Running a nuclear power plant isn’t an easy task, even with the level of automation available to a 1980s Soviet RBMK reactor.

Two seminal events in 1986 had global repercussions on engineering standards and the proper application of engineering judgment. The first–the space shuttle Challenger explosion on Jan. 28–had an ...

The world has learned many lessons from the Chernobyl disaster, a devastating nuclear power plant accident that recently rejoined our cultural conversation thanks to a new series on HBO. Though many ...

Was the Chernobyl disaster preventable? If the RBMK reactor had been designed differently, the explosion that shook the world might never have happened. But what were its fatal design flaws, and why ...

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. Sky Atlantic and HBO's Emmy-winning Chernobyl (you can also watch it on NOW TV) is currently horrifying viewers up and ...

Top of an RBMK at the Leningrad plant. Control panels of a pre-digitalization nuclear plant look quite daunting, with countless dials, buttons and switches that all make perfect sense to a trained ...

Decommissioning of the RBMK reactor at Leningrad 1 has reached a milestone with the removal of all fuel from the reactor core. Rosenergoatom plans to use some of the fuel in the two RBMK reactors ...