Chernobyl, reactor 4 has awakened: nuclear fission reactions resumed

Kiev, May 10, 2021 – A Chernobyl are resumed nuclear fission reactions. Thirty-five years later the 1986 explosion, the worst nuclear accident in history, the masses of uranium buried inside reactor number four of the plant are active. Scientists of the Ukrainian government they are trying to understand if they will burn out on their own or if an intervention will be necessary to avoid an accident.

The danger of consequences comparable to what happened 35 years ago, which involved all of Europe for years, is not there: it would be a much smaller event, but better to avoid it.

The cause of the resumption of nuclear fission is still unclear: reactor number 4 was the one where the accident occurred in 1986, and now it is covered by a ‘sarcophagus’ of concrete and steel, further strengthened by a new structure in 2016.

Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield, believes the fuel is back in business “like embers in a barbecue.” According to Ukrainian scientists, it could be a consequence of the dehydration of the nuclear fuel that was buried after the catastrophe.

Maxim Saveliev, from the Ukrainian Institute for Nuclear Safety, said that the number of neutrons produced, that is the signal that confirms a fission process in progress, is slowly increasing.