Be the Operator
You are the senior reactor control engineer on the night shift at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 4. Your task is to oversee a turbine coast-down safety test that has been planned for months but delayed repeatedly.
The reactor is currently at 1,600 MWt. You need to reduce power to 700–1,000 MWt and complete the test. The day shift has already isolated the Emergency Core Cooling System as required by the test procedure.
- • Do not allow power to drop below 700 MWt
- • Maintain ORM above 15 rods at all times
- • The positive void coefficient makes low power operation dangerous
- • Xenon-135 builds up rapidly after power reductions
- • Control rod insertion takes 18–21 seconds (0.4 m/s)
At key moments, you will face the same decisions the operators faced. Your choices may lead to a different outcome, or the same catastrophe.
This simulation presents historical decision points. You cannot freely control the reactor, the physics unfold according to the timeline, and you make choices at critical moments.