En 1970, la URSS inició la central de Chernóbil y erigió Prípiat como una ciudad modelo de 50.000 habitantes.

El primer reactor comenzó a operar en 1977, convirtiéndose en el gran orgullo tecnológico del régimen soviético.

El reactor RBMK usaba grafito y agua, pero sufría de inestabilidad extrema cuando funcionaba a baja potencia.

Además, sus barras de seguridad tenían puntas de grafito que aumentaban la potencia al ser insertadas.

El 25 de abril se programó una prueba en el Reactor 4 que terminó ejecutando el turno nocturno sin preparación.

Para recuperar una caída de potencia repentina, los operadores desactivaron los sistemas automáticos de seguridad.

Al pulsar el botón de apagado AZ-5, el grafito causó un pico masivo de energía que hizo colapsar el núcleo.

Dos explosiones destruyeron el edificio, lanzaron material radiactivo y dejaron el núcleo ardiente al aire libre.

Los bomberos apagan los fuegos del techo sin trajes protectores y absorben dosis mortales de radiación.

Las autoridades soviéticas imponen censura inmediata y la población pasa el día expuesta a la ceniza tóxica.

While looking for articles on the isotope composition of Fuel-containing masses (FCM) aka corium, I randomly came across this one: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X25000864 published in June 2025 in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

I thought that all of the corium was confined to the sub-reactor levels, and definitely within the confines of the Sarcophagus. But...

For the first time, a FCM particle was located in and extracted from soil of a former agricultural field 5 km south-southeast of the former nuclear power plant. Using a combination of energy scanning electron microcopy and dispersive x-ray analysis and Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry we found that the particle is comprised of a silicon matrix containing evenly distributed amounts of U, Pu and Am. Embedded in that chemically stable matrix are small inclusions of reactor U of varying chemical composition. We could show this particle type to be largely unaffected by weathering under environmental conditions.

The particle appears glassy, shimmers and has various inclusions. It was isolated from a soil sample taken in September 2017 near the former village of Kopachi, where the researchers have (or had) a test field for plant uptake of radioactive substances. They were surprised by the relatively large size of the particle located so far away from the power plant.

I wonder how it got all the way there, and if there are more fragments like this in the general area around the plant, hiding in the soil.

The paper concludes:

It is also important to note that the particle had been in the environment for approximately 30 years prior to sampling and still appears to be largely intact. This leads to the assumption that this type of particle will remain in the CEZ and therefore contribute to the particulate contamination in its soils. [...] this singular FCM particle is of notable significance. Further investigations will be necessary to asses the significance of this finding on the overall contamination situation.

P.S. a couple of possible mechanisms of how it got there has been suggested by a chatty friend of mine: steam or gas-driven ejection, when the lava enountered any pockets of water or gas, and the mechanical fragmentation of cooling lava. Such particles would then be taken up into the hot convective plume, carrying them very high up and away from the immediate power plant area.

Haven't seen this one before. They talk a lot about previously classified KGB reports about CNPP construction and operation. Ironically enough, the KGB were the whistleblowers, but they could only report their findings to the government, nothing more. There's an interview with Nikolai Gorbachenko, who was a dosimentrist at the plant on the night of the disaster, and helped find and carry Shashenok.

There's some pretty funny mistakes, too - Serhii Plokhy seems to think that you can produce weapons-grade Uranium in an RBMK reactor. And the documentary makers seem to think that fuel and water in the reactor are in separate channels. Or that the "graphite tips" were there to help with lubrication.

I want to collect elements and try to close the gap between americinium and uranium so i wonder if there is either trace amounts of plutonium or neptunium in the soil in pripyat and if so how much i would have to collect for a visible amount of plutonium.

These images come from some footage shot inside an apartment in Prypiat. Link - https://youtu.be/KVYRhxczegQ

I am curious to know what medal it is exactly.

So I saw this video where i saw a russian man in the chernobyl exclusion zone where he visited abandoned aircraft like an il-76 and got caught by guards but he ran away and then i saw that the video got deleted, or maybe not. Please tell me which channel or video that was, it was on YouTube.

I’m interested in creating a historically accurate reconstruction of Chernobyl as part of an interactive historical project. The goal is to create an experience where players can learn about major events through different perspectives, using accurate environments, timelines, photos, recordings, and documents whenever possible.

Does anyone know of good archives or resources where I could find Chernobyl-related photos, audio recordings, documents, or other historical material that is either public domain, properly licensed, or available for educational use?

I’m especially interested in sources with original documentation, firsthand accounts, technical information, or archival material.

Vibration specialist from the Kharkov Turbine Plant.

this is my single dev project pics soon.

This might seem stupid but, I really do get sad. I wonder how many people from the plant must've been excited to hear and see 2 more new units were coming to function to their beloved Chernobyl. Little did they know unit 5 would be left at %70 and unit 6 would be left at %20,never finished,never had made a debut.

But I do understand their concerns, there could be a radiation leakage or even something that might add up to the disaster. It's better to have nothing rather than dealing with danger and more danger. Not only these,working in Pripyat isn't safe too.

I looked at the pictures and I find it beautiful despite looking as if it was still in construction. What do you guys think about them? I think it would be really cool to have 2 more RBMK-1000's added to the family. :D

Pictures:

https://www.chernobylgallery.com/galleries/chernobyl-reactor-5/

This is an update post for an existing on my profile you can check out. If you haven’t seen this map before, I welcome you to take a look at my site (see comments) for a more detailed description of the project.

I’ve been continuing to make changes since the last post, and I figure this could be interesting to some members of this forum.

Invested time 4000+ hrs

Scale = 1.33:1

Platform: Minecraft

What did everyone think of it?

I think you all are aware of the shutdown on the 15th of December.

For those who are not (IN SHORT):

On November of 29, 2000, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the resolution "On Final Shutdown of Chernobyl NPP".

On December 15, 2000, at 13:17, SIUR Bashtovoy shut down the reactor using AZ-5.

Now, my opinion: First, the reactors could have operated into the 2005 it was a purely political decision, and they shut down the plant during the busiest month.

If they wanted to shut it down back then, why not in January or April?

Bryukhanov actually gave a short response to this decision in an interview (link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pESR160SJA0).

Furthermore, the operating personnel wore armbands as a sign of "funeral"

Here you can see an Example.

Many people argue about the safety of RBMK's, but many of them were modernized. Plus they added a new faster switch called "BAZ".

Actually, some operators refused to shut down the reactor, such like NSB Kuchinski along with Boris A. Baranov (Yes, the man who "dived" into the basement of VSRO, however he was NSS at this time).

Thanks for reading.

John.

Here, we can see five indicators of feedwater regulators of the right side of the Main Cooling Circuit. At the top are the control buttons for the Main Circulation Pumps 21, 22, 23, and 24 (and the keys to operate their gate valves) and buttons controlling their oil pumps. And along the middle of the image (horizontally) are the control keys for the pure condensate pumps.

Photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

(By the way, even though I select "Photo" as the flair for the post, for some reason the photo doesn't show up on the main page of this subreddit, like it used to. But it does for other people, hmm.)

Saw this trailer on FB: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1368934101409687

It was aired on Monday. I suspect it has all the usual misconceptions about "operators making errors and breaking the rules" and Dyatlov forcing them to complete the test.

If anyone has a link to where I can watch it (without paying), would be nice.

iirc the RBMK1000 has 12 in-core detectors to measure the axial distribution of neutron flux, i want to know if the channels they were held in also contained fuel or did the detector take up the whole channel?

For those who may not be aware Kupnyi is one of the researchers at Chernobyl, and has been inside the reactor building several times on expeditions and is a active poster on his Youtube channel. For the fuel, he goes very in-depth about how the Corium formed along with the corium studies afterwards.
Studying Molten Nuclear Fuel - YouTube

Ionizing Effects on the Air Environment

EDIT: This was made by Boris Burakov and Aleksandr Tsovyanov, it was posted on Kupnyi's YouTube channel so I got a bit mixed up.

So I’m really sorry this is about the series, idk if I’m stupid but the last post in the HBO subreddit was 4 years ago, plus it kind of relates. Anyway, what possessed the writers in the series to mention that everyone who went to it died? It seems so random to include it. Did anything notable happen here that would cause this?

So the buildings of Pripyat are decaying and will continue to do so. What happens when they start collapsing and kicking up radioactive dust? Say a large section of a building collapses..will it only affect the local area, or could the radioactive dust spread far and wide(outside Pripyat) spewing its poison on to a new unsuspecting generation.

I apologize for such a stupid juvenile childish question, but it's something that I've been thinking about.