Could Chernobyl happen again without human error?
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was a catastrophic accident, BBC Science Focus looks at whether this could happen again.
Asked by: Jean Hamman, Germany
Probably not. The Chernobyl accident was caused by staff overriding automatic fail-safe mechanisms to conduct a risky experiment; because of a design fault in the control rods, this led to the explosion. Improved mechanisms render modern reactors extremely safe.
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