https://internationalviewpoint.org/ International Viewpoint, the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International, is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow. en SPIP - www.spip.net https://internationalviewpoint.org/local/cache-vignettes/L144xH25/siteon0-da713.png?1745245334 https://internationalviewpoint.org/ 25 144 https://internationalviewpoint.org/Chernobyl-1986-when-nuclear-power-came-of-age https://internationalviewpoint.org/Chernobyl-1986-when-nuclear-power-came-of-age 2016-04-30T05:39:34Z text/html en Brian Parkin Ukraine Nuclear power Historical events and figures <p>30 years ago, at 1.23 am on the morning of 26 April 1986 the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear generating site near Pripyat in Ukraine went on SCRAM alert. Within 3 seconds all of the reactors safety systems had failed and with control rods jamming the reactor core, the temperature rose by 10 times its design level. The resulting first explosion destroyed the 2,000 tonne concrete containment plate and blasted it clear of the reactor building. And it was in that instant that station operator Valery Khodemachuk, his body impaled on control rods, became the first Pharaoh of the nuclear age, entombed in a sarcophagus even taller than the great pyramid of Giza and for the eternity required for the radiation to recede to safe levels.</p> - <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/-IV495-April-2016-" rel="directory">IV495 - April 2016</a> / <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/+-Ukraine-+" rel="tag">Ukraine</a>, <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/+-Nuclear-power-+" rel="tag">Nuclear power</a>, <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/+-Historical-events-and-figures-+" rel="tag">Historical events and figures</a>