Chernobyl 26 April 1986

[Magda Hassan]

As you all know, one reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded that day.
I remember vividly the time around that and the change in attitude towards all things nuclear and Russian that it created in me and probably all over Europe and Russia.

Last night my sleep deprived brain produced a vision so horrifying, but so real that I want to share with the forum in the hope that there is more research potential out there than I can ever muster myself.

From the perspective to alter the minds of large parts of the population in Europe and Russia it is hard to imagine a more effective PsyOp than Chernobyl, with the goal of crushing the Soviet Union and bringing the parts under control, at the same time effectively stopping all serious touching of nuclear energy, let alone nuclear weapons in Europe sans France and Britain.

How impossible is it that some combination of CIA, Mossad, MI5 and possibly French services and/or nuclear industry would dare to blow up a reactor?
How would that scenario fit with what was going on there?

I know that there is a myriad of material on the issue of Chernobyl, but I cannot currently research it myself.

I did not sleep well tonight.

Carsten

It is easy enough to have nightmares about nuclear explosions and accidents and radiation illnesses. Chernobyl was just the latest in a chain of nuclear disasters - Sellafield fire and Three Mile Island just to name two. Where I live we have the history of the French nuclear testing and all its fall out and the British exploded a few nuclear bombs in Australia itself. All above ground testing. Nuclear power is deadly, un-necessary, expensive and too tied to the military insanity.

I find your scenario unlikely. If anything an accident on that scale and one which does not contain itself with in the borders of any one country only serves to make people realise the common links and the vulnerability of all human beings regardless of nationality and other constructs. We live on one planet together. Sink or swim together. The powers that seek to control always seek to divide not unite. Race, nation, religion. People living next to nuclear power stations in France, US, UK also saw that a Chernobyl could happen to them too. The peace and disarmament movement in all nations grew hugely and threatened many who profit from and prefer the atom whether peaceful or war like.

The accident in Chernobyl was caused by human error. Had SOP been followed it would not have happened. There is no evidence of sabotage at any stage.

Construction of the plant began in the late 1970s, with reactor no. 1 commissioned in 1977, followed by no. 2 (1978), no. 3 (1981), and no. 4 (1983). Reactor 4 was scheduled to be shut down for maintenance and after 2 years of operation was nearing then of its fuel cycle. The reactor had also been operating for 2 years with out a safety feature. Even when reactor 4 was not actively operating it still needed water to cool the core. The reactor had 3 diesel generators as back up but these took 15 seconds to start up and up to 60-70 seconds to attain full speeds. This one minute difference was considered too long. It was expected that the mechanical energy from the rotational momentum of the steam turbine could be used to generate electricity to run the main cooling water pumps, while it was spinning down. In theory, it should have been able to provide power for 45 seconds and thus bridge the power gap between the onset of the external power failure and the full availability of electric power from the emergency diesel generators, but it needed to be tested. It had been tested several times in the past unsuccessfully even with refinements. Because it was seen as a 'simple' experiment it should not have had any detrimental effect on the safety of the reactor nor considered necessary to involve the head engineer or scientist but this was against SOP. The experiment was that the reactor would be set at a low power setting and the steam turbine run up to full speed, at which point the steam supply would be closed off and the turbines allowed to freewheel, thereby supplying the necessary electricity to keep the water pumping until the generators kicked in. The day shift had been instructed about the test and were ready to go. There was a special team of electrical engineers present and the power was reduced to 50% but a Kiev power station unexpectedly went off line and requested that further reductions be postponed due to the need to meet heavy demand of evening peak time. The Chernobyl plant director complied and the test was postponed. At 11 pm the Kiev power plant controller gave the okay for the power down to resume but by this time the day shift was gone and the evening shift was also getting ready to go and the night shift was yet to start at midnight. Having waited for many hours the supervising electrical engineers were no longer in the best state of concentration and the shift engineer operator had just been on the job for 3 months with out supervision. The power down (from the 50% already down) was conducted during the shift change over. For some reason the operators continued to lower the power and took it too far down almost to shut down. They then brought the power back up but the changes in temperature had also created chemical changes in the water causing it to behave differently and other chemical changes occurred. The test was continued and all went well with getting the generators to kick in but the power down of the turbines caused the water flow to decrease and caused the water to flash to steam and causing a positive feedback loop to occur. At some stage the SCRAM command was executed but it had all gone pear shaped by then. Increased pressure, heat build up, fracturing fuel rods causing blockages (which had a design fault), increase in reaction rate, first a steam explosion followed by a hydrogen explosion. All of this disaster has been caused by a break down standard operating procedures and human error. I can't see any evidence of sabotage from foreign sources.
I don't know if this is of use to you as it is in Russian but it is by the vice chief engineer of Chernobyl and the man in charge of the test. He also blames the plant design rather than human error http://www.lib.ru/MEMUARY/CHERNOBYL/dyatlow.txt
and one from the IAEA http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publication...3e_web.pdf in English


I would never expect France to take part in a nuclear sabotage as they are too heavily invested in the nuclear industry to see anything endanger that little fiefdom of theirs.

The Chernobyl explosion (and Three Mile Island) put an end to a bright nuclear industry future until recently when it has been resurrected as an unimaginative solution to peak oil and global warming. I see your scenario as a lose lose situation and an unlikely choice by TPTB. As it is they had other plans to achieve their aims and were successful with those. Far more deadly than Chernobyl by the looks of the mortality rates since capitalism was forced on them.