, environmentally, and socially. The explosion that happened was so intense, that the radiation that was released was 100 times more than the atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When the failure occurred, many families continued to live in the contaminated areas about 7 million people and many still live in these contaminated areas even today.