Facts about Chernobyl
The type of reactor used at the Chernobyl facility was classified as the most dangerous type in history. It is called an RBMK Reactor. What happens is when it is in use, it produces something called "xenon-135" ("Chernobyl Disaster"). Xenon-135 causes the reactor to become uncontrollable and increases reactivity.
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When construction started on the sarcophagus (seen on right) scientist's that worked on the reactor previously, entered the reactor again to find out what happened to the control rods and determine what caused them to empty ("Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor", 2014).
The sarcophagus is being built to hold in all the excess radiation in hopes of protecting the land surround the facility.
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In the wake of the accident, the remaining three reactors were turned back on despite the fourth reactor is leaking radioactive material into the air ("Nuclear Energy", 2006).
At this point the government had poured sand and concrete on the destroyed reactor the help stop the radiation from spreading ("Chernobyl",2014). |
At the time of the meltdown, the power plant was in a mandatory routine shutdown (Marples, 2004). This shutdown was to make sure that all of their safety systems were working and in place (Marples, 2004). In the RBMK Reactor type, they were required to have more safety checks than other reactors because they are known as the least reliable type in history ("Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor", 2014).
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