4. Timeline Reactor 4 is scheduled for maintenance on April 25 th , 1986 A regional power plant shuts down unexpectedly so the shutdown of reactor 4 is delayed. At 11:04, the reduction of power was allowed to continue, but the night crew on duty wasnât aware of the previous postponement so they decreased power too quickly. The reactorsâ power has been reduced to 50%. The test was to see if the reactorâs turbines' momentum could power the reactor until the backup generator came online. The reactor was slowed even more than the grid controller wanted, and a buildup of Xe-135 Even though the reactor was in a very unstable condition, the experiment began, at 1/3 of the necessary power, and none of the safety precautions. Water flow was increased, decreasing the absorption of neutron by the coolant. Steam was built up and Xe-135 was being burned extremely quickly starting a chain reaction. The control rods that were taken out previously were all put back in at the sign of a rapid increase in power, but they decreased the amount of coolant around them, which actually helped the nuclear reaction. At1:23:47 The control rods become stuck at 1/3 of the way in and a steam has built up because of the increased temperature causing a steam explosion. The steam traveled along the coolant lines and blew off the reactor lid. A graphite fire was started after the inward rush of oxygen. This greatly increased the distribution of radioactive materials across Europe.
5. The Reactor After the Explosion After the explosion, most of the plant is still standing. Some might think from this picture that the disaster wasnât all that bad, but what makes the Chernobyl disaster the worst in history is the sheer volume of radioactive materials that where spewed across three continents.
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10. Children of Chernobyl A father holding his son before radiotherapy A child with a scar from brain surgery Sasha, an orphan Mentally handicapped children in abandoned houses.
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14. Chernobyl Memorials A memorial to the firefighters who died after trying to stop the fires that engulfed the plant. They werenât even told there was radioactivity. A memorial to all of those who died at Chernobyl
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