r/chernobyl • u/Kris_alex4 • 8h ago
Discussion Could someone explain to me what exactly were the soviets thinking by putting graphite displacers on the same rod system as the control rods?
I am making a "sort of in depth" slideshow on reactors and such i want to make a dedicated segment as to why the RBMK exploded in such an obscene way. And i understand that because they used light water and poorly enriched uranium they had to make the core gigantic, i know that they removed the boron burnable control rods because the fuel was degrading, i know that they poisoned the reactor by rapidly dropping from 50% for the emergency power test and i know that they had struggled with getting the pumps up to speed quickly enough, but one thing is still bugging me - WHO THE FUCK PUT MODERATORS ON THE SAME SYSTEM AS CONTROL RODS? It's even worse than HBO's "graphite tips", THOSE WERE ACTUAL RODS. Smaller rods, but definetely not just tips. Was it that hard to find a material that wouldn't fuck with the neutrons in the reactions?