Quiz: What was the cause of Chernobyl

[IDMclean]

Very simple question people. I am not going to do the research for you, Feel free to post your answer as soon as you develop it.

 

What was the cause of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident?

[Farsight]

LOL, a safety test.

[InfiniteNow]

Very simple question people. I am not going to do the research for you...

You asked the question JackAC... :eek_big:

 

Well, to answer your question, "what was the cause of chernobyl?" -

 

Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of 1193 described as a hunting-lodge of knyaz Rostislavich. Some time later, it was taken into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where it became a crown village. The castle was built for defense against marauding Tatars. In 1566, three years before the Grand Duchy's rule, Ukrainian provinces were transferred to the Kingdom of Poland and Chernobyl was granted in perpetuity to a Captain of the royal cavalry, Filon Kmita, who thereafter styled himself Kmita Czarnobylski. In due course, it passed by marriage to the Sapiehas, and in 1703 to the Chodkiewicz family. It was annexed by the Russian Empire after the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.

 

The accident, however, was caused by a sudden surge of power which destroyed the reactor. Below is a link to a good article on the topic:

 

NRC: Backgrounder on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident

[IDMclean]

Popular, please give you answer in the form of a complete sentence.

[Edella]

Depending on who you ask, either disregard for safety procedures, flaws in the RBMK reactor or both. We may never know for certain...

 

Popular, please give you answer in the form of a complete sentence.

Be careful KAC, sentence structure, spelling and grammar are not your strengths.

[Farsight]

KickAss: OK OK. Complete sentences are here:

 

Chernobyl disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It's true. Honestly, I do have connections with all this stuff.

 

"During the daytime of April 25, 1986, reactor 4 was scheduled to be shut down for maintenance. It had been decided to use this occasion as an opportunity to test the ability of the reactor's turbine generator to generate sufficient electricity to power the reactor's safety systems (in particular, the water pumps) in the event of a loss of external electric power. This type of reactor requires water being continuously circulated through the core, as long as the nuclear fuel is present. Chernobyl's reactors have a pair of diesel generators available as standby, but these do not activate instantaneously—the reactor was, therefore, to be used to spin up the turbine, at which point the turbine would be disconnected from the reactor and allowed to spin under its own rotational momentum, and the aim of the test was to determine whether the turbines in the rundown phase could power the pumps while the generators were starting up. The test was successfully carried out previously on another unit (with all safety provisions active) with negative results - the turbines did not generate sufficient power, but additional improvements were made to the turbines, which prompted the need for another test..."

[IDMclean]

Walking in the right direction, Popular.

 

What was entailed by this test? What did they have to do to perform this test?

[infamous]

The unstable state of the reactor was not reflected in any way on the control panel. Nobody in the reactor control room seemed to understand the danger they were in. I remember seeing a documentary which also suggested that the fellow in charge of the test was very reluctant to take any advice from his subordinates when they eventually expressed their concern....................Infy

[Janus]

Here you go:

 

FRONTLINE: nuclear reaction: chernobyl

[IDMclean]

Bingo to Janus for the percise answer that I was looking for:

To compensate, the operators withdrew a majority of the reactor's control rods, but even with the rods withdrawn, they were unable to increase the power level to more than 30 megawatts, a low level of operation at which the reactor's instability potential is at its worst and that the Chernobyl plant's own safety rules forbade.

 

Though each of you contributed at least one peice to the puzzle.

 

The generally accepted reason that Chernobyl went into criticially unstable chain reaction mode is a mixture of things, of which removing the Carbon control rods was one of the greatest. Old style reactors had control rods that were held at given lengths from the reaction mass by ropes. If the Reactor showed signs of instability a fireax would be used to cut the ropes and drop the control rods into the reaction mass and hopefully put out the reaction.

 

Chernobyl, in my high school research I found was execptional for it's use stupidity in the accident. It sounded almost like something that should make it into the darwin awards to me. They removed the carbon rods. On top of that the design that was used was inheriently unstable, the central control faulty, the staff undereducated, the management negligent and the emergency core-coolant system disabled.

 

I mean in reading off the reason for the Chernobyl accident, it's like reading exactly what you should not do in running a nuclear power plant.

 

I would appreciate any comments, insights, refutations or otherwise. Cheers :evil:

[Jay-qu]

I was always under the impression that the russian scientists where pushing the reactor beyond its limits, and it concequently overloaded.

[Tormod]

I always thought it was a problem with the duct tape not being radiation proof. :)

[infamous]

I always thought it was a problem with the duct tape not being radiation proof. :)

Lol, Ha,ha,ha,.........good one Tormod. I would add to your rep for that little piece of trvia but I'll need to spread some around first..........................Infy

[Boerseun]

...and I always thought it was because the manuals were all written in Russian! :)

[eric l]

...and I always thought it was because the manuals were all written in Russian! :doh:

 

Since Chernobyl is in the Ukraine, this may have been a problem.

[Buffy]

Since Chernobyl is in the Ukraine, this may have been a problem.

Oh my. Since we're prolly gonna start building them here in the US again, we'd better start writing the manuals in Hindi and Chinese since we'll obviously outsource all the labor...

 

Control rod,

Buffy

[gribbon]

I always thought it was a problem with the duct tape not being radiation proof.

 

Are you suggesting that Russian science is in any way inferior to Western science?:confused:

 

The causes of Chernobyl:

 

.The Reactor type was an RBMK, whereas a CANDU, PHWR, LMFBR or a PWR and many other types would have a containment vessel.

 

.The manufacturers left the graphite tips of the end of the control rods, so the reaction could not be controlled as well.

 

.The reactor had a large positive void coefficient. The RBMK is prone to generating vastly more power if the temperature increases, and is very unstable at low power levels as well. If the temperature increases for whatever reason, steam bubbles form in the cooling system, the neutrons strike the Uranium faster because of this (therefore generating power less efficiently, but in a greater quantity), and yet this is further compounded because of the graphite used to moderate the neutrons. (Graphite slows neutrons down alot quicker than other moderators.)

 

.The slow speed of the control rod insertion mechanism and temporary displacement of the coolant caused the neutron's to be slowed, and hence rate of reaction to increase.

 

.The scientists were ordered to do a safety test that would push the reactor well beyond it's safe limits. They advised against it, but were told to continue anyway. There were some good, but not essential reasons why the Soviet governemnt did this. They wanted to overcome the neutron absorption of the Xenon-135, and so only raised the power level to an unstable 200MW, in order to counteract the neutron slowing effect the Xenon-135 would be having on the system, placing stress on these components. The water flow then increased, and so the rate of reaction also increased, becuase the Neutrons were being slowed down.

 

Simple really.:cheer:

 

I used this source:

 

Chernobyl disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia