Xenon eats up neutrons, thus making the chain reaction more difficult Nuclear engineers canĮxplain to you that this kind of shut-down would result in an unusually large amount of Xenonīuild-up in the reactor fuel. After peak hours, the operators brought the plant to low power rapidly. Unexpectedly and asked Chernobyl to stay at full power for a while longer to keep the nearby homes To low power, the utility company called and said that a nearby coal plant just shut down As the operators were about to start slowly and carefully bringing the reactor Test was supposed to measure how long the spinning generator would continue producing electricityĪfter the reactor was shut down before it slowed and stopped. The Soviet government ordered the operators of Chernobyl to perform a test on their reactor. What happened at Chernobyl? (longer version) Poison, thus increasing the power rather than decreasing it and the positive void coefficientĪllowed the reactor to undergo a runaway power excursion, resulting in a catastrophic steamĮxplosion and graphite fire that killed 30 workers and released radiation in levels that were soonĭetected in Finland. But the tips of the rods were graphite, which displaced water without introducing neutron

Instabilities due to the inherent positive coolant void coefficient of the RBMK reactor and reinsert Operators at Chernobyl retracted the control rods all the way out of the core only to notice power

What happened at Chernobyl? (short version)īecause Xenon built up due to a rapid shut-down mainly caused by nearby coal plant problem,

What happened at Chernobyl? (longer version).

What happened at Chernobyl? (short version).

We are extremely fortunate to have some unique first-hand stories told by two parents of young children living near Chernobyl when it happened, as well as the reflections from one of their children (who ended up working as a nuclear engineer!) On this page

Call of chernobyl cars