Re: World must pay for Chernobyl

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

At 10:05 AM 4/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>The main point is that due to the Chernobyl reactor's basic nucleonics design
>flaw (i.e. it's positive coeffcient of reactivity) it was a "hot" or unstable
>machine. 


Although this plant did have tremendous design flaws, the 
operators/managers should have been aware of these flaws and 
should not have allowed the plant to get into the configuration 
and power history it had immediately prior to the accident, so 
I have to agree with Sandy's original comment.  Poor design is 
no excuse for the operations/management failure that did cause 
the accident. It is only a contributor since the as ecidenced
by the plant operations guidelines it was a flaw they were aware 
existed.

Mike
	
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Michael C. Baker, Ph.D.            Safeguards Science and Technology
                                   Nonproliferation and International 
                                           Security Division
email:  mcbaker@lanl.gov             Los Alamos National Laboratory
Phone:  (505) 667-7334               P.O. Box 1663, Mail Stop E540 	
Fax:    (505) 665-4433                 Los Alamos, NM 87545 (USA)
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