Chernobyl's Forgotten Unit Three Accident: The Untold Story

Every reactor at Chernobyl suffered some sort of unique accident. Unit One had its partial meltdown in 1982. Unit Two had the turbine fire and subsequent explosion in 1991, and the crown jewel of them all, the reactor explosion inside Unit Four in 1986. You may have notice I’ve neglected Unit Three here, and that’s because it’s the subject of today’s video.
This accident is so misunderstood, that the Wikipedia page only refers to it as the 1984 Reactor Three and Four accident, and while it is true it impacted Reactor Four, the effects there were minor and caught in time. For Unit Three, the consequences were almost catastrophic, and had lasting impacts on the building to this day. This is the story of that accident.
Timestamps:
00:00: Introduction.
01:02: A Man Named Yuri.
01:32: Heavy Objects.
02:37: Reporting.
03:55 Can They Fix It?
05:12: What's going on?
07:18: They Can't Fix It.
07:48: They Fix It.
08:43: The Untold Stories.
10:01: Sources.

[@RuSrsbro]

I'm so frustrated by those who lift up the Soviet Union as anything other than a dire warning about the danger citizens face when governments refuse to tell the truth.

[@BlackPill-pu4vi]

Washington is doing its best to emulate that corrupt system. We have our own brand of bloviation to obfuscate the truth.

[@macalister8881]

Do you mean like japan and the usa

[@BlackPill-pu4vi]

YT bends over backwards to protect the guilty and shadow ban the truth. YT is just one proxy agent out of many to implement thought control. They do what the Feds cannot legally do.

[@conzmoleman]

You have a lot to learn about the USA, Europe, the capitalist “West” as a whole. Seriously were you born yesterday? Wait until you learn about… literally everything. You literal infant.

[@C.V.C.494]

You talking about USA?

[@pavelslama5543]

Chernobyl being SNAFU is one of the classical soviet stories that never gets old...

[@rhodesc1]

I didn’t know about the Unit 3 accident at all until now

[@quattrodrift3376]

I dont know what happend after the video, im german, my english is not good but i understand most of it. What was the accident of unit 3?

[@rhodesc1]

@@quattrodrift3376 so basically because of the heat going threw the pipes near the steam separators the walls around them started to separate and because they built the reactor around the building if they hadn’t repaired that then it could have all collapsed on the building

[@tomclanys]

@@quattrodrift3376 Insulation of walls was bad, reactor's water heated up the concrete walls and the concrete started to become weak, which caused floors and walls to move and shift.

[@langdons2848]

The whole Chernobyl plant really was cursed. It's truly amazing that the 1986 disaster was as bad as it got.

[@Rubberduck-zt8lm]

It was a breeder plant... They told everybody that it was a power plant But they used it to enrich plutonium for nuclear weapons... 22% of all employees Was not science educated people but KGB agents... It was built to fail sooner or later... No extra water pumps for cooling as normal reactors... You know , just in case of shit😮

[@swokatsamsiyu3590]

And this right here is exactly why I look forward to every Saturday evening. While I had read these very few lines about this particular mishap, and knew it has something to do with the integrity of the building itself, it was never quite clear just how bad it actually is. I have that KGB Dossier book in pdf, but haven't got around to translating any of it yet. And here you are, putting out another gem of a video with exactly that info. I think we can safely say that it is a small miracle they "only" lost one reactor unit at Chernobyl NPP. With these kind of major construction flaws, it might easily have been more. It does not bear thinking about if one of those steam drum separators had come loose, and deprived Unit 3 of coolant....😱

[@gregoryoakley4441]

It's a great day when you post Chernobyl videos. Please continue to make content, I love your presentations. 😌

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy :)

[@theonlygoofygoober]

@@thatchernobylguy2915 same! i support you with my bottom of my heart

[@Jan_von_Gratschoff]

Considering these are RBMK reactors, it's a miracle that more of them haven't blown up.

[@BitTwisted1]

Concrete overheating is a well understood problem for all power station designs, from coal stations to nuclear. If you overheat the concrete either when it is first poured or later in use, the crystal structure changes and it expands breaking the concrete away from the reinforcing bars and permanently weakening it. If the concrete is a beam it will get significantly longer, potentially jacking the whole building apart, perhaps resulting in upper floors no longer being supported on their associated columns etc.. Generally there is some provision for this in the design because this is a progressive problem which occurs more slowly at lower temperatures. From what I understand (I'm not concrete expert) this is quite dependant on the exact concrete mix, water content when poured, ambient temperature when poured etc. Having spoken to western professionals who visited Chernobyl before the R4 accident it was obvious that some of the concrete construction was of dubious quality, and an example of what they considered poor construction quality control.

[@bobsyouruncle1574]

The diagram shown at 5:20 is of a type of steam generator found in VVER plants. There is a steam/water separator inside of it, but also reactor coolant piping as feedwater and steam are in a separate loop.

[@ICANHAZKILLZ]

Well done on making your comment as irritating as possible

[@bobsyouruncle1574]

​@@ICANHAZKILLZ Yeah you're right, let me tune that up a bit.

[@ICANHAZKILLZ]

​@@bobsyouruncle1574 Ah, much better, that's the first time I've seen a user improve their comment from me being an ass. :)

[@markusw7833]

@@ICANHAZKILLZ lol

[@apollomoon1]

Always the most informative and well presented videos on Chernobyl. Thanks for sharing

[@shakaliha8386]

omg thanks you for this video, always wanted to know more about other accidents!

[@Yazovheimer]

When i see the iceberg video for the first time, I was very interested in this incident, but I couldn't find any info about it, so I'm very happy for this video, Saturday is always better when you release a video.

[@sekhyhybrid6701]

This can even be seen as the OG tofu dreg building before it even became a thing.

[@VEC7ORlt]

Nah, thats not it, they didn't quite let complete idiots build npps, there are quite a few vids floating around about the construction, shit got inspected, tested or whatnot. This has more to do with russian national 'Авось' - roughly translated in 'It'll be fine', sometimes it is... Tofu dreg on the other hand is completely malignant version of that.

[@davidbaca7853]

More great content, another great video. Thank You !

[@kevinamundsen7646]

Another great installment! I'd like to know if the RBMK creates a rumbling vibration from the 3GW of thermal boiling. I've worked on giant magnetrons and the water boiling shakes the concrete floor enough to make other building occupants complain, and you can feel it with your feet. If so, some of the RBMK vibrational energy might have been transmitted into the concrete, disturbing the joints over time. Has anyone worked at a plant of this colossal size? Can you feel any vibration when it's operating? In the case of Chernobyl, thermal expansion and overtemperature of the concrete would have certainly been a factor, but considering the constant uptime of the RBMK, the total number of thermal cycles may have been a lot smaller that a plant that cycles once per day, such as a peaker plant. Chernobyl was a base load plant, and so it was always on, except for maintenance. Thanks for another great video!

[@SarahLowrey]

I have never felt vibration such as this at any plant I ever worked at, BWR and PWR. There was vibration from the turbine, though.

[@kevinamundsen7646]

@@SarahLowrey Thanks very much for your reply! Delighted to hear from someone with first-hand experience, unlike myself. Cheers!

[@kevinamundsen7646]

@@SarahLowrey-- Thank you. Interestingly enough, there is a counterexample. In the dubious HBO documentary about Chernobyl, in one scene ostensibly showing the behavior of the RBMK during the extreme power surge in the core, the metal shielding covers of the cooling channel tops on the reactor floor are shown to be bouncing up and down from the extreme internal vibration. This scene could be utter nonsense, however I believe there is at least one written account mentioning the observation, and the scene may have been based on that. I highly value your direct experience, and do not doubt your word. The amount of vibration at normal power levels was certainly nothing of the sort. The tremendous physical mass of the RBMK alone, would tend to attenuate any vibration to the point where it might be unnoticeable. I believe, however, there may have been a low amplitude rumbling similar to what I've felt, from the RBMK core and possibly from the steam drums, and if so, the concrete would have been exposed to it year after year. When you see a drawing, a picture, or a video of a machine, it is just static, but when I was standing right next to a boiler and steam separator, I could feel it. Disclaimer: I've never worked at a nuclear power plant.

[@johnpekkala6941]

I have the assumption that due to everything being narrow pipes it would have been like when you are boiling water in test tubes too rapidly and he steam bubbles then propel a large slug of liquid out of the test tube. I can imagine that something similar would occur here so that instead of just steam you instead would have this type of 2 phase flow going through all of these narrow pipes right into the steam generators. This uneven mix of water and steam at high pressure would surley create lot of vibrations in the piping system almost like water hammer. I have no idea about the actual steam / water ratio going into the steam separators but I can imagine it would behave somewhat like this due to the fact that everything is made up of narrow pipes wich would cause the steam to push large slugs of water with it through the system..

[@thegamingducky8671]

I'm surprised more people didn't know about the other things that happened to the other reactors. They are so important and no one seems to know

[@ToreDL87]

Way back I actually looked it up on wiki, and from there I found there were issues with the others, but until now I was unaware of the extent. My guess is, as sketchy as they were, they didn't blow up, a.k.a nobody gave a crud.

[@thegamingducky8671]

@@ToreDL87 yeah and tbh the 4th reactor explosion just makes everything else about the power plant more fascinating yet scary, explosion = monkey Brain 😯

[@dootthedooter]

They are important but compared to a reactor exploding they are rather small.

[@thegamingducky8671]

@@dootthedooter yes ofc, the worst nuclear disaster isn't overlooked compared to these

[@saschakrause2374]

Great Work Sir. Thanks a lot for the new video. The Mic is great. Go on doing what you do. 💪 Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪

[@lada_niva_1.7i]

Hey, can you make a video on the ISU-152 that was used as a bulldozer in the disaster? It actually is still near the plant today.

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

I'll see what I can dig up! :)

[@lada_niva_1.7i]

@@thatchernobylguy2915 heres a bit of info if it helps wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/why-there-is-a-wwii-vehicle-at-chernobyl/

[@kitt7555]

This makes me wonder. How big were other failures of nuclear reactors in soviet union

[@uweschmidt6052]

Es gab einigefast Unfälle.....

[@garethjohnstone9282]

C(hernobyl)3PO back with another great video. Keep them coming mate.

[@ptonpc]

I've just found your channel. Subscribed.

[@AtomGradNPP]

Good and interesting video:)

[@tinyjr8618]

another good vid 👍

[@Ratmasssss]

Tell sokir alexalee0965 said fuck you - Iwillbang_TG5

[@Radiointeractive]

Just a little video error: The text for the Unit 2 Turbine Hall Fire at the beginning says "1982" under it, instead of "1991", even though you still mentioned the correct year. I'm just being nitpicky. Love your videos!

[@SarahLowrey]

Fascinating piece containing images I have never seen, and I worked in the nuclear power plant industry rom before the 1986 accident to a year ago. I do recall we were given a report of what happened at Chernobyl several months afterwards, but I suppose it was just a translation of the Soviet ruse.

[@quattrodrift3376]

I would think it is good if you say the numbers in the reaktor picture. You talk about parts, but i dont know everything or where it is located. best regards :)

[@RusiSlav]

The skilled issued bacon operators blew unit 3 up

[@MichaI.]

thats crazy

[@MTG_Music]

what

[@Endermania]

I know right

[@adrianwolf7998]

Can you do a video about unit 5 and 6?

[@stevehill4615]

Got a question, you daid that the insulation failed prematurely on reactors 3 & 4 but not on 1 & 2, was it known what the reason/s why ?

[@halofreak1990]

Probably cost-cutting. Just like the turbines for unit #4 were of a different design than the others, using less rare metals, but making them more susceptible to vibration and requiring frequent maintenance.

[@uteliasmajava5210]

Sir, how those plants are founded? How deep is bedrock from baseslab of unit three and for? I got impression, that all those things are founded to swamp with minimum replacement of soil.

[@ninam.1560]

One thing we can all agree on....the USSR should have never been allowed to have Nuclear or Radioactive materials!

[@CShermPlatinumShines]

so ive done research on CNPP for years and just reading and watching documentaries the whole building for 3&4 were rushed because they were the newer era RBMK's. this is why that whole structure is slowly crumbling, now the question we have his. "did Novarka ever pick up on this ?"

[@theenchiladakid1866]

And that's why you don't use wiki as the only search for a youtube video

[@andy99ish]

Yuri in reality was Ned Flanders, just look at the picture. Who spied on Homer doing his job. At Mr. Burn's overseas nuclear power plant.

[@user-vq6fd3bb6y]

2:44 why is there a door that leads no where to the stand on?

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

There's quite a lot of these in the Chernobyl NPP.

[@sapphire_cube1950]

hearing all this...i wonder how unit 3 kept working until the year 2000

[@quattrodrift3376]

i did not hear anything about the accident of Unit 3? I dont know why i watch the video...

[@basedgodstrugglin]

Chernobyl was held together with duct tape lol

[@bayo_yayo4317]

5:26 this is steam generator for VVER not steam seperator for RBMK

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Thank you, the paper I found it in listed it as an RBMK steam separator, so I apologise for the confusion. It still works as a good enough diagram, I hope :)

[@bayo_yayo4317]

@@thatchernobylguy2915 Its okay, I know that, but you also can paste a steam drum photo from boiler, because its the same

[@traumgeist]

Mothman believes in you.

[@leonardosena6338]

How the Control rods moves? That refuel machine on the top???? What?

[@halofreak1990]

The control rods are moved by servo-actuators located beneath the channel plugs that form the floor of the reactor hall.

[@enricol5974]

Chernobyl was a dual use power station, two targets: 1) make electricity 2) make plutonium for the military The refueling equipment was on top for a reason: to make the refueling easier and faster

[@trevormurphy7041]

Just wanna say thank you most people only know about the one accident let alone all the other ones been about 24 years now researching it and there’s always something new I find it’s amazing after the accident happened in unit four it was basically a worldwide experiment One question I’ve had for a while do you really think it was an accident i’m not a nuclear engineer but I have a few weird questions

[@uweschmidt6052]

Ich denke ja, ein Test der ausser Kontrolle geriet

[@skylineXpert]

It was build way to fast due to bonuses for the managers. Now i suddenly realize why the product of the soviet union was this cheap heap of crap called the RBMK failed...

[@artysanmobile]

The RBMK reactors at Chernobyl have been at high risk almost from the day of their completion. Their design is flawed. Others like them around Russia have been updated at enormous expense.

[@gabrielgab3794]

0:15 is unit 2 1982 kr 1991?

[@gabrielgab3794]

Or*

[@Yessir1506]

Isnt it 1992 tho

[@jooch_exe]

Nice video. I don't think Ukrainian engineers would make such a basic mistake. Was this a result of soviet management?

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Poor materials delivered to the NPP seems to be the root cause of most accidents at Chernobyl, so yes.

[@Bob-yl9pm]

Wow! Those Soviet reactors were problematic!

[@paultidwell8799]

I'm actually autistic and slowly becoming obsessed with nuclear catastrophe.

[@Lake_Tide_]

The next step to from watching these videos is joining the navy so you can work on reactors

[@chernobyl86]

я автор фотографии 8:37 в кадре Сергей Кошелев

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Thank you, I've seen this photo floating around a bit and wasn't sure who took it or who was the person in the photograph.

[@mindinversions4487]

Turbine fire in 1991? Obvs the text says '82, but thought you might like to know. [Sorry, my neurodivergence catches EVERYTHING]

[@tonycalow708]

Cover up is not just a fine art of the Soviet Government, but EVERY Government worldwide! Just ask Julian Assange!!

[@MissilemanIII]

6 million lbs.

[@willemdodgerford5782]

The crown jewel of them all 😂

[@sweden23756]

Wow! Fith comment!

[@matt8043]

Lol ur funny

[@Dude04298]

Too this day I’m worried about Russia hitting a bomb on it and the world is gonna die

[@evanbattleson6211]

There’s no more nuclear fuel in it

[@abitofeverything9970]

so, for the entire video you keep stating "the unit 3 accident" but in actual fact, there wasnt an accident at all. THATS why no one knows about it. so this entire video is just Russia bashing