tokaimura nuclear accident essays

tokaimura nuclear accident essays To understand what happens in accidents you must first understand how reactors work. All nuclear accidents are unique and are not usually caused by the same problem some for example some are caused by equitment failure like in the Three Islands Plant in Pennsylvania, and some are caused by ignoring a simple test which was not administered correctly at Cherynobyl. Whatever the cause may be nuclear energy is still too cost effective to stop for a few accidents. Tokaimura is another accident which was caused by human error and is the focus of this research paper. Tokaimura is the worst nuclear accident ever to occur in Japan How does a nuclear reactor work you might say well a reactor produces and controls the release of energy from atoms, by splitting the atomic nuclei nuclear fission: fission is the splitting of one atom usually of uranium or plutonium to produce two smaller but equally massive parts. The fission process releases a large quantity of thermal energy as well as gamma rays and two or more free neutrons. These free neutrons fission other uranium nuclei which in turn give off neutrons that split still more nuclei this is called a chain reaction. In a nuclear power reactor the energy released is used to generate electricity which then in turn is spread to anyone who needs power. This is where Einsteins theory of relation comes in a little mass times the speed of light squared yields lots of energy. Now what went wrong at Tokaimura on the morning of September 30th 1999? This morning was a normal morning not unlike any other in the past three workers at the plant were finishing up purifying the uranium oxide they were processing to mke fuel rods the fast Japan Joyo research reactor. The three were working with a 18.8 percent pure concentration of uranium 235 instead of the normal 5 percent pure so they were unexpierienced with the higher concetrated ...