One of the most tragic, devastating engineering disasters of the millennium. The aftermath of Chernobyl is still being felt throughout a vast area of Asia and Eastern Europe. Mutations are appearing amongst the children being born in the contaminated wasteland. “What caused this great tragedy?” you ask. You’re about to find out.

Chernobyl is a city located in the Ukraine near Belarus. This city is the site of a nuclear reactor at which the tragic nuclear meltdown took place. On April 25-26, 1986 Russian scientists, engineers, and workers begun to conduct experiments on Reactor No 4 at Chernobyl. The purpose of these experiments was to create a sufficient back-up supply of energy to support water pumps necessary to prevent overheating in the event of a shutdown.

The theory of the engineers and scientists was to harness the energy given off by the rotating turbines in the reactor during shutdown. These turbines, in theory, would produce enough energy to run the pumps for approximately 50 seconds. The reactor was also equipped with two turbo diesel generators. These generators, however, took 45-50 seconds to reach full power.

Previous testing on other reactors showed that although the turbines would give off enough energy to fill the gap, the voltage that was produced was too irregular. The engineers involved in the testing decided to modify the magnetic field regulator to stabilize the voltage output. To test the modifications, the reactor would have to be brought down to an extremely low, unstable power output. It is against safety regulations to bring a reactor down to this low level, because it is much more sensitive to fluctuation and is extremely unstable. The reactor was also at the end of its cycle, which meant it had a build-up of radioactive isotopes that made it even unstable.

Reactor No 4 was scheduled for maintenance and repairs, which meant old fuel rods, would be replaced with fresh, stable rods. Instead of waiting for this maintenance, the engineers and scientists decided to conduct their experiment right away. The control rods were slowly inserted into the reactor to reduce the power. This process was done gradually to reduce a build up of xenon gas, which causes a difficulty in control. Once the reactor was at half power, a generator was shutdown. The emergency cooling system was then shut down to prevent it from turning on during the test. Testing was then interrupted for nine hours while a large supply of energy was being demanded.

The testing continued that evening and the computer-controlled system was turned off and the controls were now at the hands of the scientists and engineers. The controls of the reactor were much more general at this point, and the rods in the reactor were now controlled as a whole rather that individually. As a result of this action, the reactor and steam power plummeted into the Danger Zone. At this point, the energy / stability levels were below safety levels. However, they still continued on with their experiment while having no concern for the consequences. Due to the severe drop in power, control rods were removed, which in turn caused the reactor to be unstable.

After several minute adjustments to the control rods and water flow, an all time stable low was reached. Some more adjustments to the water pressure were made to reduce steam bubbles, which also caused the temperature to drop, which in turn, resulted in less power being produced. Since such a small amount of power was being produced, the automatic control rods started pulling out to create more power. Some manual control rods were also removed to maintain a balance in power distribution. The automatic controls were then turned off because they were believed to be causing fluctuations in the controls. After a few more adjustments, a very low, delicate balance was achieved. The testing was ready to begin.

The emergency trip on the second generator was turned off, so if the scientists wanted to conduct the experiment for a second time, there would be another unit for use. Unfortunately, water flow begun to decrease, steam begun to build up, voids appeared, and the temperature rose. The scientists went too far. They went past the critical point at which there was no turning back. The power level surged and the control rods couldn’t be put back into the reactor in time. An uncontrolled chain reaction started and after 3-4seconds the reactors power went from 5% to 100 times its normal level. The fuel rods shattered and the water turned to steam, causing a tremendous increase in pressure. A thousand tons of steel and concrete exploded from the top of the reactor. The reactor shed its concrete housing without any hesitation. This was the beginning of the end of the entire surrounding environment.

Whose fault was it? The engineers, the scientists, the workers or the Government? The Government was known for pressuring all of them to hurry up on the job and to cut necessary corners. When reviewed in front of a board. In numerous accounts of safety violations were found and crucial, necessary testing was never conducted.