https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK#High_positive_void_coefficient https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK#High_positive_void_coef... These analysts say that Sov

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK#High_positive_void_coefficient https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK#High_positive_void_coef... These analysts say that Soviet authorities appear to recognize that operator errors at the Chernobyl plant on the night of April 25-26 were not the sole cause of the accident, and that technical flaws in the reactor’s design contributed to the worst accident in the 44-year history of nuclear energy. In particular, they said, a distinctive feature of the Chernobyl design, which sets it apart from conventional nuclear power plants in most of the world, is its tendency to generate a sudden and uncontrollable burst of power if large steam bubbles, or “voids,” are allowed to form in the reactor core, as they did before the accident. This peculiarity of the Chernobyl type of graphite reactor, called a positive void effect, is now seen as a decisive factor in the accident, one that transformed successive blunders on the part of Soviet operators over a period of hours into a catastrophe. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-23-mn-15781-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-23-mn-15781-...