WI: 1983 Ignalina (Lithuania) Nuclear Disaster

Delta Force

Banned
Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant featured the most powerful nuclear reactors when it came online in 1983, featuring a 1,500 MW version of the RBMK reactor. By comparison, Chernobyl featured 1,000 MW RBMK reactors. In December 1983, shortly after coming online, Ignalina Unit 1 experienced the same initiating event that led to the Chernobyl Disaster, with the control rods causing a power surge upon being inserted into the reactor. Unlike Chernobyl, the rods did not stick. From Wikipedia:

The Ignalina nuclear power plant contained two RBMK-1500 water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type power reactors. The Soviet-designed RBMK-1500 reactor was originally the most powerful reactor in the world with an electrical power capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW) and thermal power capacity of 4,800 MW, but this distinction was later superseded by other nuclear reactors elsewhere.[citation needed] After the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986 the reactor was de-rated to 1,360 MW. These are of a similar type of reactor (RBMK-1000) as at the Chernobyl power plant, hence the European Union's insistence on closing them.[citation needed] Each unit of the power plant was equipped with two K-750-65/3000 turbines with 800 MW generators.[4]

In December 1983, when Ignalina Unit 1 came online, a design flaw of the RBMK was noticed for the first time. The graphite moderated tips on the control rods, which partially caused the Chernobyl accident, were entered into the reactor. They immediately caused a power surge. In this case the control rods did not get stuck, and could get down to the bottom of the reactor. The boron in the control rods stopped the nuclear reaction. Other nuclear organizations and RBMK plants were informed of the problem, but it was not addressed until after the accident at Chernobyl.[5] The subsequent modifications were tested at Ignalina during 1987 and 1988.[5]

One of the highest risk phases in a nuclear reactor's life cycle are the first few years when the crew and systems are still being tested. What if things had gone differently and crew error and/or a construction defect resulted in Ignalina suffering its own Chernobyl Disaster? Could the Baltic States become nonviable as independent states due to radioactive contamination?
 

Archibald

Banned
Well then the end of the year 1983 is even more depressing / dystopian as OTL - a Chernobyl-class major nuclear disaster added to KAL-007, Stanislav Petrov, Able Archer, The Day after and Threads !
 

LordKalvert

Banned
To get a disaster like Chernobyl requires a lot of work. The Soviets ignored every warning sign imaginable, disconnected safety devices overrode the automatic shutdown and a host of other things.

I doubt seriously that a normally operated reactor could have had the disaster
 
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