Vlad
April 26th, 2006, 04:47 PM
It was today April 26, 1986 that Reactor Number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station became unstable during a test run. The reactor was an RBMK-1000 Nuclear Fission Reactor used to generate electricity. There were 2 explosions, the first was due to extreme pressure that built up and blew the top off the reactor itself. The second was the fuel rods breaking up sending a large radioactive cloud over the Ukraine and most of Europe. That was 20 years ago today and the town of Chernobyl is still deserted due to high levels of radiation. It will still be several more years before anything can live there due to the radioactivity. It is considered the worst Nuclear disaster in history. It was discovered after the accident that the RBMK-1000 had a design flaw, but that did not cause the accident. It was caused be operator error, the safety system had engaged, but its warnings were ignored until the reaction was too unstable to regain control over it causing the explosions. All four reactors at the Chernobyl Plant have been permanently taken offline.