Everything That Had To Go Wrong For Chernobyl To Happen

It’s hard for those of us in the modern era to grasp the true horror of the Chernobyl disaster. Even a deep dive into the Chernobyl meltdown timeline can only reveal so much about the very real, visceral consequences of the event. Putting the sequence of events that led to Chernobyl into context takes an event that American history books casually summarize as a horrible accident and paints the incident for what it really was: a series of compounding mistakes that produced one of the greatest environmental tragedies in human history.

#Chernobyl #NuclearMeltdown #WeirdHistory

[ripelcannon]

The Swedes were the first people, outside the Russians to know something was going on, by detecting high levels of radiation at their plant, over 700 miles away.

[asagirimei]

It's maybe too much but..I want the history of cigarette if possible. Anyway, thx for amazing content as always, Weird History!

[lp-xlld]

Those who refuse to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it...trouble is, nobody seems to believe that anymore

[conniewilson]

The people who cleared this shit up, saved all our lives!

[StreetUrchinLife]

So basically they didn't do anything the way they were supposed to. They went complete Homer Simpson!

[helenafranzen]

The phrase "the hundred that dies so that the thousand can live" has never been more true. The guys that covered the core are heroes!

[marion_roberts]

"It is not alarmist if it's a fact." I cannot stress enough how good the mini series is, regardless of historical accuracy, especially the first episode.Dread, denial, and ignorance in one disastrous conconction.

[mikatu]

While Chernobyl is seen as the worst disaster, there was one even worse on Russian soil. But since it was so far from the West no one learned about that. Still today that city is completely cut off from the rest of the world. No one can enter or leave the area and the lake nearby is so contaminated that a 5m walk around it is enough to kill you. But about that accident, no one will make videos since is still top secret.

Can you please make a video about Stalin's cannibal island?

[reality]

Valery Khodemchuk's body was never recovered. He is permanently entombed under reactor 4.

[BIGBLOCK]

The Soviet government was notorious for having the mindset of "The party knows what's best for you so do not question, do not criticize, and do not disagree with us. You are expected to be good, obedient, and blind sheep that believe whatever the party tells you."

[craigfazekas]

I have a coworker named Tatiana that lived 20 km from the reactor when she was a teen. Her main memory was of the trucks that drove through her neighborhood with speakers mounted on top, announcing that people stay indoors & keep their doors & windows closed- but not telling people why.
She also said that the state radio station, that normally played classical compositions by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and other Russian composers, was announcing the same thing, but no reason as to why, specifically. Just that there was an accident that was effecting the environment. And to stay inside until further notice....
Scary.🤔🇺🇸

[tidepodboi]

You should do the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

[paranoid]

The "elephant's foot" is creepy af

[peterallen]

I would like to think this could not happen again however as we have learned with COVID society NEVER learns from its mistakes.
And politicians of all nations have very very short memories.

[chickenslice]

Great video. The HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” really brings this event to life and is historically accurate for the most part, I can’t recommend it enough. And the accompanying podcast sheds light on some things that aren’t fully covered in the show.

[grapeshot]

I remember that show DC Follies. When Reagan and Gorbachev was arm wrestling. And Reagan was like "You damn near killed us with Chernobyl."

[manong]

Me: been passionate about Chernobyl for 4 years and inevitably knows pretty much everything
Also me: watch the entire video.

[kflo]

I just want to applause that you bring history to so many people in a brilliant way that captures interest. That's why your team rocks. Kudos! 💕

[davidflint]

France gets something like 70% of its power from nuclear. Have we heard of any problems there? If done right it is the safest most efficient method of electricity production.

[STEFAZON]

There are a multiple errors shown here.

At 2:20 it is said that the power level for the test was supposed to have been 700-1000MW, not true and incorrect. Firstly it is important to note that power level was described as MWt (Megawatt thermal) i.e how much heat the the reactor produces. Not how much electricity is produced. The 700-1000MWt specification told here and in HBO's Chernobyl is a partial half truth/half lie. This was the test procedure that the USSR told the IAEA in 1987 was the power level specified for the test when they covered up the control rod design flaw. In 1991 after the USSR collapsed IAEA investigators got access to original test documentation and other documents previously unavailable. In the original documentation specified that the thermal power of the reactor had to be sufficient to run one of the two steam turbines at its operational speed of 3000rpm. For that 200MWt was enough to produce the steam required to get the turbine up to speed for the test.

At 3:10 it said that the minimum amount of control rods inserted in the reactor is 15. True and not true. During normal operation this was the regulation. The Soviet guidelines stated that in special circumstances this guideline could be overruled. The safety test was specified as a special circumstance. In effect the operators did not break the rules here. The rule book said they could do this. This is why they could shut down the emergency core cooling system.

At 4:00 it is said that the feed water flow was turned down. Not true. The exact opposite was done which was one of the causes that made accident possible. They turned up the feed water flow to 50 000m2/sec this caused the reactor to be over cooled which in turned caused the reactor to be even more unstable. It sounds weird but nuclear reactors are designed to run at full power were they are inherently stable. Cool reactors are highly unstable since they have high reactivity margin when they are cool. The hotter they get they lower their reactivity gets. That's why in normal operation a nuclear reactor won't go crazy because it is unable increase the speed of the chain reaction when it's up to full power.

 At 5:10 it is said that the graphite displacer may have caused the accident. IT WAS THE CAUSE. the graphite displacer was a 4, 5m long graphite rod below the boron rod that was the actual thing that stopped the chain reaction. When the control rod was fully withdrawn there was water below the graphite spacer. Water acts as an absorbent in an RBMK reactor, a type of brake that slows the chain reaction. At the night of the test the nuclear fuel was old and that in turn made the water highly absorbent meaning in liquid state the water acted a strong break. That in combination of the high Xe-135 content in the reactor and the over cooling was the cause that the operators simply could not increase the power even though they withdrew almost all of the control rods.

When Alexander Akimov pressed the AZ5 button to do an emergency shut down the reactor the graphite spacer pushed in to where the water was. This caused a power surge at the bottom of the reactor. The graphite spacer pushed the water i.e the brake away and power surged. When power surged the Xenon that had been slowing the reaction was "burned" away increasing power further. The fuel was cold and thus highly volatile meaning the reaction increase was more violent than it was during normal operation. The water started to boil and the positive void coefficient that was strong when the nuclear fuel was old lead to an further increase in the chain reaction. Normally nuclear fuel resists the increase in the chain reaction by getting hotter by expanding but because the power surge was so strong and fast the fuel elements could not expand fast enough to counter the surge in power.

At 7:15 it is said that it took 36 hours to make the order to evacuate Pripjat. Not true. The decision was made on Saturday evening and the preparations began at earnest. Say what you want about the Soviet system but they managed to evacuate a city of 50 000 in four hours in a orderly fashion. Try doing that in the west without panic.

 At 10:45 it stated that the WHO says that thousands of others have been killed over time. This a somewhat lazy way of stating their assessment. The WHO calculated in 2005 that in the cause of 60 years after the accident Chernobyl will cause 4000 premature deaths. This sounds a lot but one has to put in perspective that fossil fuel burning on the European continent alone will cause 20 000 premature deaths every year.