Role of separate factors in the development of the chernobyl accident

Nuclear Energy

“…Where the coolant also serves as moderator, this follows automatically. Although other factors contributed to its severity, the Chernobyl accident was made possible by having a fixed graphite moderator while at the enrichment level then used, the light water coolant was more an absorber of neutrons; consequently, under conditions set up by a deliberate flouting of operating instructions that would normally have prevented them, positive feedback between the rates of reaction and boiling overcame any possibility of control 4 until the core melted, a steam explosion blew the lid off the reactor vessel and the red-hot graphite exposed to air caught fire, sending radioactive debris high into the atmosphere.…”