One man pressing one wrong button triggered the nuclear disaster which rocked the world and spilled nuclear waste intothousands of people’s homes.
In the early hours of 26 April 1986, a planned test on Reactor 4 at theChernobyl Nuclear Power Plantwent catastrophically wrong. Engineers were working to see how thenuclear reactorwould act in the event of a nuclear attack triggering a power cut to Chernobyl.
Systemic design flaws in the RBMK reactor - coupled with inadequate understanding of those flaws by staff operating it - resulted in the world's worst nuclear disaster: Reactor 4 exploded.
Regarded as a cutting-edge nuclear power plant – a triumph of USSR engineering - according to theYouTube channel Chernobyl Family.
The nuclear power station was built nine miles north-west of Chernobyl, with the city of Pripyat built at roughly the same time, exclusively as accommodation for those employed at the power plant.
In September 1981, Reactor 1 experienced a partial meltdown - however, the damage was minimal and the incident was not disclosed to the public until several years afterwards.
READ MORE:Not Pompeii or Chernobyl – buried town lays ‘trapped in time’
READ MORE:Chernobyl survivor details what they’ll 'remember on their deathbed' 40 years on
In the spring of 1986, Reactor 4 had recently been brought online and had started generating power, yet a number of tests still needed to be conducted.
This test was intended to establish how long turbines would continue spinning and supplying power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of primary electrical power supply (in the event of, for instance, a nuclear attack).
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
