On the 26th of April in 1986 one of the worst nuclear disasters in history occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. The number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant ended up exploding after several errors that occurred during a scheduled safety systems test. The explosions released large amounts of radioactive materials into the sky and it was spread over great distances by wind streams. The repercussions of the disaster are only now being better understood today.
The reactor type at Chernobyl was a RBMK type reactor. The reactor is a vertically oriented reactor that uses graphite as an insulator which also caused problems due to the combustibility of the graphite that was used. "The reactor fuel is zirconium alloy clad uranium oxide enriched to 2.0% U-235" (Mosey). The RBMK reactor also has two 500MWt reactors which operate safely at 100% power of 1000MWt. "Reactor control is achieved by means of 211 boron carbide absorber rods" (Mosey). The purpose......
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