Why RBMK explodes when the AZ-5 fails? RBMK design flaw ||| PART 8 ||| Chernobylite Stories

Wishlist Chernobylite 2:

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You heard that the AZ-5 was the reason behind Chernobyl, right? Partially. It was a huge RBMK design flaw, but here we explain why was it so important. Spoiler alert: the USSR knew about it 11 years before Chernobyl disaster... and didn't do nothing.

#Chernobyl #RBMK #ChernobylStories

[robertliskey]

Your work is fantastic! Thank you from a 69 year old historian in the USA.

[ptonpc]

Compare this to the AGR of Hunterston in Scotland (A common design in the UK at the time). It used gas as a primary coolant instead of water. The idea being the coolant itself could be not be made radioactive and any drop in pressure would activate the control rods automatically. The same for a loss of power. A SCRAM could also be commanded. If all else failed, boron granules would drop into the reactor to kill any fusion and the reactor.

[christinemcdonald]

Sometimes it amazes me that they could do something so complex. In that day in age. With the then current state of computers with there limitations at that time. I’m surprised more didn’t blow up. The only thing that saved the others were there strict safety protocols.

[hemfri]

Nicly done, here is your faithfull wacher, and you made excelent compare with the "bicicle parts, hurry and garaž" I like the graphics that you have done in this video-i love it, just one more thing Andžrej(correct me if i wrote wrogly your name), make a video about low enriched uranium, beacouse of rbmk reactor cores were sooo huge, and i love how you ended with words "And that's how rbmk reactor explodes :)" I love your videos, keep on💪

[jeese]

Thank you, for nice videos and dedication to such an interesting topic!
I think you still missed a few key points here.
Reducing power and use of the powerplant at half power several hours prior to the tests ie. xenon poisoning which led operators in trouble trying to keep reactor running.
And one more desingn flaw in the control rod system, the graphite followers witch were too short and caused a power rise in bottom of the reactor when AZ-5 was triggered.
Either of these issues fixed could propably have saved from catastroph.

[kainhall]

so.... power was RAPIDLY increasing before AZ-5 was pressed (as i understand it)
so they were headed for AT LEAST a steam explosion (or at least a pipe bursting and releasing the pressure)
.
ive also heard that it probably went prompt critical.... not an explosion like a nuke.... but more like a "conflagration"
still... its a HUGE release of energy close to a nuke bomb
they also found isotopes that confirm this
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so... did A-5 cause this prompt critiality?
and if they didnt press would have the top lid still have come off?

[cascadianrangers]

The fact that they built so many of these and ran them hard for decades is really remarkable, that there was only one major meltdown and accident is remarkable.

I look at all the technical details of the meltdown as the end result of a disaster. To use the car metaphor, they tried to test the seatbelt and lack of air bags by driving it into a wall. You don't test safety features by seeing if they prevent a catastrophy. The fate of #4 was sealed the moment they decided to do the turbine rundown and physically closed the valves on the emergency cooling system. They were warned and should have known better. No complex machine can be built 100% safe, there is always a compromise between function and safety...you can build in as many safety interlocks and features as you want, but someone else is going to build a person dumb enough to circumvent or ignore them. RBMK 1000 was flawed but the Soviet system and the reactor employees fucked around and found out.

[awesomeluis]

I thought rbmk reactors exploded because of lies. Lol. Seriously though, thank you for uploading such interesting and easy to understand content. Keep up the good work. 👍

[swokatsamsiyu]

When I saw the new episode show up in my YT feed it was like; "Yes! Let's get the tea ready, it's going to be good." And again, the video did not disappoint. Very well done, and loads of good info. I particularly liked the building a car analogy at the start of the video because it is so true. They really made sure to give the poor reactor every unfavourable characteristic in the Physics book, make it as cheaply and poorly as possible, and to add insult to injury, give it no proper containment to speak of. The excruciatingly slow insertion time of the control rods is just criminal. 18 to 21 seconds, at that point it might as well be 18 to 21 hours because that will be just as useful in an emergency situation. What were they thinking?! For comparison, the core of the Canadian CANDU will come to a screeching halt in 1.5(!) seconds. And that is by no means a small reactor. It even shares the same positive void coefficient (albeit much smaller) feature the RBMK has. Despite that, it is deemed one of the safest, most stable reactors out there. Have a good one, and now I have to wait another week for the next episode^^

[carlcoppola]

I've been watching a lot of your videos and I like all them I'm very interested in Chernobyl I would like if you would do a video about reactor too I think it was like 91 maybe and it had a fire in the turbine Hall do you did a video about that

[Whitpusmc]

Could they have saved the reactor by more gradually lowering control rods?

[LolUGotBusted]

Video and content is great.


'Nail in the grave' is a little weird. 'Nail in the coffin' is 'the beginning of the end' or something that is a step closer to failure or disaster.

[scottgrover]

Where the three units that didn't blow up at Chernobyl and the ones in Leningrad as dangerous as the ones that did melt down, or were the operators as good or better on the ones that didn't melt down?

[kainhall]

whats the difference between AZ-5 and AZ-4/3/2/1?
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is it just the speed of insertion? how many rods get inserted?

[am]

Their design was way too complicated... Way too Byzantine... Way too Rube Goldberg. They literally could have done away with half of the duplicate systems, and designed something which actually worked. They could have halved the amount of systems needed for fission, and doubled the amount of systems used for cooling, and perhaps the reactor wouldn't have exploded. Leave it to the Russians to label the button "AZ-5" instead of "SCRAM"!

[aramastorian]

Why the green walls update is 10 month late for xbox series x?

[markdavis]

Blind loyalty to the Union allows this type of disaster. The freedom to object is the greatest safety mechanism. The USA is making this same mistake with its support of Trump and his blind loyalty requirement.

[vladimirerfan]

Binge watching these - not disappointed! 🙏