THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER AND ETHICS West Virginia University EE 481 Group #10 Spring 2014 Floyd Baker - Matt Logue - Stuart Christie

 Saturday, 26 April 1986  Reactor #4 of Chernobyl Plant  Near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine  Close Proximity to Belarus and the Dnieper River  Actual modern location is in the Ukraine  Widely considered to be worst Nuclear Power Plant accident in history  The only other comparable event is the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

 Began as a systems test  Unexpected power surge  Emergency shutdown was attempted  Larger power spike occurs  Reactor rupture and steam explosions  Graphite explosion  Nuclear fallout  Effects continue today

 31 deaths attributed to directly to accident  64 confirmed deaths from radiation as of 2008  Many more could die from effects of radiation  400 times more radioactive material than Hiroshima  Immediate and long lasting effects of flora and fauna  Thyroid cancer is a major issue in the affected areas  Massive economic effects

 The staff and engineers violated the following NSPE code of ethics:  “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public”

 The nuclear engineers should have contained the reactor area properly in case of the explosion.  This would contained the radiation and kept it from spreading to such a large area

 The Engineers at Chernobyl could have designed the RBMK reactor very differently:  Avoid positive temperature coefficient of reactivity  Not putting moderator on the tips of control rods  Use a SCRAM system that responds in seconds instead of minutes  Add automatic lockouts to prevent operators from performing actions known to create unstable operating conditions  Provide a containment building

 Tracking food expiration dates  Users who have food allergies  Users on diet plans  Users on a budget  User data privacy

 Provide early warning to users that foods they have are going to expire soon  Warn users if a food they are buying contains an ingredient they are allergic to  Warn users if they are buying foods that are outside of their diet plan restrictions  Warn users if they are spending more than the budget they set for themselves  Implement database security