However, toxic emissions continued to be pumped into the atmosphere for an additional 10 days. The initial fire was stifled by about 5 a.m., but the resulting graphite-fueled fire took 10 days and 250 firefighters to extinguish, according to the NEA. For the next several days, as emergency crews tried desperately to contain the fires and radiation leaks, the death toll climbed as plant workers succumbed to acute radiation sickness. The explosions killed two plant workers - the first of several workers to die within hours of the accident.
#NUCLEAR REACTOR MELTDOWN ARCHIVE#
The Chernobyl elephant foot: a man in protective clothing standing near a large lump of material (Image credit: Universal History Archive / Getty Images) Radioactive fallout Toxic fumes and dust were carried by the blowing wind, bringing fission products and the noble gas inventory of naturally-occurring odorless and colorless gases with it. Radioactive debris of fuel and reactor components rained over the area while fire spread from the building housing reactor 4 to adjacent buildings. on April 26, destroying reactor 4 and initiating a booming fire, according to the NEA. The excess steam was created by the reduction of the cooling water, which caused steam to build up in the cooling pipes - the positive-void coefficient - which caused an enormous power surge that the operators could not shut down. While there is still some disagreement over the actual cause of the explosion, it is generally believed that the first was caused by an excess of steam and the second was influenced by hydrogen. Reactor 4 had been shut down the day before in order to perform the maintenance checks to safety systems during potential power outages, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). This caused the reactor to reach dangerously unstable and low-power levels. Operators were planning to test the electrical systems when they turned off vital control systems, going against the safety regulations. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). The explosion occurred on April 26, 1986, during a routine maintenance check, according to the U.N. As the nuclear core heated and produced more steam bubbles, the core became more reactive, not less, creating a positive-feedback loop that engineers refer to as a "positive-void coefficient." What happened during the nuclear explosion? But the RBMK-1000 used graphite to moderate the core's reactivity and to keep a continuous nuclear reaction occurring in the core. In most nuclear reactors, water is also used as a coolant and to moderate the reactivity of the nuclear core by removing the excess heat and steam, according to the World Nuclear Association. RBMK reactors were of a pressure tube design that used an enriched U-235 uranium dioxide fuel to heat water, creating steam that drives the reactors' turbines and generates electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Chernobyl plant used four Soviet-designed RBMK-1000 nuclear reactors - a design that's now universally recognized as inherently flawed. A black and white image of the smoking, damaged building and reactor (Image credit: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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