In relation to the Cold War during the eighties, how could one connect the Chernobyl Disaster with the Nuclear Arms Race, if there even is a way?
Chernobyl was an experimental reactor whose primary purpose was to generate weapons grade plutonium.
>>930801
Nuclear plant was placed near the Duga radar, the importance of which to the soviet Air defense was great. That's the only possible reason.
The reactor construction was pretty usual.
>>931016
>The reactor construction was pretty usual.
No, the reactor construction was absolutely not usual. Chernobyl reactors were a special design using graphite modulators, and geared toward creating weapons grade plutonium. The meltdown could not have happened with a usual nuclear reactor of the era.
>>931047
Source?
The reason for a meltdown was the experiment to see if RMBK-1000 reactor can work under harder conditions.
>>931086
https://www.oecd-nea.org/rp/reports/2003/nea3508-chernobyl.pdf
>>931127
>graphite tips
>let's make a fire extinguisher that shoots kerosene before it shoots foam
why was communism so useless
>>931210
There was no communism to begin with. Communism is a stage of the evolution of society, during which there's no classes and the property on the means of production is collective.
And Soviet Union is closer to the state capitalism.
Let's not push this discussion further, it's 5 AM here.
>>931127
I'll check this later, thanks.
Actually, the ability of production of military-grade plutonium on a civilian reactor sounds like a story from last Die Hard movie.
Soviet Union already had three top secret facilities to produce plutonium for the army: Mayak chemical plant, Siberian chemical plant aka Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26 plant.
They were satisfying the requirements of the army, so there was no need in another plutonium-producing facility, especially on wide-open territory near the civilian town without any proper cover (like a number name, restricted area around the plant, etc).
>>931295
>anymore
It was built in 1970s. Everything was different back then.
The thing is that the reactors with the same construction are still working at Kursk, Petersburg and other places. If something works well, you shouldn't touch it. The Chernobyl guys have touched it.
>>931324
There are no RBMK reactors still in use that have not undergone major modifications.
>>931324
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK#Improvements_since_the_Chernobyl_accident
The vast majority anymore are PWR and BWR, no one is commissioning any new graphite moderated reactors except for research.
