The Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster of April 1986 hit headlines around the world. With the story now revisited in a hit five-part miniseries courtesy of HBO and Sky, viewers are keen to find out more about Chernobyl and, in particular, the status of the RBMK reactors involved in the disaster. Chernobyl reactor four was the RBMK reactor which exploded in 1986 due to a flaw, but were the others fixed as a result?
The Chernobyl nuclear plant consisted of four RBMK reactors at the time of the disaster.
Two additional RBMK reactors were in construction at the time of reactor four’s explosion – construction was cancelled in 1988.
However, a number of RBMK reactors are currently still in operation.
As well as being in operation, several changes have been made to the reactors in the hopes of avoiding any scenarios similar to Chernobyl.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHERNOBYL LIQUIDATORS?
Chernobyl: Reactor 4 was an RBMK reactor (Image: Sky)
One of the modifications to the RBMK reactors included implementing graphite tips to control rods.
Uranium used in the reactors has also been specially selected to have low enrichment levels.
The Chernobyl series cited the reason for the changes were to ”prevent an accident like Chernobyl from happening again."
Despite the changes, the remaining three Chernobyl RBMK reactors were
