Reddit reviews Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
We found 5 Reddit comments about Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The guy who made this imgur set also has a book called "Chernobyl 1:23:40," which I have and have read multiple times. It's a little rough on the grammar, but the story and information are solid and it expands on the imgur post.
https://smile.amazon.com/Chernobyl-01-Incredible-Nuclear-Disaster-ebook/dp/B01E4MAIS8
Okay so I'll say this up front. Most of my information comes from my cousin, a nuke tech, and the following book.
The general concept of a nuclear power plant is you are using the energy and heat from a nuclear reaction to create steam to spin a turbine. That turbine has a north and south pole that when turned within a coil produce electricity.
When they are talking about the core they are talking about the chamber, cooling system, and reaction control system for that nuclear reaction. Chernobyl used graphite control rods to speed up or slow down the reaction as needed for energy production. US Plants use a different system that doesn't involve graphite as the control substrate if I remember correctly.
During this disaster however the control rods didn't insert fully to stop the reaction and the excess heat caused an explosion which blew the top of the reactor core through the roof.
The following is a pretty good illustration of what the reactor core was supposed to look like. The core itself is the red square and figure 24 is what went flying through the roof of the facility.
Anybody else with more or better information feel free to chime in because I'll admit I'm not an expert here, just a history nerd.
I enjoyed "Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster." It has a good introduction to the science of what happened in the reactor, which I appreciated since I'm not a nuclear scientist.
Amazon link
https://www.amazon.com/Chernobyl-01-Incredible-Nuclear-Disaster-ebook/dp/B01E4MAIS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539095033&sr=8-1&keywords=1%3A23%3A40
isn't terribly long and a good resource