Investigate the root causes of major Engineering disasters that have Essay

Investigate the root causes of major Engineering disasters that have occurred since 1800 - Essay Example In engineering, most disasters that have occurred portray a possibility of overlooking one or more provisions of safety with some being caused by poor decision-making and ignorance. The Chernobyl Power plant disaster The Chernobyl Nuclear power plant disaster of April 26, 1986 although blamed on negligence on the part of operators had some engineering aspects that could have contributed in the disaster, in addition to the operation negligence. The Chernobyl plant used RBMK reactors that have been blamed for a number of negative features that may compromise the safety of the reactors and their operations. The RBMK reactors have neutron fields with high sensitivity levels towards movement of control rods, which results from having a high number of absorbers in the reactor core aimed at compensating for any extra reactivity (Malko, 1991). When some absorbers are withdrawn, especially affecting most of the absorbers in the peripheral zones, there results a local criticality. Moreover, RB MK reactors involve occurrence of huge positive reactivity that leads to a reduction of the period required to achieve stabilization of the power produced at the core to about 3 minutes (Medvedev, 1990). These factors make operations of a RBMK reactor problematic and uncertain in maintaining the safety of the reactor. Frankel (2010) observed that the Chernobyl reactor was designed to use graphite moderators that were typically unsafe, in addition to use of graphite rods. As a result, any possible loss of water in such a RBMK reactor posed great danger. Contrary to the operations of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), any water that circulates in the pipe network is only required to serve the purpose of cooling the reactor core only and not to moderate the core and cool it (Frankel, 2010). In PWR reactor cores, removal of the core cooling water would cause the entire chain reaction to abort. However in an RBMK-0100 reactor such as the one used in Chernobyl, in case water is lost due to closure of the supplying pumps as was the case, the graphite moderating rods continue to propagate and facilitate nuclear chain reactions (Frankel, 2010). Such mechanism, when considered alongside the loss of cooling water in the nuclear reactor core, would lead to overheating of the core in the shortest time possible. In such a case, the event of a core meltdown becomes the only possible event. In addition, in the Chernobyl RBMK reactors, the control rods were not designed as drastic safety features. Control rods are necessary for absorbing neutrons towards reducing or stopping chain reactions from taking place. However, in the Chernobyl RBMK reactors, control rods required about 20 seconds to reach the bottom of the core from their highest position (Medvedev, 1991). This was contrary to modern reactors that have well designed control rods, which  require one second or less, to reach the core of a nuclear reactor stopping any chain reaction. Therefore, in Chernobyl nuclear react or, the design and engineering of the entire core overlooked key safety mechanisms that could have prevented possible meltdown. The result of overlooking these safety considerations was the 1986 disaster. This was

Answer questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Answer questions - Essay Example d. Coffee prices are expected to rise rapidly in the next few months. Indicate the immediate Effect. e. Workers in the coffee industry form a trade union and succeed with claims for higher Wages. Answers: a) When a severe frost destroys much of the Brazilian crop the supply curve of coffee will shift to the left. It is assumed that the demand will remain the same. Therefore the market equilibrium will shift to the left. b) If coffee is shown to cause cancer in laboratory experiments on mice it is expected that the demand for coffee will fall down sharply. The supply for coffee is assumed to remain the same. The demand curve will shift to the right and the new market equilibrium will also shift to the right. c) If the price of tea declines sharply the demand for coffee is expected to fall. The demand curve will shift to the left and the equilibrium point will shift to the left. d) If the price of coffee is expected to rise in the next month, the demand for coffee will rise immediately . Therefore the demand curve will shift rightwards and the market equilibrium point will shift to the right. The other conditions are assumed to remain unchanged. e) If the workers in the coffee industry form a trade union and succeed with claims for higher Wages, then the price of coffee will rise. ... In your explanation you must refer to aspects such as: Demand, wants, needs and desires Determinants of demand and supply Demand versus quantity demanded Movement along versus shifts of the curves Equilibrium Price and Quantity Surplus vs. Shortage. Answer: A market is a place where buyers meet sellers. The households purchase the products of their needs from the sellers in the market and the sellers charge their price. The determinants of demand and supply are the price of the good, the price of the substitutes, the income of the consumers, and the anticipated price level of the future and tastes of the consumers. An increase of demand can take place if the income of the consumers rise, the price of the product itself falls. The following diagram shows the demand supply analysis of the chosen product. In this case it is assumed that the market is competitive and so the demand curve is horizontal. In this case a parallel shift in the supply schedule leads to lower demand (Michigan St ate University, n.d. p. 1). The quantity demanded has fallen to Q1from Q0. The price is remaining the same in the market. A leftward shift of the supply schedule lead to fall in quantity demanded. The following diagram provides a clearer picture. In this case the supply curve shifted to the left while the demand curve remained unchanged. The initial equilibrium in the market has fallen as a result. The new equilibrium quantity is at a higher level than the initial one while the new equilibrium price is at a lower level than the initial one (University of Pittsburg, 2012, p. 2). The point where the demand by the consumers is matched by the supplies of the producers is regarded as the equilibrium point. The following