feeding itself and heat production soared. At 1:23:40 AM, the operators ordered all control rods to be lowered back into the core and the reactor to be shut down immediately. (Cheney 22) However, unbeknownst to the operators, there was a design problem with the control rods. The tips of the rods had been made with a substance that actually caused an increase in the power level of the reactor until the rod is fully inserted begins to decrease the power level. When the reactor is running at normal levels the short period of increase in the power level is barely noticeable. But the reactor was running at far from normal levels. (Cheney 23) As the tips of the control rods hit the core "power surged to one hundred times the normal in four seconds." (Cheney, 23) The intense heat caused the core to breakdown and steam built up with intense force. As steam continued to build up certain tubes were put under immense pressure and eventually burst. (Cheney 23) When these tubes burst it caused a mammoth steam explosion equal to an explosion of
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