The fuel rods are the powerhouse of the core and are composed of uranium atoms. This design is not implemented in the same way in any other nuclear reactors in the world. In an RBMK reactor, water has two jobs: Keep things cool and slow the reaction down. The water is critical to understanding what happened at Chernobyl. RBMK is an acronym for Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalniy, which translates to "high power channel-type reactor." The Russian nuclear program developed the technology for RBMK reactors throughout the '50s, before the first RBMK-1000 reactor began construction at Chernobyl in 1970. So we've dug through the radioactive quagmire to bring you the science behind Chernobyl's RBMK reactor explosion - and the reasons we're not likely to see it happen again. Even Chernobyl's engineers couldn't fully grasp the consequences of their actions. The term "positive void coefficient" gets thrown around and that's not a term you hear every day. Along with politician Boris Shcherbina and physicist Ulana Khomyuk, the trio detail the key reasons behind the disaster and squarely point to the failings of those officials, including chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov, as the cause for the plant's explosion.īut we're talking about nuclear physics here. Valery Legasov, the chief of the commission tasked with investigating the disaster, takes part in the trial of three power plant officials responsible for the explosion and its immediate aftermath. Moments after the reactor explosion, Chernobyl burns. The final episode, which aired on June 3, finally revealed the truth of that April morning in 1986. Over its five episodes, Chernobyl constantly moved toward answering one question - "How?" - and we've wanted to skip ahead and find the answers out for ourselves. Google Trends shows a huge spike in searches for terms related to the science of the show: "RBMK reactor", "nuclear reactor" and "radiation sickness" have all seen huge leaps since Chernobyl's TV debut. We know Chernobyl really happened - and the hard-nosed, honest approach to the disastrous meltdown only served to heighten that curiosity. At every step, Chernobyl touched on the ineptitude of Russian governance, the uncompromising courage of the liquidators tasked with cleaning up the site, the weight that hung over the shoulders of every scientist investigating the disaster and the stark reality of atomic power.īut Chernobyl's crowning achievement is how it inspired an immense scientific curiosity in its viewers through the horror.
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