The organisations responsible for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant lacked a 'safety culture' resulting in an inability to remedy design weaknesses despite being known about before the accident.
             The RBMK reactor (RBMK, a Russian acronym translated roughly means "reactor cooled by water and moderated by graphite", is one of the two types of reactors the Soviets have built for the production of nuclear power. The RBMK was developed by the Soviets from earlier models that had been used to generate nuclear weapons, as well as produce heat for district heating.) type used at Chernobyl suffers from instability at low power and thus may experience a rapid , uncontrollable power increase. Although other reactor types have this problem they incorporate design features to stop instability from occurring. The cause of this instability is: Water is a better coolant than steam. The water acts as a moderator and neutron absorber (slowing down the reaction) whilst steam does not. Excess steam pockets in the RBMK design lead to increased power generation this is known as a positive void coefficient. This excess power causes additional heating thus producing more steam and means less neutron absorption causing the problem to escalate. This all happens very rapidly and if it is not stopped quickly it is very hard to stop as it supplies itself.
             While running a test of the reactor numerous safety procedure were violated by the station technicians. Only 6 - 8 control rods were used during the test despite there been a standard operating order stating that a minimum of 30 rods were required to retain control. The reactor's emergency cooling system was disabled.
             The test was carried out without a proper exchange of information between the team in charge of the test and personnel responsible for the operation of the nuc
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