Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "A Brief History of: The Lucens Reactor Meltdown (Short Documentary)" video.

@spicywolf6718 Yeah. Only one RBMK exploded, and two others had partial meltdowns, out of 17 operative. It's not even 18%. They are very safe. What a great idea to build high positive void coefficient nuclear reactors, and tip the control rods with a moderator.
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The main problem at Lucens had been the use of magnesium along with CO2 and water in a high temperature environment. Since those charateristics were not present in the RBMK reactors, the Soviets would have considered them to be safe anyway. It has to be said that the problems of Lucens were even easier to predict than those of the RBMK reactors, since it was well known that the Magnox alloys were rapidly corroded by water (it was for that reason the "magnox" British reactors had no water in the core, and that had not completely saved them anyway) even more since in a CO2 atmosphere water forms carbonic acid. In the original design, the magnesium was not directly in contact with water, but it needed only a small leakage.
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