Comments on: What Happened at Chernobyl?

By: ishdeep

ishdeep — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:20:20 +0000

mehak, the radio active particles are so light that the can be carried away by winds. when the particles were released, they mixed withn the clouds above chernobyl and the clouds got carried away by winds and started to spread. and thus, it reached japan.

By: mahak

mahak — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 04:27:46 +0000

nice …vry useful…bt still it isnt up 2 date//…like the 2011 disaster…i nvr undrstud dat if chernobyl is near ukraine den how did it effect japan…presently….???….

By: Bas van Dam

Bas van Dam — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:12:30 +0000

Thank you for this article; it’s very clear. A reference in an excellent Wikipedia entry let me here. I’m an electronics engineer, so i know little about nuclear power, but i love to know how things work..
I also read the article on Xenon-135 poisoning and it’s effects. Also very clear.

But now to the Chernobyl situation just before things went wrong: The reactor had produced excessive amounts of Xenon-135 due to the prolonged low-power setting, as i understand.

What would be the operating procedure to handle an excess buildup of Xe-135? Would it not be to shut down and wait until the excess Xe-135 had decayed?

The Wikipedia entry states that Leonid Toptunov; an operator with only three months experience had ‘mistakenly’ lowered the control rods too far; reducing power to a near shutdown. Subsequently the rods were withdrawn fully to up the power again.
Would it be possible Toptunov just followed textbook rules? Shutdown and let the Xe-135 poisoning subside by natural decay; thus to avoid runaway conditions?
And then he was could have been overruled?
With best regards,
Bas, The Netherlands

By: Andrew Blanco

Andrew Blanco — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:34:41 +0000

Que viva España!

By: Andrés Aldebarán

Andrés Aldebarán — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:25:02 +0000

The Three Mile Incident cannot be compared to Chernobyl. I appreciate your description and from the technical point of view is quite accurate (I am myself engineer in a Nuclear Power Plant in Spain) but I find quite arrogant all your remarks that lead to think that something like that could NEVER happen in America. Of course we all hope it doesn’t, but the Fukushima plant had evenmore fail-safes than most american plants.

By: P.Eng

P.Eng — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:11:27 +0000

Great comment Kana!
Chernobyl plant crew obviously made many mistakes which led to the biggest nuclear disaster ever. However, I am kind of sick and tired of overstatements as to how US laws and security policies are so much better and tighter than those elsewhere and how similar disaster could never happen in US. Look what just happened in Japan. If they don’t have the highest security standards, subordination and highly educated personnel, I don’t know who has. Yet, they had three reactor buildings blown into pieces. Nobody wants accidents but they can happen anywhere. Keep that in mind before you start bragging and criticizing and learn to be sympathetic.

By: Kana

Kana — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:18:42 +0000

I bet you feel stupid now.

By: Jack Gamble

Jack Gamble — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:39:54 +0000

A LWR Containment structure would withstand a Chernobyl style explosion, yes. At the very least, any hypothetical breaches would be small compared to the tin roof of the RBMK reactors.

By: peter lav

peter lav — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:08:17 +0000

Just a clarification, would a containment built to U.S. standards fail if a chernobyl style reactor failed inside it, in the way the Russion reactor failed? I think you mean “no”, but I’m not sure.

By: Brian Mays

Brian Mays — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:10:02 +0000

No. It would have exploded into a thick, reinforced-concrete containment building.