Chernobyl’s Radioactive Lava is Still Hot 

Thanks for watching super nerds! I know this was a bit different than our normal episodes, but if you like the more real science angle, let me know and reply below with suggestions! And of course, I couldn't get to every single detail in a 14min video that I only have so long to write. I did simplify and leave some things out. Look to the comments below for context from the other nerds! See you on Friday. -- kH

"oh that thing over there looks weird it looks like an elephants foot haha" *cough blood*

"In fact, I think its rad... " This was when I knew I was in the right place.

When one your nuclear reactors in Chernobyl fulfills the 5 year plan for heat energy production in 4 microseconds

That moment you realize that the nuclear reactor is just a big steam engine without coal. Go science

I love when Thor schools me on nuclear disaster.

"Alone in a dark basement for centuries." The Elephant's Foot is so emo LOL.

@ 5:01 I just love that look on Kyle's face just after he says they went from 30 control rods to 6. It just screams "really?! Who thought this was smart?"

6:39 “It created a steam explosion that dislodged the top shield of the reactor. It weighed 2 million pounds.” Damn bro

I live in Austria and it's my first childhood memory when my mother screamed that i should leave the sandbox and come home immediately. The people of Chernobyl weren't evacuated at this point.

It will just sit there, alone in a dark basement, a dangerous symbol and reminder of terrifying and amazing potential. I have never felt more personally attacked on this show.

10:00 "Writes 10,000 R/hr" Me: No no, my dosimeter reads 3.6

Me: *messed up on my job on purpose so I can go home early* Everyone else at the Chernobyl reactor: *Genesis 8-bit*

"You didn't see graphite BECAUSE IT'S NOT THERE!" -Comrade Dyatlov

2019: Storming Area 51 2020: Storming Chernobyl

1:10 - "Thanks, now I understand how a Nuclear Reactor works." *[threatening silence]*

I'd love to see an update to this about the fungus that is growing on the inside of the sarcophagus that eats radiation.

Add another pants browningly terrifying fact to this. There is a previously unknown to science form of black mold growing in the Chernobyl reactor room that appears to EAT radiation. Humans: Yeah...we have no idea how to deal with this incredible dangerous thing we created Some absolute mad lad in nature: Finally! Some decent food!

damn, the guy's hair is shinier than my future

Finally, a breakdown! I mean, not the reactor, the science behind it...

When your reactor produces your 30 year energy projections in .4 seconds.

Hey Kyle, you forgot to mention reactor poisonning with Xenon-135. That was another big part of why it ultimately exploded. It's a detail, but still !

*Reactor explodes* Dylatov: “Not great, not terrible”

"Human Error" is an understatement

Years of me looking into this disaster and you go: “steam was created where cooling water should be”, and MIND BLOWN! Thanks.

Imagine the party they're gonna throw in 600 years when the place will be safe to live in again

5:06 - actually in the chernobyl-4 reactor there were 211 control rods - and only 6 remained when the power plant workers were trying to get the power up

Since nobody said it yet.... PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW AN RBMK REACTOR EXPLODES COMRADE

"I just think its, RAD" *exhales from nose*

Me: goes to the elephants foot Me to my tour guide: I rate this a 3.6 any way does any one taste metal

Kent Brockman: "Mr. Burns, people are calling this a meltdown?" Mr. Burns: "Ohh, 'meltdown'? That's just one of those annoying buzz words. I prefer to call it a 'un-requested fission surplus'."

Everytime I hear someone talking about the Elephant's Foot, it ends up personified in my mind. It ends up like some Lovecraftian Horror, just lurking, waiting for some foolish mortal to come gaze upon it and slowly and painfully lose their entire being to its effects

Seems that Nuclear Power is like Airline Travel. Massively effective, super efficient, vary rarely goes wrong in comparison to the alternatives. When it goes wrong though...............

"Let's get technical", well technically, it's not in Russia, but rather in Ukraine and formerly, Soviet Union.

"reactor 4, designed to operated at 3200 megawatts, went beyond 33000" DYATLOV FACE IS PRICELESS

Kyle, at 4 minutes your drawing is not showing the graphite as the RBMK reactors had the graphite in rods in line with the boron rods (below). The "criticality" happened because when they removed the boron rods, the graphite stayed inside, but there was space under and above the graphite where the neutrons were flowing at full speed. So when they pressed the AZ5 button, every single rod started moving down at once, and when all the graphite rods aligned with the bottom plane of the core, the reactor had a whole section the size of the graphite rods that now neutrons were having maximum moderation, which created a huge pressure differential that blocked the control rods from moving further down and having the boron slow down the reaction. That's when radioactive shit hit the giant fan.

When the steam cap blew at 6:42, my heart literally dropped.

*How to piss off a scientist.* Scientist: "...positive feedback loop..." Me: "Yes, let's focus on the positive."

Chernobyl: Don't run badly designed tests on a poorly designed reactor with an inexperienced crew. Fukushima: We knew the seawall was many metres too small years before the incident. Don't put emergency generators in the basement. We know how to build and run reactors safely. The French have been doing it for decades. Have a good design, follow procedures, don't make ridiculous mistakes.

Finally had access to HBO's miniseries. That final episode's presentation by Legasov, really was something! Edit: the whole Chernobyl miniseries is worth a watch

the reactor is not in Chernobyl but Pripyat a common confusion since Chernobyl is the closest town to Pripyat. love the show keep up the good work

As we said in the Navy, "Hot rock. Make steam. Boat go."

I lived in Germany when the reactor exploded. I remember the news telling people to limit their outdoor activities due to the radio active particles in the sky that where drifting throughout Europe due to the wind direction. Scary as shit.

I want to see more real-world science, this is rad! That pun wasn't intentional but now it is.

Another large hot spot from Chernobyl is the large amount of radioactive uniforms from the first responders underneath the hospital

Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth, and sooner or later that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. *L I E S*

This episode of Because Science was brought to you by Nuka-Cola

When your reactor makes more energy in .4 seconds than the 3 of your neighbor in 10 years: *Business is booming*

Good that at least some are still trying to actually spread facts arround, and dont just yell "OMG Radiation BAD, Nuclear Power BAD REEE!!"

I'm going to go way out on a limb and call this test, a failure.

This was the first video I’ve watched that could actually explain to me what a “Positive Void Coefficient” is

Definitely one of the best explanations of this tragedy for those of us who are 'nuclear challenged'.

Chernobyl actually gave me cancer. No, really, I was an infant during the 1986 explosion and I happened to be directly in the path of the fallout. Despite the efforts of the Russian government, there have been multiple studies that indicate literally thousands of cases of cancer were caused by the radioactive fallout, specifically the Iodine-131 that would have been easily absorbed by the infants thyroid glands of people like me who were breastfeeding at the time. for various reasons, there is no definitive link between Chernobyl and thyroid cancer, however studies from organizations like WHO and NCBI have linked exposure to high levels of Iodine-131, especially during early childhood, to the development of fusion oncogenes inside tumors, which are the type of harmful mutations to DNA you frequently mention. A report from the Nuclear Energy Agency states the area I was in was affected as follows: "During the first few weeks after the accident, 131I was the main contributor to the dose, via ingestion of milk (Ma91). Infant thyroid doses generally ranged from 1 to 20 mGy in Europe, from 0.1 to 5 mGy in Asia, and were about 0.1 mGy in North America. Adult thyroid doses were lower by a factor of about 5 (UN88). Later on, 134Cs and 137Cs were responsible for most of the dose, through external and internal irradiation (Ma89). The whole-body doses received during the first year following the accident generally ranged from 0.05 to 0.5 mGy in Europe, from 0.005 to 0.1 mGy in Asia, and of the order of 0.001 mGy in North America. The total whole-body doses expected to be accumulated during the lifetimes of the individuals are estimated to be a factor of 3 greater than the doses received during the first year (UN88)" Considering I was a two month old I can't breastfeeding from a person who's military assignment intentionally exposed them to as much fallout as possible and I was in Frankfurt, which was directly in the path the radioactive particulate was being transported by weather, it's likely that my total dose was towards the higher end of the spectrum for Europe. I guess I'm basically saying that due largely to the cover up efforts and the fact that this type of incident was largely unstudied most people have little or no idea what actually happened at Chernobyl and what is still happening at the plant and the affected area surrounding the plant for now through the next few thousand years.

"What Causes an RBMK Reactor to explode? Lies."

You should do a video on Thorium reactors, to balance this one out. Show people how far nuclear power has come, and how safe it is if built properly nowadays.

Hi Kyle, thanks for the show. I have a question. Is possible to create a "personal magnetic field" to protect against radiation, like the Earth's Magnetic Field?

There is one thing scarier than lava, everybody say it with me RADIOACTIVE LAVA!!

Science and the UN, say Chernobyl killed maybe 100 people, coal kills about 1000000 every year... but nuclear energy is scary.

Kyle, wouldn't it technically a be Soviet reactor? Thoroughly enjoying all of the science and work that goes into your videos. Keep it up!

Me: Makes a crappy test for my students. The other workers at the Chernobyl reactor:

I was a nuclear mechanic in the Navy. Chernobyl was EXTREMELY useful in teaching us what not to do under any circumstances. At the time they should have known better, but they made it crystal clear.

It's nice to see that Chad Kroger is making some extra money outside of Nickelback.

In Ben ten alien force professor paradox is trapped out of time and eventually went insane. However he spent so much time there that he became sane again. Can my favorite science nerd look into how likely that actually is

A cool future episode could be about nuclear fusion. Amazing video BTW(as always).

"Would corium be able to eat through bedrock just as easily?"

so you mean it's melting the concrete when you say it's "eating" through it?

The low power test purposefully destroyed the safety margin .. Why would you do that?!

It's not a failed ''Russian'' nuclear reactor, but a Soviet nuclear reactor.

This was a RAD way of looking into Chernobyl. I want to see more of this! Thanks for doing what you do. Love the show!

This accident was the nuclear equivalent of drunken frat boys poking a sleeping African Buffalo with their wang, then mooning the buffalo as it woke up, then insulting the buffalo's mom as it got up to his feet. Using Chernobyl as an example of the dangers of nuclear energy is like using 9/11 to convince people to never get on a flight again.

4:54 Actually diatlov(the man in charge ) wanted the test in 200 mgw while the guidelines state it should happen in 700 between 1000 mgw but there was a a floor a floor when makes it highly unstable when run at low power (200mgw) so Diatlov kinda caused the reactor to explode Mgw=megawats

I will thank you a lot if you do a video explaining what happened with Fukushima reactor!!!

Omg I love this thing. It's a video about real life things and I don't feel as confused as usual! Please keep doing this kind of video!

"hey Bros, you know what this place needs? Some freaking radiation lava." -some guy at Chernobyl...

A couple years after I saw a documentary. Bunches on young solders were outside being briefed. They were to run to the roofs of buildings, shovel off radioactive material for three minutes then run back down. The look of fear on their faces was horrible. They only had to do this once and left the area. On April 26th 1986 I was 23 years old and serving on a nuclear powered submarine. I'm getting old :(

now do a similar episode about fukushima or three mile island, those uses/used a sealed and pressurised reactor core

Wow. This was a great explanation. I’ve seen a few videos but, to think the water steamed so fast it created voids... wow.

You know Doctor Who did an episode of Nuclear before Chernobyl called "Inferno" it is quiet scary but very well done of what if scenario.

I find the technical look on it more action packed then the "sensational" version of explaining it.

You keep saying "Russian" when the correct term would be Soviet (since Chernobyl is in Ukraine, not in Russia).

And I have heard that there is a massive underwater lake that supplies a lot of water to nearby cities and people that is beneath the reactor and if the Elephants Foot keeps eating its way down, it will hit that lake and cause another explosion as well as contaminate all of that water. But that is for 2020: Level 2

Thank you Kyle for breaking that down. I've always found the Chernobyl event fascinating. I've always wondered exactly how it happened and what was the sience involved. I'm a big fan of your series.

Finally, an explanation of how an RBMK reactor explodes.

5:13 If this is a serious design flaw.. I wanna know how differently other power plants cool the rods. Im actually curious.

Great episode can you also do an episode contrasting Chernobyl to the Fukushima Disaster. That one is still dumping irradiated water into the Pacific at an alarming rate.

This was your best episode and I would have watched a more in depth version for hours.

my soup sat out for like 30 minutes, it's now warmer than the surrounding area, but it's not "hot".

i love how i knew about the elephants foot way before i even knew what a nuke was.. thank you cod 4

I'm already going into this video with a slightly soured opinion by the fact that it's referred to as a Russian facility despite it being located in the Ukraine, and the people who lived and died around Chernobyl were primarilly Ukrainian with some Russians living there too. That's like if I said "And here, we're going to explore the rainforests of Argentina" Meanwhile all footage is in Brazil. Call it a Soviet facility, a USSR facility, but calling it Russian is insulting to the people who worked and died there.

1:22 ah I see, mentioning it's a fission reactor so that 30 years from now the video will still be understandable.

When he said, “Grab your gas mask, grab you Geiger” I wanted him to also say, “Cuz they radioactivatin everybody out herre”

the one thing about reactor grade uranium is that it has possibly the highest melting point of all the dense metals on the periodic table at 6900 degrees Fahrenheit. much higher than that of tungsten carbide which melts at 6100 degrees F

totally get you aren't doing "because social science" but it bears noting that the "human error" that caused the chernobyl explosion wasn't just ignoring protocol, but also the systematic way in which the govt limited the engineers' access to information about the design flaw, and consequently what the ramifications of that flaw were. dope show!

Thank you for this content, I finally could grasp what had happened at Chernobyl, Watching it happened in the news at that time just doesn't connect with me

Seriously, How is it that Thor doesn't know about Thorium reactors? 1. Cheaper. 2. Cannot do a Chernobyl. 3. Eats nuclear waste. 4. Produces useful byproducts. Future power!

To try and correct something, most of the exclusion zone is now habitable, it's only some parts of it which are inhabitable because of the radiation. But most of it has low enough levels of radiation (basically a standard background radiation) that you could live your whole live in there.

Good video, i would also recommend Scots Manley's video on the subject.

So, they basically sabotaged the reactor then turned it on?

Graphite also accelerated the reaction. Graphite was just the tip of the control bars, the rest of the bars was made of boron a good material to control the chain reaction. When all the bars were inserted by pressing the AZ 5, in order to shut down the reactor, the graphite tips accelerated the reaction to a point of no-return. Even in the final process of the Chernobyl disaster no one knew exactly the power level reached by the core, they were only able to read the last value recorded on the screen, over 33000 Mega watts. And this is a problem since the reactor was designed to operate at a power level of 3200 mega watts. Of course the steam was one of the main characters in the explosion, but graphite also created an even more disastrous event. When the control panel together with the bars exploded and was ejected from the core, oxygen rushed inside the core, and by reacting with the super heated graphite… well we know what kind of explosion the people saw… The worst part? The staff of Chernobyl didn’t know that the AZ-5 button could cause this, they didn’t know this defect in the entire nuclear facility. In the most recent series the “responsible” seems to be the engineer who was the responsible for the test, which is depicted as an evil asshole all the time, but in reality, he wasn’t that complete piece of shit that we saw, he also tried to help the other staff members to evacuate the nuclear facility. There’s an interview on RU-vid where he tells what happened that night.

Radioactive lava might just be the coolest sounding thing I have ever heard of.