Maintenance Management of Energy Industry - Chernobyl - Case Study Example

Running header: Maintenance Management of Energy Industry (Chernobyl) Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Maintenance Management of Energy Industry (Chernobyl) Introduction Safety is the condition of being free from dangers or injuries. Safety is those activities that look for ways of reducing or eliminating conditions that are hazardous and those which can cause injuries to the body. Occupational safety involves those areas or locations where people work including manufacturing plants and energy industries among others. There are several causes of accidents in industries that range from unsafe conditions and unsafe acts. Plant maintenance is extremely important in all industries and more importantly energy industries. Safety management should be embraced by every person from management to the machine operators. Chernobyl nuclear accident was caused by errors from both the design of machines and human errors. They are several sources of energy in the world that includes renewable sources and non-renewable sources. Causes of Accidents in Energy Industries In order to know the main factors behind the accidents in the industries, there is need to brainstorm various causes so as to know which ones are major than others. There are several acts that cause accidents in industries. They are specific acts that cause accidents in industries. However, they are specific acts and factors that can be attributed to those accidents. They are classified into two major groups that include unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. The main causes and factors of accidents in energy industries are brainstormed below. 1. Unsafe conditions are the situations that arise in any working industry causing occurrence of accidents. Unsafe conditions rarely cause accidents hence we cannot classify them to be the main factors behind many energy industries accidents. Therefore, unsafe conditions cannot be said to be the main cause or factor behind accidents in the energy industries. 2. Unsafe acts are activities done by human beings ranging from design and operation of the designed equipment. Unsafe acts are the main acts associated with many accidents. However, not all unsafe acts are associated with the high number of accidents. Some of them rarely cause accidents. Unsafe acts can be associated with human error, machine failure, operating under abnormal conditions, and Poor maintenance management or lack of appropriate approaches by maintenance management. Unsafe acts have been the major reason behind major accidents in the energy industries. However, not all unsafe acts are behind the accidents that take place in the energy industries. I. Operating under abnormal conditions also results in many industrial accidents. This cannot be blamed on high number of accidents in energy industries. This can be canceled out among the major causes of the accidents when compared to others below. II. Although machine failure is part of unsafe act that cause accidents, it is not the key factor that the accidents are based on. However, they cause accidents in some occasions due to poor construction and maintenance as well as poor design of equipments that may cause machine malfunction. Comparing to others, it is not a major factor that contributes or lead to accidents. III. Poor maintenance management is another cause of accidents in energy industries. However, this does not contribute significantly to a lot of accidents. This as well cannot be attributed to be a major cause of accident hence cannot be referred so as major cause of accident. IV. The main cause of unsafe acts is human errors; they contribute to a greater extent the largest number of accidents in energy industries. Human error is the failure to observe safety measures; this is also attributed to accidents in energy industries. After brainstorming all other causes, unsafe acts and in particular human error can be blamed on the high number of accidents in several energy industries. Human error is the greatest factor that has caused many accidents even in main nuclear accidents like Chernobyl nuclear accident (Online Lawyer Source, 2010). According to the brainstorming above, human error has been found to be the main factor behind many accidents that take place in the energy industries. This is also the case with other industries that are not specifically energy industries. Safety department should focus and emphasize on the need to maintain all machines or equipments including keen observation and maintenance of safety procedures. Maintenance and safety department should collaborate to ensure that they work together towards creating awareness to all people. They require stressing on the importance of maintaining safety of high standards (Benjamin, 1994). Plant maintenance is one of the main factors that need to be taken seriously in order to reduce incidences of accidents. Plant maintenance can greatly reduce several accidents that may occur if controlled or looked after well. There should be all efforts towards reducing accidents that may occur. There is also need to reduce human errors by taking into consideration proper maintenance procedures through maintenance and safety departments. This will assist in the accomplishment of proper maintenance procedures and processes. This will help towards preventing the accidents and serious effects that may take place especially with nuclear industries. The aftermath that occurs due to leakage of radiation material to atmosphere causes great effects to a human being and surrounding environment. Therefore, plant engineers should take all precaution measures to ensure safety is observed, and necessary maintenance measures are taken into consideration. Engineers should act professionally in order to be able to maintain high standards of safety. They should be guided by ethics in order to perform accordingly and in adherence to the required safety measures. Nuclear energy industries should conform to the policies and requirements by Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Alternative Sources of Energy There are numerous energy sources for consumer and industrial uses. They include renewable and non-renewable sources of power. Renewable energy sources of power include wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and bio-fuel. Renewable energy sources are advantageous in that they are green and cleaner forms of energy. They have minimum effects on the environment compared to fossil fuels; they do not cause global warming or release emissions to the environment. Other advantages are that their sources are finite and they do not get exhausted and they are more sustainable. Renewable energy can be used repeatedly without depleting. Facilities used in renewable energy sources involve less maintenance. This makes cost of operation to be cheap. However, they are several disadvantages associated with renewable sources of energy. Generating large quantities of electricity is not possible with renewable energy sources as compared to non-renewable energy sources. Unreliable sources are another disadvantage of renewable energy. Most of them rely on weather and climatic conditions. Hydropower relies on water supply; wing energy relies on the wind to turn turbines while solar energy requires sunshine to make electricity. All these climatic factors are inconsistent and unpredictable. New technology on renewable energy sources has extremely large cost of initial cost (Alternative Energy Sources, 2007). Non-renewable sources are those not renewable when used. They become exhausted when used. They include fossil fuels (natural gas, coal and natural gas), nuclear sources and biomass. Non-renewable sources are easily distributed, and their availability is excellent. Non-renewable sources of energy like fossil fuels generate energy easily because they require direct combustion that is normally simple. However, there are greatest contributors of the global warming and other environmental pollution impacts. Their exploration is also expensive and more involving. Non-renewable sources of energy are also greatest cause of acid rains. Non-renewable sources of energy are depreciating at an extremely high rate due to high exploration and demand. They run out from their sources. Non-renewable sources become exhausted at a very high rate hence decreasing in volume than they are being generated naturally (Alternative Energy Sources, 2010). Uranium Oxide Purification Process Uranium undergoes four processing steps in order to convert to solid ceramic fuel pellets from an ore. The first process is mining and milling. There are several mining ways used, and include in-situ, undermining and surface mining. Milling involves purification and concentration of Uranium. Mined ores of uranium is grinded into small particles whereby acid is added in order to extract uranium through chemical leaching. Solvents are used to remove uranium from ore which results to uranium oxide referred as yellow cake. This then undergoes filtering and drying. The second process is called conversion. Chemicals are used to convert yellow cake to uranium hexafluoride (UF6). This helps in separating U-235 atoms from the atoms of U-238. The uranium hexafluoride is heated in order to get gas that is loaded into cylinders. It cools and condenses in the cylinders to form solid. The third process is enrichment where U-235 with 0.71 percent natural uranium. This is not capable of sustaining chain reaction hence need to be enriched in order to use them as a nuclear fuel. Enrichment technologies used are gas centrifuge and gaseous diffusion. Gas diffusion involves passing natural UF6 gas through diffusion barriers under high pressure. This permit passage of 235UF6 atoms that is lighter than 238UF6 atoms. U-235 percentage is increased from 1 percent to 3-5 percent through an enrichment process. The last process is the fabrication; this takes place after enrichment (Energy Information Administration, (2006). Uranium hexafluoride is changed to uranium dioxide powder by fabricator which then compresses it to form fuel pellets. Fabricator loads pellets into long tubes that are made of materials that are non-corrosive. A group of bundles form fuel assembly. Diagram 1 Flow Diagram of Uranium Oxide Purification Process Figure 1 Flow Diagram of Uranium Oxide Purification Process from Energy Information Administration, (2006). Mistakes by Technicians in Chernobyl nuclear Plant Chernobyl accident of 1986 can be said to have resulted from some errors. According to the research that was done by various organizations, it was concluded that the accident resulted from errors by technicians. It was a gross violation of operating regulations by technicians. Technicians were preparing, and testing turbine generator using the auxiliary load under run-down conditions at the site when accident occurred. Personnel disconnected some series of technical systems of protection at the same moment. This was a breach of most vital provision of operational safety when conducting a technical exercise. This was mainly due to lack of nuclear reactor physics knowledge as well as lack of training and experience. The reactor was not supposed to be operated while several keys systems are shut off. The most notable was Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS). This may be a clear indication that the personnel had insufficient understanding of nuclear reactor procedures. There was also insufficient communication between operators who were doing the experiment that night and safety officers (Larry West, 2009. Equipment and Design Flaws Plant accident was not only caused by human errors, but there were flaws of the equipments and design used. The reactor was said to have a dangerously large positive void coefficient. Measurement of Reactor responds to steam formation increment in the water coolant is the one referred as void coefficient. Most designs of reactors have a negative coefficient unlike the one that was being used at Chernobyl plant. Negative coefficient reactor attempt to reduce heat output when reactor vapor phase increases. The design of control rods was also found to have significant flaws. Control rods are mainly used to slow reaction. The control rods’ lower parts were made using graphite with 1.3 meters shorter than required. The spaces below control rods were hollow and filled with water. The rod’s upper section absorbs neutron hence halting the reaction. The upper parts of the used section were made of boron carbide. This type of design makes rods displace some coolant with graphite parts when inserted from uppermost position when inserted into the reactor. This leads to increased fission reaction rate because graphite a more potent neutron moderator. Therefore, reactor output power is increased within first seconds of controlling activation of rods. This is opposite to what is desired in that power output of the reactor should be reduced other than being increased as it happened. This was also a cause of the accident a problem that reactor operators were not aware (Frederic, Agnes & John, 2009). Diagram 2 Functioning of control rods and cooling system As a plant engineer, I would have taken several steps in trying to avoid and reduce those accidents. Safety observation would be my first priority. I would ensure that every detailed safety step is taken seriously and into consideration. Inspection of control rods would be a must in order to ensure only the best are used. I would ensure that the operators observe strictly all the required measures. Mobilization of operators and creating safety awareness among them would be my first steps in trying to reduce any accidents that may occur due to errors. Maintenance Management Management could have created awareness of the type of risks involved in the plant. The management should as well have created safety system and program that is more of safety culture to be observed by all operators. This would involve all the operators in every department. Inspection of all control rods and other parts before the start of operation would be another way or strategy of reducing accidents. These are some of the ways which the management could have implemented and adopted towards reducing such accidents. Plant management is of importance to me. It has enabled me learn methods of preventing and reducing risks. I have learned on how to implement techniques of risk management as well as safety management operations. I have also gained knowledge on how to monitor the systems of operation as well as reinforcing safety measures in any working place. Radiation Exposure Rad is a metric unit for measuring radiation dose. Rad means radiation absorbed dose. 1 rad is equal to 0.01 gray. Gray is SI unit of radiation. Rem is units used to measure equivalent radiation dose received by a human being. One rem is equivalent of 0.01sievert or 10milli-sieverts. This means it is equivalent to the actual dose that is received in rads multiplied by a quality factor. This is greater for more dangerous radiation types. Rem means roentgen equivalent man, its meaning being that it measures ionizing radiation biological effects in the human being. Sievert is used to measure effective or equivalent radiation dose received by a human being. Equivalent dose in Sieverts is same or equal to actual dose in grays multiplied by the quality factor. One sievert is equivalent to 100rem (Russ Rowlett, 2002). Sources of Radiation There are three major sources of natural radiations. They include cosmic radiation, terrestrial radiation from earth’s crust and internal sources from the human body. Cosmic radiations are produced by the sun and outer space. Terrestrial radiation comes from rocks, building materials, ground and drinking water supplies. Great contributors of terrestrial sources are thorium, natural radium and uranium. Internal or human sources include medical radiation sources, consumer products, industrial uses and nuclear weapons (Jefferson lab, 2005. Unit for actual radiation is rad. 1 rad is equal to 0.01 gray. One rem is equal to 0.01 sievert that is equal to actual dose in rads. Rem is related to rad while sievert is related to the gray. Therefore, 1 rem is equal to 0.01sievert hence equal to 1 rad. 1 rem is equal to 10millisievert. This means that 1 Millisievert is equal to 0.001 rad where rad is actual radiation which means, it is 1000 times more than actual ground radiation. Reactions by the company and government agencies It was not the fault of the company or its will for an accident to take place. However, accident is unplanned and unpredictable situation that arises in any place. Nevertheless, if the situation could have been detected earlier by officials, then it would have been controlled. It is the responsibility of the company officials to ensure that safety is observed throughout. However, all safety measures were being observed throughout. Although there were errors from operators, there were also design flaws of the reactor that as well contributed to the accident. The company management cooperated with government officials and other crisis and disaster agencies to resolve the crises and assist the affected. Emergency response personnel, government agencies, and company management had plans on how to compensate the affected people. Screening of people within 10km radius was extremely crucial in order to establish those that were affected. The risk that nuclear radiations impose into someone are too costly than the screening that was done. It was not an overreaction by government officials and agencies as they didn’t want to take any kind of risk. Therefore, this was extremely significant and vital for the sake of peoples’ health and survival. Compensation and Criminal Charges Compensation to those people affected has cost Soviet Union a lot of dollars for years. Other countries affected are Ukraine and Belarus hundred of billion of dollars. Currently, there are social benefits being paid to about 7 million people considered having been affected by Chernobyl accident in some way. There was the need for compensating those people who were affected by accident in order for them to start a new life in relocated areas. It was not their fault for them to get relocated from their usual residence. After Chernobyl accident, six former top officials as well as technicians were prosecuted. They were charged with violation of security regulation that led to worst disaster than ever before. They included former plant director, chief engineer and his assistant. Others prosecuted were senior officials of the energy industry. They were Chairman of State Atomic Power Inspection, Deputy Director of an Institute of Research and Design, Deputy Minister of Power Engineering and electrification and first Deputy Minister of machine building. They rejected the accusations blamed the accident on flawed design of equipment and reactor (Chernobyl Workers face criminal charges, 1986). Recommendations and lessons learned In order to avoid this risk from occurring again, I would recommend the use of reactor with negative void coefficient design. I would also recommend design of control rods that are at the required size and not shorter like the ones that were used. I would ensure that reactor operators use safety procedure manuals while operating and doing maintenance procedures. I would recommend the use of sequence manual on steps to be used and followed as well as all areas that need to be looked after with a lot of care. These include control rods and safety control valves and other control systems. Some of the policies I would propose include lay out of safety measures and making them as my first priority in the company. Regular inspection in all sections of machines and safety systems would be a must all the time. Safety campaigns should be started in all energy industries in order to create awareness. I would encourage all operators to familiarize themselves of safety procedures used and those need to be utilized (Narayan, 2004). Case study and factors that caused accident The accident at Chernobyl nuclear plant occurred on Saturday, 1:23:58a.m., 26th April 1986. The Chernobyl Nuclear power station was located in Ukraine near Pripyat town. The operating crew and technicians planned to do a test on reactor no. 4 turbines. Power surged unexpectedly during the test which resulted to an explosion making reactor temperatures rise by more than 2,000 degrees Celsius. This melted the fuel rods which ignited the graphite covering of the reactor releasing radiation clouds into atmosphere. Operators’ errors and design flaws are believed to be the factors behind the occurrence of this accident (Paul & Brewster, 2004). 31 people died within the first three months with 237 people suffering from acute radiation sickness. Over 135,000 people were evacuated out of the area (Paul, 2003). Fast Breeder Technology Fast breeder reactor technology uses a fast-neutron reactor that is designed to breed fuel through production of more fissile material than what it consumes. Fast rector uses coolant such as liquid sodium that is not an efficient moderator although their neutrons remain high energy. They are therefore, supposed to be adopted for use (Andrew, 2006). Evaluation I have been able to research and brainstorm on various causes of accidents in the energy industries with a conclusion that human error being the main cause. It contributed to Chernobyl nuclear accident that killed 31 people. I have as well evaluated various energy sources and their advantages. There is a sequence or process involved in treating uranium and its processing procedures. I have been able to learn the importance of safety in industries and especially energy industries. I have learned the importance of good maintenance management in industries. Design and equipment section has proved to be hard towards evaluating and analyzing the exact problem that was behind the accident. Design of control rods and how they were associated with accident is a challenge. Analyzing how their flaws in design were associated with accident in Chernobyl was not an easy task. This is mainly due to the complexity of their design and their working process. Conclusion They are two key factors which contribute to accidents in industries and they include unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. The main causes of accidents in many energy industries are human error, machine failure and lack of appropriate approaches by maintenance management. Plant maintenance can greatly reduce several accidents that may occur if controlled or looked after well. There are numerous energy sources for consumer and industrial uses that include renewable and non-renewable sources of power. Renewable energy sources of power include wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and bio-fuel. Renewable sources are cleaner and environmental friendly as they do not contribute to global warming. Non-renewable sources produce large quantities of power as compared to renewable sources. Uranium undergoes four processing steps in order to convert to solid ceramic fuel pellets from an ore. They include mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, and fabrication. Chernobyl accident of 1986 can be said to have resulted from some errors. It was a gross violation of operating regulations by technicians that caused accident. This was mainly due to lack of nuclear reactor physics knowledge as well as lack of training and experience. However, there were flaws of the equipments and design used. Sources of include cosmic radiation, terrestrial radiation from earth’s crust and internal sources from the human body. I would recommend the use of reactor with negative void coefficient design. I would also recommend design of control rods that are at the required size and not shorter like the ones that were used It is crucial for companies and energy industries to take extreme care in safety sector. Safety management should be taken into consideration in order to ensure such accidents do not occur again. There is a need for all concerned organizations and departments to collaborate in ensuring safety are maintained up to the required standards. Energy industries should mobilize its workers and technicians on the need to maintain safety throughout. The first priority in all sectors of the industry should be safety. References Alternative Energy Sources. (2007, November). What’s The Advantage of Renewable Energy? Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.alternate-energy-sources.com/advantage-of- renewable-energy.html Alternative-Energy-Sources (AES). (2010, March). Alternative Energy Sources. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.netpilot.ca/aes/ Andrew, K. P. (2006, July). How do fast breeder reactors differ from regular nuclear power plants? Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-do-fast-breeder-react Benjamin, W. N. (1994). Engineering Maintenance Management. London: CRC Press. Chernobyl Workers face criminal charges. (1986, July 20). The Courier, p. 3A. Energy Information Administration. (2006, November). Introduction to Nuclear Power. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/intro.html Frederic, P. M, Agnes F.V. & John, M. (2009). Chernobyl Disaster Effects. New York: Alpha- script Publishing. Jefferson lab. (2005, March). Radiation sources. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.jlab.org/div_dept/train/rad_guide/sources.html Larry West. (2009, May). Chernobyl Nuclear Accident. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://environment.about.com/od/chernobyl/p/chernobyl.htm Narayan, V. (2004). Effective maintenance Management: risk and reliability strategies for optimizing performance. New York: Industrial Press Inclusive. Online Lawyer Source. (2010, February). Causes of Industrial Accidents. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/personal_injury/ia/causes.html Paul, D. (2003). The Chernobyl Disaster: California: Raintree Steck-Vaughn. Paul, T. & Brewster, L. (2004). Errors in Chernobyl Disaster. Michigan: Adams Press. Russ Rowlett. (2002, April). Units of Measurement. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictR.html Read More