CHERNOBYL AZ-5 why it exploded

A visual explanation of why Chernobyl's RBMK reactor exploded with meticulously modelled 3d animation without going overboard on reactor physics. This was the worst case example of nuclear power going awry.

Explained are:
The role of the AZ-5 emergency shutdown button The end effect design flaw
Xenon poisoning
The actions of Anatoly Dyatlov.
Graphite moderator.

The reactor lid "Elena" or upper biological shield is shown being thrown by the explosion.

The main systems are explained, reactor, coolant circulation pumps, steam separators and turbine generators.

The control room is visualized and location of the AZ-5 button is shown.

The explosion scene has been simulated and recreated. There is no footage so it's my best guess of what the explosion looked like.

0:00 Intro
1:18 Systems
2:13 Graphite
3:12 Control rods
3:56 Design flaw
4:28 The test
5:42 Xenon
6:32 AZ-5 button
8:44 Explosion
9:43 Accountability
11:01 Safer reactors

Music by Borrtex:
Process, Light, Fog in the street, We are saved, Universe, Wondering, Light.

Software:
Blender 2.83
Hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 S

#Chernobyl #RBMK #AZ-5 #documentary #explosion #blender #nucler power

[xaviersands]

“Fireman said they warmed their hands over the graphite on the ground” that gave me chills

[karlkarlsson]

Interesting fact: Sweden was one of the first countries to notice that something had gone terribly wrong when the workers at a Swedish nuclear power-plant couldn't go through their own detectors without having them going off, they thought there was something wrong with their detectors until they tracked the radiation to Chernobyl, and expected the worse, so they picked up the phone and called them and received an answer that everything was OK and nothing bad had happened, so then Sweden called the US and explained the situation.

[VonSchpam]

8:12 With the press of a single button, Anatoly Dyatlov had solved the entirety of Russia's energy needs for 8 whole seconds .

[venator]

When the button supposed to kill the reactor takes the word literally.

[rocket]

When you complete the five year plan energy production in less than 15 seconds. Smart move

[erikhendrickson]

The amount of energy required to send the two MILLION pound reactor lid 100' in the air is absolutely terrifying!

[wholesomesandwich]

how ironic, chernobyl exploded because of a safety test and pressing the emergency shutdown button

[iananderson]

The transitions from the the animation to the real reactor were amazing.

[Coalgate_frsh]

Go to sleep at midnight: ✖️
Stay up till 2am watching a compilation of videos on chernobyl: ✔️

[mod_]

amazingly explained
amazingly presented
amazingly narrated
amazingly animated

[JiTiAr]

"It's cheaper"

Comrade Legasov

[tinman]

What is sad is that the engineers who built and operated the reactor were not stupid. They were, as most nuclear engineers generally are, brilliant people. The problem is that in a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet Union, bureaucracy and politics often overrule sound engineering. The saying, "When science meets politics, politics always wins", might apply here. A lot of group-think, a system that discouraged anyone speaking up, and pressure to just make things work resulted in a disaster that cost many brave men and women their lives. Thankfully the lessons learned have led to improvements around the world.

[brianmuhlingBUM]

"This is like a car motor increasing power to encounter a jambed hand brake." What a great explanation!
This is a great short explanation of the Chernobyl Disaster.

[mikaelandersson]

This is probably the best and most interesting video I've even seen on the Chernobyl accident. The focus on the reactor physics among with the 3D models made all the difference compared to other videos mostly focusing on the consequences. I've shared the link to this video to a large Facebook group with focus on nuclear energy, hope this gives you many more views. Greetings from a NPP worker in Sweden :)

[jerryumfress]

I worked for GE back in the 1980s. We were working at a nuclear power plant in Arkansas when our electrical supervisor called us altogether to meet in the electrical shop. Quietly in hushed tones he explained to us that Chernobyl had just exploded. We couldn't believe it. We thought about all those engineers, mechanics, operators, health physics personnel had been killed instantly and that more would die later on. To us it was a tragedy way beyond what anyone could imagine. Some of us began to pray for those workers and their families, that somehow God would offer comfort. I've never forgotten that terrible day

[JohnWilliams-fygo]

Just breath taking, you answered my little questions like why the control room is scavenged up till today

[therustynut]

Night shift “ dude I bet you $20 I can kick flip the reactor lid”

[erikziak]

Let one thing be clear: The reactor did not behave in a way that was not known. It was known. But it was the policy of secrecy, suppressing information and general paranoia in the Soviet Union, that led to this disaster. The operators were highly skilled and professional. There was no "pressure" present (as depicted in the HBO series). They were cautious and confident in what they were doing. The problem is, they were not told the full story, the truth about the RBMK reactor and its design. Until the disaster at Chernobyl NPP, safety concerns were only from the viewpoint of how to protect workers from the radiation of the reactor. After Chernobyl, the safety shifted in how to protect the reactor from operator error. This was a very valuable lesson learned. The automatic reactor control and safety systems had to be manually disabled by operators at Chernobyl in order to do the test. They worked against the safety protocols and were aware of it. If they knew the full truth about how the reactor behaves in those conditions, they would have never ever do what they did. This was not the first time that this test went wrong. The Leningrad incident ten years before Chernobyl made this clear. Lucky for them, at Leningrad, they performed the test with a "fresh" reactor, which was not operated for extended periods of time. At Chernobyl, the fuel rods were burned up much more. The operational reactivity margin was way lower, which resulted in even more control rods to be withdrawn, making the reactor extremely unstable. The lesson learned from Chernobyl: Protect the reactor from human error. Today it is impossible to manually withdraw more control rods than is safe. Also design changes were made to the control rods, removing the graphite displacers with steel ones. The efficiency dropped a little and the fuel enrichment had to be raised a bit to compensate for that. I cannot stress this enough: The reactor did not fail. It was the human operators who failed. The design of the reactor was known to have certain issues and the designers knew of them. But the operators were not told the full truth. Even worse, after the incident at Leningrad NPP, where a similar test resulted in an almost identical result, the full truth about the reactor was not told to the operators. Human error and a paranoid mindset made the Chernobyl accident happen. The technology did not fail in any way. It was a human mistake and error. The lesson from Chernobyl is clear: If you do something, you must know at each point in time what you are doing and understand what, how and why works. If critical information is being kept from you, you inevitably make a mistake, sooner or later. All the natural laws are known and the reactor was designed properly. There was absolutely no miscalculation or misunderstanding in the laws of nature. There was just human error. The operators are not to blame. The whole culture is to blame, if it is poisoned by unnecessary secrecy and paranoia. Also, we need to protect delicate technology from humans the same way we protect humans (and the whole environment) from dangerous things like radiation, chemicals, etc.

[NealB]

There were people at Chernobyl who made really bad decisions that, combined with design flaws in the reactor, lead to the disaster. But there were far more heroes present who limited the disaster to only the one reactor and prevented it from spreading to the other reactors. If the fires raging in the turbine hall had engulfed the other three reactors, much of Europe would be uninhabitable today.

[allahsnackbar]

seeing that massive system of pipes i can only imagine how many hours of plumbing alone went into the construction