I love the picture!
On the Chernobyl topic, I just read this:
"On the Friday evening of April 25, 1986, the reactor crew at Chernobyl-4, prepared to run a test the next day to see how long the turbines would keep spinning and producing power if the electrical power supply went off line. This was a dangerous test, but it had been done before. As a part of the preparation, they disabled some critical control systems - including the automatic shutdown safety mechanisms.
Shortly after 1:00 AM on April 26, the flow of coolant water dropped and the power began to increase.
At 1:23 AM, the operator moved to shut down the reactor in its low power mode and a domino effect of previous errors caused an sharp power surge, triggering a tremendous steam explosion which blew the 1000 ton cap on the nuclear containment vessel to smithereens.
Some of the 211 control rods melted and then a second explosion, whose cause is still the subject of disagreement among experts, threw out fragments of the burning radioactive fuel core and allowed air to rush in - igniting several tons of graphite insulating blocks."
From here:
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter2.htmlWe had our own involuntary experiment along these lines with the big east coast black out of last year- what happens when we shut off the grid power? I have read elsewhere that emergency sirens are considered non-essential systems in such an event- keeping things cool is the critical concern beyond all others. Fortunately our diesel backups worked, that time...