Chernobyl Disaster: Design Flaws and Operational Errors

The main causes of the Chernobyl disaster can be categorized into two sections, which are design flaws and also staff operation errors. In fact, the design flaws existed due to the application of Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalniy (RMBK) reactor. In general, the reactor core of RMBK is unstable when the energy production is lower than a quarter of maximum power (around 700 MW). In other words, the process control of the reactor is very hard to perform and therefore it has high possibility to have runaway reaction during its operation. The runaway reaction can be very dangerous as it is able to exaggerate rapidly within short period of time. Supposing, any design of reactor core should be able to squelch the runaway reaction automatically. However, RBMK does not have this feature. Regardless the lack of safety features from the reactor

Based on the operating procedures, the operators actually had violated two most important elements in the operation, which are not to run the reactor for any moment if the power level is reduced below 700MW and never operated it if there are less than 30 control rods is fully inserted into the reactor core. Other than the violation of the operating procedures, the reactor system also neglected some safety measures, such as emergency water injection, and safety interlock system for automatic emergency shut-down [7,9]. Nevertheless, it is clear that the operators did not have decent training on the reactor operation and unable to detect the hazardous characteristic of the actions taken towards the reactor problems. Addition to that weakness, the operating procedures, either normal orders or detailed instructions for the test, are not explained adequately. In fact, it gives uncertainty and doubts to the operators to take the corrective action to tackle the problems and finally it does not make in time to do right