In recent years, the scale of environmental hazards has been growing,
emergencies occur more often at special facilities, in particular nuclear power, the
largest of which was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine
on April 26, 1986. With the advent of nuclear power, it was believed that nuclear power reactors
were safe enough, control and monitoring systems, protective screens and trained
personnel would guarantee their trouble-free operation. There is also a trend now
that nuclear power is ""environmentally friendly"" because it provides a reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions with replacing power plants working on fossil fuels. Some
countries, such as the United States, have recently classified nuclear energy as a
renewable energy source. Despite this, nuclear power is potentially dangerous due to: - possible accidents at power plants, accompanied by the ejection of
radioactive materials into the environment; - ejections of about 250 radioactive isotopes into the environment as a result
of the operation of nuclear reactors; - emissions of 85Kr, which changes the electrical conductivity of the
atmosphere. This gas behaves like a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, thereby
contributing to anthropogenic climate change on Earth; - pollution of the biosphere with plutonium; - radioactive waste is the most important cause of environmental hazard,
which remains unresolved. Civilian nuclear power reactors operating throughout the
world annually generate large amounts of low-, medium- and high-level radioactive
waste. Radioactive pollution accompanies all parts of the complex production of
nuclear energy: the extraction and processing of uranium, the operation of nuclear
power plants, the storage and regeneration of fuel, which has a significant impact on
the environmental friendliness of nuclear energy. In addition, up to 300 natural and technogenic emergencies are registered
annually, as a result of which people die and great economic damage is caused. The
main reasons for the occurrence of technogenic accidents and catastrophes and the
strengthening of the negative impact due to the occurrence of natural and
technogenic emergencies in Ukraine are: obsolete fixed assets, in particular for
environmental purposes; large volume of transportation, storage and use of
hazardous substances; the emergency state of a significant part of public utility
networks; insufficient investment support for the process of introducing the latest
resource-saving and environmentally friendly technologies in environmentally
hazardous industries, primarily in the metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical and
energy sectors; environmental problems associated with significant changes in the
state of the geological and hydrogeological environment and caused by the closure
of unprofitable mining enterprises and mines; unwillingness of economic subjects to
take measures to prevent accidents and catastrophes at high-risk and potentially
hazardous facilities.
