{"id":57803,"date":"2021-05-12T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57803"},"modified":"2021-05-12T07:00:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:00:41","slug":"nuclear-reactions-at-chernobyl-cause-for-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57803","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Reactions At Chernobyl \u201cCause for Concern\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nuclear Reactions At Chernobyl \u201cCause for Concern\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Sensors have detected increased levels of neutrons in an inaccessible chamber at the Chernobyl site, signaling that nuclear fission reactions are taking place in the entombed reactor hall, Science\u00a0reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The signs that fission reactions are occurring come 35 years nearly to the date when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is now Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986. It was the worst-ever nuclear disaster in the world to date.<\/p>\n

The nuclear fission reactions are taking place in a room that is sealed with concrete and contains a large part of the uranium fuel of the former reactor.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian scientists are now trying to assess whether the detected nuclear fission reactions will die out or create a larger problem that will require some type of extraordinary intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the embers in a barbecue pit,\u201d Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield, told Science.<\/p>\n

Maxim Saveliev of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv, Ukraine, says that the scientists cannot rule out the possibility of an accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about very low rates of fission, so it\u2019s not like a fizzing nuclear reactor,\u201d Hyatt told\u00a0New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd our estimation of fissile material in that room means that we can be fairly confident that you\u2019re not going to get such rapid release of nuclear energy that you have an explosion. But we don\u2019t know for sure,\u201d the nuclear materials chemist noted.<\/p>\n

According to Hyatt, the higher level of neutrons is a \u201ccause for concern but not alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if sensors continue to detect rising production of neutrons, the site may need an extraordinary intervention, Hyatt said. One approach could be to drill into the entombed chamber and spray it with a substance such as gadolinium nitrate, which would stop the fission reactions.<\/p>\n

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Nuclear Reactions At Chernobyl \u201cCause for Concern\u201d Sensors have detected increased levels of neutrons in an inaccessible chamber at the Chernobyl site, signaling that nuclear fission reactions are taking place in the entombed reactor hall, Science\u00a0reports. The signs that fission reactions are occurring come 35 years nearly to the date when the Chernobyl nuclear power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12294,4448,579,580,5332],"class_list":["post-57803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-charles-kennedy","tag-chernobyl","tag-nuclear-power","tag-nuclear-radiation","tag-oilprice-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57804,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57803\/revisions\/57804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}