© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/chernobyl/
Part One
On April 26th, 1986, the world was shaken by an explosion. The worst-case peacetime scenario had occurred—thermonuclear meltdown. Some 110km from the capitol of Ukraine, a nuclear power station spewed tons of deadly radioactive material across the globe. A city was laid desolate, thousands were contaminated. Even today, the long reaching effects still haunt us.
As with many accidents, this one was preventable. The three main causes: a poorly designed reactor, incompetence at the administration level leading to and during the accident, and a government system designed to hide, not fix problems.
Still under the yoke of Soviet Communism, the scientific community lived with the mentality of “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.” Under no circumstances did one want to rock the boat. Although there were inherent problems spread all over their nuclear power program, things were not discussed, accidents were covered up, information was not shared. Although the reactor had a design flaw, who was going to talk about it? In his book Chernobyl: Insights From the Inside, V. Chernousenko states, “It was the secrecy and lack of accountability of our nuclear science, and its refusal to open itself up to discussion and criticism which made possible for dangerous design faults to lead finally to a nuclear explosion of this scale.”
Chernobyl power station was a 4 reactor nuclear power facility, with 2 more reactors being added. The Soviet designed and built RBMK reactor was the most powerful reactor in the world, producing from 700 to 1250 megawatts of energy.
In a nuclear reactor, uranium 235 is used to produce energy. As neutrons bounce around, they split uranium 235 nuclei releasing power as heat. The heat is captured in water, producing steam which in turn cranks turbines, which in turn create electricity. The RBMK design was one used in early nuclear reactors. It used 4 separate components to control the reaction. Uranium is the only material known to support a nuclear chain reaction. Graphite was the moderator, used in order to slow down the neutrons, allowing them to collide with the uranium atoms. Water was used as a coolant and to produce steam. Boron was used as a neutron absorber to slow or shut down the fission reaction. So water is present in the chamber with the uranium and graphite. Neutrons bounce around and hit uranium nuclei, splitting them and releasing energy as heat. More neutrons are also released hitting more uranium atoms and releasing more neutrons, ad nauseum. The heat acts upon the water, creating steam. Once the steam is used to power the turbines, it is captured, cooled, and the water is reused. The boron can be raised or lowered around sections of the fuel thus stopping the reaction.
The problem with the RBMK reactor is called Positive Void Coefficient. This basically means “Someone really screwed up this design.” When too much steam was present in the core, things would get ugly. Too much steam meant not enough water cooling the reactor. Because the graphite rods would still be in place, the temperature would rise, causing more steam to be produced, thus causing the temperature to rise more…until the thing exploded. Newer reactor designs avoid this problem by using water as both a coolant and moderator. An excess of steam would cool the reactor, not heat it.
On the day in question, Reactor No.4 was scheduled to power down for some maintenance. While powering down, a test was scheduled to see how well the turbines would run once main power was shut off until the backups fired up. One of the main safety features was specifically wired to not work. It bypassed many of the checks and balances in the system. At the same time, some safety features, such as an emergency water system were locked down so that they would not interfere with the test.
The man in charge, Dyatlov, having experience as an electrical engineer was unfortunately not a nuclear station technician. He had lots of theory, but no practical experience. Grigory Medvedev, a nuclear physicist and engineer who was subsequently sent by Moscow to research what happened, had warned the station director years previously of Dyatlov’s unsuitability and incompetence as an administrator. He is described as having no sense of danger or caution and frequently disregarded the safety of the station and technicians. Much of the damage and death that ensued can be attributed to him.
Part Two
So, with a system that hid mistakes instead of learning from them, a reactor with inherent dangerous design flaws, and a set of management that were ignorant to reactor technology but were there for their own gain, the stage was set for the nightmare history had not yet seen.
The flaws with the reactors were not only in the design, but the implementation of some important safety features. In the case of something really horrendous, the system was designed with a maximum design-basis accident button. This button, which was supposed to run through the main system and trigger several emergency systems, was rerouted not to work as designed as to avoid a heat shock in the reactor. In order to produce a “clean” test, several other mistakes were made. One of which was the fact that the test was performed while the reactor was still live. Another mistake was that the emergency water feeds were turned off and locked shut. The triggering mechanism in the emergency systems was disabled so that a second run on the test could have been made in case of failure.
The program that led to the accident was supposed to have taken place on April 25th during the day. At the request of a Kiev load controller, it was delayed until the night shift. It was begun by one team an hour before the midnight shift came on. The test included running down the reactor in order to test the efficiency of the turbines from the time the main power was shut off until the emergency generators came online. It would determine if the turbines could produce enough inertial energy to power the station until the generators kicked in.
With the reactor still functioning and the maximum design-basis accident features disabled, the reactor reached a dangerously low power level. In the RBMK reactor, when the power emissions drop below a certain level, the reaction begins to be poisoned by a buildup of certain elements, such as xenon and iodine. Where normally the emergency systems would have shut the reactor down, it was allowed to drop to 30 megawatts. At that level, it was extremely difficult—if not impossible—to control and stabilize.
When the power fell to the low levels, one of the engineers notified Dyatlov what had happened. Dyatlov told him to bring the power back up. The engineer, Tuptonov, refused and was backed up by the other senior engineer. The only safe decision was to power down the reactor completely and resume the test twenty-four hours later. Dyatlov went ballistic. He threatened them, swore at them, bullied them and threatened to replace them with others and even fire them. His manipulation finally yielded the desired result…they caved in.
In order to create additional power, it was necessary to raise some of the boron control rods. By safety specification, it was mandatory that a minimum of 28 of the 210 rods be maintained at all times in the core. At the moment of decision, that is all there were in the core. When the reactor exploded, there were only 18 left.
With the extraction of the rods, the power levels rose to about 200 megawatts before it leveled out due to the poisoning in the reactor. It was still 600 less than the minimum operational reactor reserve. The engineers were scrambling to maintain proper levels on the water circulation, the steam pressure, and the power levels. At this point, 2 minutes from the explosion, they still could have stopped it. All it would have taken was for them to carefully power down the reactor.
About 30 seconds before the explosion, the main circulation pumps began to fail. The circulating water, as part of the test, was kept close to saturation. With the increase in power and temperature, the water began to steam, killing the pumps. With that, water levels decreased and the water began to boil inside the reactor creating more steam, thus more power. The positive void coefficient was in effect.
Tuptonov reported a power surge to Akimov, the other senior engineer. Akimov, against all judgment and training, engaged the emergency power reduction system. It proved to be a fatal mistake. The emergency power reduction system involved the lowering of all boron control rods into the reactor simultaneously. You may think that this a good thing, no?
The problem was another odd design quirk. The 23 foot rods were not completely boron. The tips of the rods were actually made of graphite with an empty section before the boron. Thus, when rods were inserted into the core, they produced a power spike. Not a problem in a reactor working within normal parameters, but in a superheated reactor with fluctuating power levels, it was the end.
Part Three
In his book “The Legacy of Chernobyl”, Zhores Medvedyev reveals that the turbine rundown test was to have been completed at the end of 1982, before the reactor was brought into a commercial regime. It was on a list of things, in typical Soviet fashion, that was agreed by the various ministries involved “to be completed later” notwithstanding the point that it was a requirement for the reactor to pass inspection. These kinds of oversights were typical to make sure that various projects were completed on or before deadlines, especially when there were bonuses at stake.
Z. Medvedyev also revealed that this test was written for electrical engineers, as it had to do with the electrical rundown system of the turbine generators. This could explain why Dyatlov was involved, but not why he was in charge. The test should have been performed on a fresh reactor, not one at the end of its cycle (when it is more difficult to control reactor stability). The reactor operators were unsure about the instructions for the test as they had several steps crossed out, not to mention the test plan was never approved by the upper ministry (Z. M. attributes this to the need to hide the fact that this test should have been complete 2 years previously).
When Akimov engaged the emergency power reduction system, all boron rods not already in the reactor (93 rods) began to lower. The graphite tips caused a surge in reactivity. The rods lowered only 2-3 meters and stopped. They could go no further, even after Akimov cut the power to their electric motors to allow gravity to pull them down. The fuel assemblies were already warped from the intense heat and steam.
In the reactor hall, the shift foreman watched in horror as more than 1000 fuel assembly caps weighing 770 lbs. each begin to jump up and down like popcorn. He rushed down some steps and headed for the control room. By this time the reactor had begun to release hydrogen and oxygen as the reactive process was poisoned even further. This highly explosive gas combination spread throughout the reactor. The pressure release valves on the reactor began to release the steam but were destroyed by the immense pressure. Rising at 15 atmospheres per second, the pressure destroyed the water and steamwater communication lines.
With all water to the reactor cut off, the temperature rose quickly. The hydrogen/oxygen gases ignited, causing several explosions, destroying the main circulation pump rooms where one man will be forever entombed. The upper biological shield weighing 1000 tons was blown out of place. Half of the nuclear fuel and graphite were blown out of the reactor. Some evaporated into a nuclear cloud that floated over Europe, seeding radioactive material in its wake. Pieces of burning graphite and fuel landed on the roofs of the turbine hall and adjoining buildings igniting the flammable roofing material. Other chunks fell all around, continuing to release deadly levels of radiation. Z. Medvedyev estimated around 20 million curies of radiation was released into the atmosphere in various gaseous forms and another 10 million curies were spread between 2-3 km from the Chernobyl site. One report makes it equivalent to 500 Hiroshimas.
Back in the control room, no one could understand what on earth had happened. They knew there had been at least on explosion. When the shift foreman arrived, a few seconds later, he told them what he had seen. Dyatlov sent two young (barely out of school) engineers who were there for observation and training to see what had happened to the reactor. They worked their way down into the central reactor hall. Through the rubble, they could see the sky outside and red and blue flames through the upper biological shield which was now lying crookedly across the top of the reactor core. They could see the raging inferno within. By the time they returned to the control room they were dark brown all over, even under their clothes, and their eyes smarted, they coughed and they felt a tightness in the chest. They had received fatal doses of radiation and died agonizing deaths a couple of weeks later. They reported that the reactor was gone. Dyatlov called them idiots and fools. He told them they must be mistaken, the reactor was intact. This complete ignorance and disbelief cost many people their lives. Later on, they sent a senior engineer who told them the same thing. He also died of acute radiation syndrome. They didn’t believe him either.
As soon as the explosions occurred, the fire brigades went into action. The leader of the brigade realized that the accident was bigger than he could handle and called in help from the Chernobyl city of Pripyat as well as firefighters from the Kiev region. These men were true heroes. Climbing onto the burning roofs of the nearby buildings, they saved the other reactors from damage (imagine four reactors melting down, not just the one), often tossing off pieces of burning graphite and fuel with their hands. It took nearly 5 hours to quench the burning tar. Many of the direct victims of Chernobyl were among these men. Their graves, outside of northern Moscow, are treated as heroes’ graves, tended to and honored.
When Dyatlov and Akimov reported on the accident to their boss Fomin, they reported that there had been an accident. They said that one of the water tanks or drums must have exploded. They reported that water was being fed into the reactor and that everything was fine. The only dosimeter available only read to 3.2 roentgens per hour. It was off the scale but that is what they reported as the background radiation. They seeded a lie that spread and gave everyone a sense of complacency. When another dosimeter was brought in that read up to 250 roentgens per hour, the dosimeterist was told that his machine was broken; to get rid of it. Later, when Dyatlov went to inspect the grounds around the reactor building, he still refused to accept that the reactor had exploded and tried to rationalize where the chunks of graphite and fuel (radiating 15,000-30,000 roentgens per hour, in fact) had come from.
The water, reported as being fed into the reactor, never reached it. The lines underneath had been destroyed. The water was being fed into the channels under the reactor. Had the melted reactor core collapsed into the small lake of water underneath it, it would have been the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb. Fortunately someone realized this and a team of engineers used artillery shells to knock a hole in the foundation to drain out the water.
The town of Pripyat was not evacuated for several days following the accident. People went to work, school, and shopping and played in the radioactive dust. The air was filled with radioactive particles. The city director was described by G. Medvedyev and a man who loved his power and prestige and refused to allow the city to be evacuated until everyone in it had received a nice healthy dose of radiation.
The population, most of them there to man the nuclear power plant, was uneducated as to the dangers of radiation or even what to do in the case of an accident. When some of them started to realize what was happening, they got drunk. They believed that vodka could disinfect the body of radiation. In the US, salt is sold with clean iodine in it. The reason behind this is the thyroid of the human body absorbs iodine. When it is kept full, any other iodine introduced into the body passes through. In Soviet Russia, iodized salt was unused. In event of an accident, iodine tablets were taken. In the hospital after being evacuated, those afflicted were irradiating others themselves. They had absorbed so much iodine-135 that their thyroids were emitting 100-150 roentgens per hours for several days.
Some victims were saved after blood transfusions and bone marrow replacement. Those who died of acute radiation syndrome died horrible deaths. Their bodies continued to turn darker and darker. They suffered from severe bowel distress, having painful, explosive bowel movements 25-30 times a day. Their mucus membranes swelled up and disintegrated. The skin on their bodies died and eventually, so did they. Akimov’s wife described him at death as being mummified: skin dark as night, his body dried up, drained of life, and weighing no more than a child. In Russia, people are generally still buried in wooden coffins. The bodies of these men were so contaminated that they were buried in lead coffins with the lids soldered on so that their disintegrating bodies would not find their way into the water table.
Reactor No. 4 was somewhat contained by a cement sarcophagus. Z. Medvedyev accurately commented that the Chernobyl sarcophagus will need to stand even longer than the pyramids. Another will need to be built over it as it succumbs to elements. Even now, there are large gaps in it. One little earthquake or terrorist act and there will be a second Chernobyl.
An estimated 5 million people were affected by the fallout. Over 2,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been reported with the numbers expected to rise. Lung cancer of the cleanup workers is on the rise as well.
The last RBMK reactor at the Chernobyl site was shut down in December 2000. There are still 14 or 15 of the same reactor type active in Russia. Theoretically, they have been corrected so that a repeat of the world’s greatest industrial accident should not happen. I sure as hell hope so. Even now I can hear in my mind Tom Lehrer’s enchanting tune…”We’ll all go together when we go…”
Note: This article originally appeared in 2005 as a three-part series. Here the parts have been combined.
© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
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The Chernobyl incident was a terrible tragedy. There’s a fascinating site at: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html about a young woman’s adventures while she toured the area on her motorcycle. A very haunting place. . .
See there, Josh, I told you to find that motorcyle tour and use it, but now someone’s beat you to it. Tsk, tsk. It is neat though.
It’s funny… as soon as I saw the article on Chernobyl I thought to myself that I would post a link to kiddofspeed website in the comments if it wasn’t linked to in the article.
Actually I looked at the site but failed to link to it. I was saving it for later. But now that you are collectively asking for it, I will add it.
I saw the site about the motorcyle run through chernobyl quite a while ago. It was interesting until I read a few days later in the newspaper that it was all a hoax done for publicity. Who knows!
Hmmmm. . . . First I’ve heard that it’s a hoax, but it seems that it is at least a fiction based on fact. See a good discussion of the hoax and an actual commercial tour of the area at http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=8951 Read reply #13. Darn it! I read it on the internet, so it HAD to be true!!! ;-)
I live “just inside” the SAFE ZONE of the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant in PA. People will be flocking to MY AREA to get out of the circumference of death. Personally, I am taking my dogs and family members who can be in my car under 20 minutes and I am headed South for a lengthy vacation.
(Edited to shorten links)
Ah, yes, graphite moderated reactors. It might be interesting to compare the Soviet RMBK design with
the design of the X-10 graphite moderated reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Or, for that matter, with
the first atomic pile that was built under the stands at the football stadium at the University of Chicago.
Link 1
Link 2
Dave
Dave, I am interested in knowing what your conclusions are in relationship to the Soviet and US reactors, and the relevance of the information concerning the stockpile under the football stadium at the University of Chicago.
I thought these types of self-serving idiots only existed in fiction. It’s somewhat sobering to realize they’re in the here-and-now.
ironically enough, this just goes to show how safe nuclear reactors are. look at how many safety systems these men ignored time and time againl; each one could have stopped the entire thing.
Hi. You are quoting this out of Medvedev book. He is full of shit. He was not involved in day to day operation at Chernobyl, at most only being part of the supply chain. He wasn’t trained to operate an NPP, nor is he qualified to speak about anything. Oh, and his clame of being sick after receiving a dose of radiation is bull too – when pushed to prove it, he couldn’t (as he never “recieved a dose”).
Thus, I have a number of questions about validity of your account above.
Got any references for: “When the power fell to the low levels, one of the engineers notified Dyatlov what had happened. Dyatlov told him to bring the power back up. The engineer, Tuptonov, refused and was backed up by the other senior engineer. The only safe decision was to power down the reactor completely and resume the test twenty-four hours later. Dyatlov went ballistic. He threatened them, swore at them, bullied them and threatened to replace them with others and even fire them. His manipulation finally yielded the desired result…they caved in.”?
This is not how I read either http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/CHERNOBYL/dyatlow.txt (Dyatlow’s own account), nor accounts of Leonid Toptunov (note correct spelling, please)(Operator) or Alexander Akimov (Head of night shift of Chernobyl-4). Akimov was head of the shift, and only he could have ordered Toptunov anything any way. Yes, both Toptunov and Aikmov died from overdose, but not before their statements were recorded by the investigators, and used in Dyatlov’s trial.
The quip about unqualified personnel that I see all the time is mostly bullshit too. Dyatlov, for example, transferred to Chernobyl from a nuclear submarine shipbuilding plant at Komsomolsk-na-Amure in 1973. Worked at Chernobyl NPP for over 12 years. If 12 years of experience is not qualified, what is?
Note that in 1991 IAEA reworded the causes of the accident, laying heavier blame on the design flaws of RBMK then on the operating personnel.
“By safety specification, it was mandatory that a minimum of 28 of the 210 rods be maintained at all times in the core.” Again, based on how I read RBMK operating manual, until Chernobyl, safety specification was specifying 15 fully inserted rod equivalents. After Chernobyl, safety specifications were amended to minimum of 75 control rods (out of total of 179 control rods). Reference: http://www.reactors.narod.ru/rbmk/03_rbmk.htm and again, Dyatlov’s account, http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/CHERNOBYL/dyatlow.txt
“At this point, 2 minutes from the explosion, they still could have stopped it. All it would have taken was for them to carefully power down the reactor.” Medvedev wrote bullshit again, and you are repeating it. Major part of the problem was the design of the emergency shutdown rods. At this point, the way to safely recover would have been to bring the reactor back to full power, and then shut it down. Hardly seems that powering reactor back up, to shut it down is part of “carefully powering it down”.
“Tuptonov reported a power surge to Akimov, the other senior engineer. Akimov, against all judgment and training, engaged the emergency power reduction system.” Buddy, you have a reactor going over-critical at a much higher speed then you expected (note that “critical” doesn’t mean “nuclear”, just means that it emits more then 1 neutron per each neutron collision, and thus speed of the reaction is increasing, with positive net energy production. Also note that over and sub-critical change happens exponentially), and you are about to go nuclear. Automatic Emergency Shutdown system was designed to operate if the power output was to double in 20 seconds, so it would have triggered at that point any way.
*sigh*
Based on my reading of witness accounts, and my current understanding of what actually happened, I see errors virtually in every paragraph above.
mrjondoe said: “ironically enough, this just goes to show how safe nuclear reactors are. look at how many safety systems these men ignored time and time againl; each one could have stopped the entire thing.”
I couldn’t agree less. Look at how many safety systems had to be ignored time and time again… and then look at the fact that they were ignored (and even were able to be ignored/bypassed in the first place). That would suggest that no amount of safety systems will completely ensure safety. There is no limit to stupidity.
Misanthrope said: “I couldn’t agree less. Look at how many safety systems had to be ignored time and time again… and then look at the fact that they were ignored (and even were able to be ignored/bypassed in the first place). That would suggest that no amount of safety systems will completely ensure safety. There is no limit to stupidity.”
That is the reason why the U.S. Navy relies on competent, well-trained operators to ensure reactor safety in its nuclear propulsion plants. Yes, there are automated safety systems in place, but they are there as a backup to the operator, and they are never bypassed or disabled while the reactor is operating.
You got served Josh!
But remember, they were trying to perform an experiment for which the equipment was not designed, at the end of a cycle, with the added problems produced by the poor design.
(I know it’s an old article, but I’m still reading the archives)
There’s a substantial difference between the United States/Western Europe and the Russian/Soviet attitudes about safety and accountability. American fighter pilots wear a full bodysuit designed to put pressure on the body in high G-force situations that keeps blood from draining from the brain and causing blackouts. Soviet pilots, even when full suits are available, frequently wear only the lower half if any at all.
Americans don’t casually disable safety systems like Russians do. We don’t have the cultural machismo that replaces vodka for science. We’re more paranoid about our health, and if two techs came back from examining a reactor a different color than they were when they left evacuations would be sounded instantly, if only because the supervisors wouldn’t want to stick around, and they’d be afraid of being culpable of not sounding the alarm if they survived.
America has had a nuclear reactor accident, Three Mile Island. The notable difference is our own accident at the state of the art -thirty years ago- produced no noticeable/statistical effect on the health of the people that worked at the plant or in the immediate area, as opposed to the Soviets who were showing severe tissue necrosis before they got back to the control station.
Last point to be made is the Russians/Soviets were never the paragons of high technology. They did marvels with vacuum tubes, and Russian-made amps are fantastic, but they had to steal Integrated Circuit technology from the U.S. to the degree that the first Soviet Built computer when booted up displayed, in English: “Welcome to IBM”. The Chernobyl reactors were designs that western nations had long since abandoned for the inadequate operational margins and safety protocols.
Is it impossible for a modern nuclear reactor to do what Chernobyl did? No, there’s always statistically outlying events that can happen, and if you look at the way Chernobyl event happened; in a western society it would have taken a chain of statistically improbable events for that to have been repeated. Much of the circumstances that led to the explosion were cultural and political rather than solely technological. If you’re evaluating the risks of nuclear power you have to take that in to account.
My own $0.02.
Enter your reply text here. OK
wikipedia is listed as a source. That could be the bad information.
Even more interesting, now they are using the city of Chernobyl to watch how fast nature deteriorates our buildings, which is especially fast when compared to old relics that we know of today from lost civilizations: Egyptians, Mayans, Incas, Romans, etc. Apparently we don’t build our buildings to the quality and longevity of our ancestors.
Bah, everyone panics over Nuclear energy even now. Hell, it’s not so bad. Admittedly mistakes can result in some nasty outbursts but consider the fact that Radiation can be easily contained within building while a raging underground coal fire cant be.
“Thermonuclear” normally refers to fusion reactions. Surely that is not what you meant.
There’s actually lots of info missing from the article as well as incorrect statements, however, it does bring the subject of the Nuclear Accident at Chernobyl to attention and gives a general idea of what happened. This is something that should always be remembered and a symbol of just how wrong can things turn when pride, incompetence, stupidity, lies and repression are put in the mix together with highly technological and dangerous operations… I still remember the “Chernobyl Children”, and their painful expressions and deformities from the times I got to see them receiving treatment in a pediatric hospital in Cuba, specially for cancer and thyroid issues. My mother used to work in that hospital, one of the best Pediatric hospitals in Cuba, where groups of them would go to get treatment after the fall of the USSR, due to not being able to pay for treatment in Russia, they would go to Cuba to continue treatment for free or low costs. It was my first experience related to the accident, and ever since it has given a very real face to it and the human suffering it caused. Although the article is pretty old I think the comment was worth sharing…
See the comment I posted seconds ago. When you are face to face with it, you realize why is so terrible and how it affects people for generations, and radioactive fallout takes its biggest toll on young children, which is even more morbid. And that’s not even counting with other social effects, like discrimination towards people affected by radiation, which is seen to an extreme in Japan… Although in Japan they are notable for discriminating against anybody and anything…
The kidofspeed site was indeed interesting and haunting, but alas turned out to be fake. She never toured the area on a motorcycle, but instead took a tour of the reactor area organised by a tourist agency, and she carried a motorcycle helmet with her during the tour.
I know I’m extremely late to the game here, but I have just recently started enjoying this site. I don’t care if this comment is ever posted but I know you guys will read it.
I stumbled across this site recently and in the last few weeks have read all of the greatest hits and have started reading oldest to newest. I was excited to read this one because for all except the first year of my adult life I have been a nuclear engineer. I spent 10 years in the navy as a nuclear engineer on submarines, have received my bachelors in nuclear engineering from NCSU, worked for 4 years as an instructor/trainer for commercial plants, and am now pursuing my JD at UNC at Chapel Hill to begin a career as a paten lawyer in nuclear engineering. So… yea guess I’m really blowing myself here, but this is my shit and anything with subs or energy production kinda gets me pumped.
I love this site for 2 main reasons: 1)The articles you provide are fact based off of the references you have studied, and provide an interesting outline of a subject which usually leaves me well informed on a new topic, or intrigued and excited to jump down my own rabbit hole of research on the topic. 2)As I read more and more from you guys I have noticed how over time you have developed from great researchers and authors into outstanding researchers and authors.
I was quite disappointed by this article though. Stany’s comment is very true, and I think you know that because there was no rebuttal from you. As an instructor I thoroughly studied and lectured on nuclear accidents and lessons learned. I believe the short coming of this article is the lack of resources. When a nuclear accident occurs with any level of severity it is scrutinized, studied, and meticulously dissected by the “nuclear community” forever. We still generations later study and train on what has happened in this field since the Manhattan project. This is why nuclear power is so safe… we are fucking terrified of it, and as a result continuously learning how to stay ahead of it. I’m off topic though; the point I mean to make is that when writing on some topics(especially nuclear topics) the wealth of study and research behind it is colossal. So having wiki, a few articles, and an authors books of a second hand account (Which by the way I have read and do cite parts of, but only if I have additional sources agreeing with it do to the authors inconsistencies) cannot sufficiently cover a topic with such a vast amount of history and research. For example, I have a folder labeled “Chernobyl Lessons Learned” that is .92 terabytes itself, and that’s just the shit I’ve come across and use. Now obviously that’s extreme overkill for an article of this size, but the information is out there.
I guess to sum it up when your writing to the educated crowd that is attracted to your site, if a topic has been this thoroughly studied and researched you should exhaust yourself on studying sources and finding additional sources that solidify and check with each other.
I apologize for the dickyness of this comment, and I’ll admit as of yet I haven’t registered or donated to the site so its out of line for me voice this. I’m just thoroughly impressed with this site so far, and maybe this was a waste of time and a lesson you guys have learned and carried into your newer articles. I just wanted to offer up some constructive(probably unnecessary) criticism and suggest that maybe this article be retired for a time until it can be revisited. I do plan on registering and donating to this site; I’m holding out until I get to some newer material of yours though. I want to make sure that your writing continues to inspire me the way it does now after a decade of you doing it. If I were to recommend this site to a friend though, and they clicked random article and this is what their first impression was of the site they wouldn’t come back.
al
P.S. Some interesting nuke subjects on lessons learned if this is something that intrigues you:
SL-1 the army’s failed portable nuclear reactor. Not a ton was learned that wasn’t already known about operating characteristics, but it was an outstanding example of prompt critical meltdown, and much was learned about containment and radiation clean up.
US Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) project. Graphite moderated/air cooled prototype. Significant fuel damage after initial test. Lots learned from this optimistic, but poor design.
USS Thresher. US Navy has begun in the last few years to release information regarding what is more believed to have caused the accident. Flooding which has long been named the cause has been dismissed due to the fact that flooding is a submarines worst case scenario, and the radio transmission from the captain was a very calm explanation of “issues”. It was and is believed a reactor scram occurred and the delayed time in recovery caused a loss of propulsion turning the ship into a sinking rock. Immediately following the incident Admiral Rickover and many others had a meeting that the discussion of is still classified(At least since I last checked). Over the years following though significant reactor safety changes were made. Specifically in the department of restoration of a reactor to criticality following a safeguards activation.
Ok, so, I’m completely obsessed with Chernobyl. I feel really sad for all the people that died. They didn’t deserve that at all. Also, I really like the show Scorpion and this is an episode I think, or something like this. I really like your site, especially the Pipe Bomber article.
>> One report makes it equivalent to 500 Hiroshimas
Since there were zero nuclear explosions (just a big chemical explosion that spread the unexploded nuclear fuel around), it was equivalent to zero Hiroshimas. I keep seeing this “so and so many Hiroshimas” as if it were a unit of measure of radiation, like “Libraries of Congress” or “Double-spaced sheets of typed paper” are pseudo-measures of data. It’s not. It was the nuclear explosion of a fission bomb, which, again, Chernobyl had zero of.
Not first!
Typo correction. “Bowl movements” should be “bowel movements”
Considering that the Soviets have always been our equal if not our superior in technology, the Chernobyl accident is even more astounding.