“Chernobyl” – 25 Years As A Profitable Brand

[wtmusic]

"Twenty-five years ago today, the operators at unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station violated enough procedures and by-passed enough safety systems to cause their water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor to suffer a nuclear power excursion large enough to cause a steam explosion. The force of that steam explosion was strong enough to lift the lid of the power station and break a number of pipes. The explosion opened up the interior of the reactor core to chemical reactions, including rapid oxidation reactions, that most people describe as 'fire'."

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"To a pretty good first order approximation, the sales volume of electricity and space heating are not changed when the mix of sources changes. Any reduction in output at nuclear power reactors results in an increased sales volume for all other sources in the mix. Conversely, any increase in output at nuclear energy facilities results in a decrease in sales volume for all other sources. Interestingly enough, the same government that ordered the evacuations and the first responder actions that resulted in most of the casualties still makes a significant portion of its income from selling oil and natural gas.

Before Chernobyl, sales of nuclear generated electricity had been steadily rising throughout the world as more and more nuclear energy facilities came on line. During the period from 1956-1986, enough nuclear plants were started to add the equivalent of a new Saudi Arabia plus a new Kuwait to the world’s energy supply. (According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2010, nuclear electricity world wide is equivalent to 12 million barrels of oil per day (600 million tons per year), but it has been essentially steady for the past 10-15 years.)"

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[thereismore]

1. They blame the operators, which is not 100% accurate. Unstable design was part of it. And the explos

ion may not have been oxidation, but it was probably a low-density, quickly dissipated nuclear explosion.