> It is concluded that the two explosions in the reactor that many witnesses recognized were thermal neutron mediated nuclear explosions at the bottom of a few

> It is concluded that the two explosions in the reactor that many witnesses recognized were thermal neutron mediated nuclear explosions at the bottom of a few fuel channels and then some 2.7 s later a steam explosion that ruptured the reactor vessel. The nuclear explosions formed a plasma jet that shot upward through the still intact refueling tubes, rammed the 350-kg plugs, and continued through the quite thin roof and then some 2.5 to 3 km into the atmosphere where the meteorological situation provided a route to Cherepovets. That's pretty crazy. It ended up as a nuclear canon firing 350kg (700lbs) projectiles straight up into the atmosphere, right through the roof. Even more odd is that some lab, for a completely unrelated reason (building a liquid oxygen and nitrogen facility) was sampling noble gases from the atmosphere. And then someone could go back and draw these conclusions more than 30 years later.