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Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant had four nuclear reactors completed in April 1986. At the time of the incident, Units 1 and 2 were shutdown, but Units 3 and 4 were operating. When Unit 4 suffered its steam explosion (followed shortly afterwards by a hydrogen-zirconium explosion) it spewed extremely hot uranium fuel and graphite moderator throughout the complex and onto the bitumen covered roofs, sparking multiple fires. In addition to fires on the roof of the turbine hall shared by all units, one fire even ignited directly on the roof of Unit 3. While the chief of the night staff wanted to shut Unit 3 down immediately, the chief engineer ordered everyone to take potassium iodide, don respirators, and keep the reactor operating. Five hours after Unit 4 exploded and the fires began, the chief of the night staff unilaterally shut down Unit 3 and ordered the evacuation of all non-essential staff.

Could the Chernobyl Incident have gone to become even worse than it already was, with multiple reactors failing? Did the chief of staff help save the day, or did the chief engineer potentially avert a larger crisis such as a cascading grid failure that would have left Unit 3 without cooling power later on? Might all four units have been lost if they had been operating and dropped off the grid at the same time due to an incident?
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