Introduction
Technological developments have caused a lot of environmental disasters across the globe. The disasters come in various ways whose effects including global warming and diseases such as cancer. The Chernobyl disaster is one of the incidents that had never been experienced before the mid 20th century. It was also a nuclear accident that had never been experienced among the few nuclear power accidents that ever happen. This accident caused incalculable effects through its radiation. The accident occurred in April 1986. The cause of the disaster was a faulty design that caused a nuclear reactor to overheat and explode. The inadequate safety preparations and poor communication worsened the disaster. This paper discusses the issues related to this disaster. It discusses the ethical aspects during and after this situation and the effects thereafter (Ingram, 2005).
Ethical issues surrounding the disaster
The biggest problem of engineering ethics may be the difficulty of speaking the truth to power. Nuclear disasters occur less regularly because it uses improved technology. However, there are several issues concerned with ethical situations. Nuclear power generation plants are known to have disadvantages that usually arise from these ethical situations (Sands 1988). For instance, waste management, principles, scope, discounting, moral and risk assessment, uncertainty, and risk reduction can be detrimental if not taken with care (Wellington et al. 1997).
In the Chernobyl disaster, construction issues were surrounding the entire nuclear power plant. According to a report by a commission done in March 1979, a close examination of the building that housed the plant was in a bad state. The constructors of the plant violated the construction technology and there were plenty of design deviations. The structures had not been built according to the original design. The technical standards were low as well as the quality of construction (Frolov 1979). For instance, the pillars of the room that housed the generator were erected with significant deviations. There were also no horizontal connections in that particular room. Other deviations were also found in the wall panels. The waterproofing system was also damaged. According to a report by the deputy head of the construction, the damaged waterproof system is what caused underground seepage into the plant thereby polluting the environment (Group 5, 2008).
In addition, there was a lack of safety culture. This lack of safety culture resulted in the inability of the relevant plant operators to remedy design weaknesses. The nuclear plant also lacked the emergency procedures to deal with large-scale disasters. The staff at this nuclear power plant never acted in an egoistic way. The workers had no proper knowledge of operating technical equipment. This means that the company did not give them proper training. It is thus critical for any organization that uses technical equipment to train the workers (Park 1989).
As a result, the ethical flaws caused environmental contamination thereby killing more than 30 people and affecting millions of others. It is reported that six people out of every million suffered from cancer before the occurrence of the accident. The aftermath of this accident was more disastrous. The most effective approach to such kind of disaster was to prevent the disaster from happening. This would have been done by correcting the flaws such as those that were in the generator room and the deviation of the pillars. It would also have been more appropriate for the plant operators to receive adequate training before they were allowed to handle technical equipment. It is also important for the nuclear plant operators to do rigorous checkups at regular intervals to identify flaws in the plant. This is also true in any other organization (ReVelle & ReVelle 1992).
Sustainability analysis
Any nuclear power plant needs to put certain control measures to sustain a particular disaster most professionally. Such measures are more or less the same as preventive and remediation measures in case of an accident or incident. This is because the effects of this accident were far-reaching (Skizypek 2011). They are still being felt as we speak. There have been several types of research done to ascertain the extent of the repercussions. Some research shows that there is still an exclusion zone that totals 30 square kilometers around the area of the Chernobyl disaster. Radiation is also believed to have been a major cause of several instances of cancer (the Black Sea, n.d). It is therefore important for certain measures to be taken to prevent such instances from occurring in any nuclear power plant. In the case of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the plant operators must express profound concern at the ongoing effects of the consequences of the accident (Brechignnac2001).
The consensus reached among members of the Chernobyl forum on the findings of the report and the recognition of the importance of the contributions made by the forum in the overall assessment of the environmental, health and socioeconomic effect of the Chernobyl disaster attests to the fact that a lot is being done to prevent another similar occurrence. It is also critical to acknowledge the importance of the national efforts being undertaken by the governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine to mitigate and minimize the effects of the Chernobyl disaster (Salmon 2008). It is worth noting that civil society organizations including the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Russian Federation and Ukraine and the international federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies were quite responsive to the Chernobyl disaster. The stakeholders have also emphasized the importance of new developmental approaches to tackling the problems caused by the Chernobyl accident. The emphasis aim at normalizing the situation of the individuals and communities concerned in the medium and long term. According to a report by the United Nations, there is a lot that still needs to be done to prevent such kinds of accidents from happening again. There needs to be coordination by UNDP and improved resource mobilization by the United Nations system to support the activities of the International Chernobyl Research and Information Network. The findings of the Chernobyl forum should also be disseminated and other measures should be put in place for further strengthening of international cooperation to prevent such instances from happening (United Nations 2007).
Conclusion
Nuclear disasters come in various ways whose effects including global warming and diseases such as cancer. The Chernobyl disaster is one of the incidents that had never been experienced before the mid 20th century. Nuclear disasters occur less regularly because it uses improved technology. However, there are several issues concerned with ethical situations. Nuclear power generation plants are known to have disadvantages that usually arise from these ethical situations. Any nuclear power plant needs to put certain control measures to sustain a particular disaster most professionally. Such measures are more or less the same as preventive and remediation measures in case of an accident or incident. The findings of the Chernobyl forum should be disseminated and other measures should be put in place for further strengthening of international cooperation to prevent such instances from happening.
Reference List
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