What Technically Happened at Chernobyl [video]
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youtube.com
[1] https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/new-theory-rewrit...
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00295450.2017.1...
[3] https://sputniknews.com/science/201711211059279933-chernobyl...
[4] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171117085130.h...
[5] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/549812
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It sounds to me that as a nuclear industry professional he's avoiding committing specifically to that scenario, but mentioning "prompt criticality" puts him pretty close.
Anyways, his conclusions are based on the observations of other russian people who analyzed this in all possible ways, also in person, comparing floor plans and construction documents with what remained there. Based on that the story as it is commonly told, also in that HBO series can't be true. Especially not the amount of remaining radioactive material, and also not the nature of the initial reaction.
But since it's all in russian, and only some of that brought by Pflugbeil into german, it remains mostly in 'conspiracy theorist' territory.
I don't think it is.
I'm also aware that this is a 'speciality' of the RBMK design, so very unlikely or even impossible with other designs.