elib.biblioatom dot ru/text/chernobylskaya-aes-s-reaktorom-rbmk-1000_1977/

^((Reddit doesn't allow .ru links, so you'll have to fix the url yourself))

Published in 1977 by the Ministry of Energy and Electrification, along with the Soviet atomic energy agency, Glavatomenergo. Designed by the Special Experimental Art and Design Department for the Industry Exhibition Center.

Lots of cool pictures as well as general and technical information about the power plant. Google-translated version here.

RBMK reactor cutout

Main Circulation Pump

https://preview.redd.it/v44t0lyb6dah1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=5568716beac602d01f72d6ac560e5f85f021205c

https://preview.redd.it/2zixbdzd6dah1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec48542e0fb462b7de30b854e3403d07402c0ef5

Author unknown, room number unknown (for now; if I find more information I'll edit the post). You can see a couple of graphite blocks, and what looks like an opening mechanism for the lid.

Here's what one of the dosimetrists, Igor Kabachenko, says:

>There's a lathe in this room. There is graphite on the floor too. Background is up to 6 Roentgen per hour. Next to the exit on the left, the elevator door is bent by the explosion. And nearby, 6 meters away is a room that isn't mentioned on the floor plans. With the background of 30 millirentgen per hour.

https://preview.redd.it/31tjviokjf9h1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8ed1d5d012dba98c782a20daab4c60118d54881

As posted on his Telegram profile:

1 - Internal lining of the northern steam separator room

2 - Steam separator drum

3 - A buoy with temperature and gamma radiation sensors

4 - Upper Biological Shield "Elena"

5 - Technological channels

6 - The shadow from the "Needle" probe that ended up in one of the spent fuel pools

7 - Parts of the roof of the reactor hall

8 - The top end of RZM (fuel reloading machine)

9 - Graphite blocks

10 - Ventilation equipment

https://preview.redd.it/deey8b4rka9h1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6c0583950c721e228ace2be3283b57b6d0fb409

Help me out with this, please. Kupnyi posted this on his FB profile:

who is interested in what is in the photo, the description is on my TG-channel

enter link - https://t dot me/+qBdGkcd7NR5hNjU6

I can't use that link from my PC, so hopefully one of you shares the legend.

It would be cool if someone created a chart or an infographic (with portraits) showing the "power structure" at CNPP, specifically as it was at the time of the disaster. There were quite a few supervisors and deputies, which can get a bit confusing. Let me start with the most well-known.

The Director: Viktor Bryukhanov. (I've read somewhere that he had a deputy for security, who was a KGB operative, and who gave orders to shut all the links to and from the city)

Chief Engineer: Nikolai Fomin

Deputy Chief Engineer for operation of Phase 1 (units 1 and 2): Anatoly Sitnikov

Deputy Chief Engineer for operation of Phase 2 (units 3 and 4): Anatoly Dyatlov

Present for their shift on the night of the disaster:

Plant Shift Supervisor: Boris Rogozhkin

Unit 3 Shift Supervisor: Yuri Bagdasarov

Unit 4 Shift Supervisor: Aleksandr Akimov

Phase 2 Reactor Shop Supervisor: Valery Perevozchenko

Deputy Turbine Shop Supervisor: Razim Davletbayev

There are several things in play in this story, so it's easy to get a bit lost in all this. Here are my thoughts, feel free to correct me or provide any additional information.

We know for the fact that, upon lowering the power down to 700 MW in preparation for the safety test, they continued lowering it even further (power was at 500 MW when the drop to 30 MW happened). The reason for this is thought to be safety concerns, to avoid too much high-pressure steam in the primary circuit once steam is shut off from the turbine and has nowhere else to go. This, in contrast to the previous attempts at this safety test, was because they decided to turn off the automatic reactor scram that would trigger when steam is shut off from both turbines (aka the turbine trip). The reason for this, if I understand correctly, is the conditions required for the turbine vibration test.

We don't see as much information posted about the vibration test as there is about the rundown test, so if you could help me clarify the chonology and what was happening with the reactor and the turbine #8, I'd be grateful. Judging by the phone conversations between Akimov (unit 4 shift supervisor) and Rogozhkin (plant shit supervisor), TG-8 was diconnected from the grid, to run in the idle mode - I assume this was for the vibration test - then reconnected again, then disconnected for the last time. Was that the reason for disabling the turbine trip?

Also, did they intend to enable the trip before conducting the rundown test, and then simply forgot to do it?

The way I see it, if there were no vibration test, this rundown test would have been carried out with the same conditions as before - around 700 MW power, and with the trip shutting down the reactor automatically at the start of the test. (I assume previous test programs all specified that power level. If not, it would be nice to know the details) And then there would be no Chernobyl disaster.

The video has English subtitles. It is a voiced collection of phone call transcripts at CNPP on the night of the disaster.

>At nuclear power plants, all incoming and outgoing calls to the stationary telephones of the power unit control rooms are recorded. If necessary, telephone conversations are decrypted and recorded in the log of operational communications. This happened on the night of the Chornobyl accident on April 26, 1986. However, the text of these negotiations was “Classified” until recently. Most likely, the tape recordings of the conversations were deciphered by KGB specialists who, not having known the plant terminology, often not having understood whose voice they were hearing at the moment and through the noise and interruptions in communication, tried to put everything they heard on paper. The result of such work somewhat distorts the reliability of the data and sometimes contradicts logic, but we will try to recreate the chronology of events according to the records.

People researching the disaster might gain some knowledge from this.

Thought I'd refresh my knowledge on the reactor power levels prior to the disaster, and the effect (if any) it had on the reactor.

A lot of people and media sources point out that the test program specified power level of 700 MW thermal, therefore conducting the test at 200 MWth was a violation of procedures. They ignore an obscure detail that, once Toptunov reached 700 WMth, he kept lowering the power further. When the accidental drop in power occured, it was from 500 MWth. So, there was something going on there that the wider "Chernobyl audience" doesn't know about.

Also, I think a lot of people (including myself) thought that the dispatcher's request for the delay in lowering the power came while they were actually lowering it, that is, they were interrupted. It's only recently that I learned that the reactor was already at (tiny bit below) half power for hours when the dispatcher's call came.

Big kudos to That Chernobyl Guy for making these videos, they're like a library of knowledge about the Chernobyl disaster.

Produced by the film studio of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, this film shows the action taken during radiation reconnaissance and control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.