Engineering Disasters
As talented as engineers may be, it is inventible that during their career they might make a mistake. As humans, it is known that one is not perfect and is more than capable of making the wrong decisions. There are a few engineers who were so closed minded and arrogant that their actions have lead to engineering disasters. Some of those engineers were in control room 4 on the faithful night of April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). Little did they know that the disaster that would occur on that night would be considered the worst of its kind. This horrific incident was due to the events leading up to it, the engineering design flaws in the power plant and the codes of conduct …show more content…
The water in the separator drums had reached a dangerously low level. This problem was something that the engineers were used to, so they decided to ignore it. 22 minutes before 1 am that day, Anatoly Dyatlov would make a mistake that would lead to severe consequences. When he noticed that the reactors ' power had come to a complete stop, instead of closing the reactor and starting again, he ordered the engineers to pull the control rods. By doing this he didn’t realize that the engineers would lose control over the boron control rods in the reactors. The engineers working below him did not worry too much as it was said among the power plant employees that the chance of an accident actually happening in Chernobyl was one in ten million per year (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). Although their estimate may have been correct, one thing that they did not consider was the inadequate construction of the power plant. The shortcuts taken during construction would lead to an issue that nobody in the control room would realize until it was too late. Since Anatoly Dyatlov ordered the control rods to be pulled, a few of them were only partially inserted, …show more content…
The director and senior managers of the plant even rushed to finish construction in order to receive bonuses on their salary during the 1970s. This resulted in many shortcuts being made in the construction of the plant and the reactor in order to ensure that they would meet the deadlines. For example, in terms of safety, the plant was supposed to install fireproof material on the roof of the reactors but they instead chose to leave it out in order to reduce construction time. None of the staff were aware of these shortcuts because the head staff would ensure all the accidents were covered up and not known to the general public (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). This sense of irresponsibility and urgency was even present on the night of the test, as Anatoly Dyatlov forced the engineers working to set power to two hundred Megawatts instead of seven hundred to a thousand Megawatts, which was the regulated standard for these tests. This was done to ensure that they could perform the tests faster, more frequently and more efficiently. The main engineering design flaw was the reactor itself. Reactor number 4 was built using the RBMK design (RBMK Reactors). This design was used because it was known to produce more
As talented as engineers may be, it is inventible that during their career they might make a mistake. As humans, it is known that one is not perfect and is more than capable of making the wrong decisions. There are a few engineers who were so closed minded and arrogant that their actions have lead to engineering disasters. Some of those engineers were in control room 4 on the faithful night of April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). Little did they know that the disaster that would occur on that night would be considered the worst of its kind. This horrific incident was due to the events leading up to it, the engineering design flaws in the power plant and the codes of conduct …show more content…
The water in the separator drums had reached a dangerously low level. This problem was something that the engineers were used to, so they decided to ignore it. 22 minutes before 1 am that day, Anatoly Dyatlov would make a mistake that would lead to severe consequences. When he noticed that the reactors ' power had come to a complete stop, instead of closing the reactor and starting again, he ordered the engineers to pull the control rods. By doing this he didn’t realize that the engineers would lose control over the boron control rods in the reactors. The engineers working below him did not worry too much as it was said among the power plant employees that the chance of an accident actually happening in Chernobyl was one in ten million per year (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). Although their estimate may have been correct, one thing that they did not consider was the inadequate construction of the power plant. The shortcuts taken during construction would lead to an issue that nobody in the control room would realize until it was too late. Since Anatoly Dyatlov ordered the control rods to be pulled, a few of them were only partially inserted, …show more content…
The director and senior managers of the plant even rushed to finish construction in order to receive bonuses on their salary during the 1970s. This resulted in many shortcuts being made in the construction of the plant and the reactor in order to ensure that they would meet the deadlines. For example, in terms of safety, the plant was supposed to install fireproof material on the roof of the reactors but they instead chose to leave it out in order to reduce construction time. None of the staff were aware of these shortcuts because the head staff would ensure all the accidents were covered up and not known to the general public (Zero Hour Disaster at Chernobyl). This sense of irresponsibility and urgency was even present on the night of the test, as Anatoly Dyatlov forced the engineers working to set power to two hundred Megawatts instead of seven hundred to a thousand Megawatts, which was the regulated standard for these tests. This was done to ensure that they could perform the tests faster, more frequently and more efficiently. The main engineering design flaw was the reactor itself. Reactor number 4 was built using the RBMK design (RBMK Reactors). This design was used because it was known to produce more