...nerd
Not quite. They were doing tests on the reactor, and the head engineer had a background of hasty, commanding, etc. He wanted this test to go, regardless of the caution errors. They took Controlling Tubes, which are graphite tipped steel tubes that are dipped in the water. Reactors have about 277 of them. The more tubes you have, the less power you generate, but the safer the reactor is. The less tubes, the more danger, but more power given. He took out all but 77 tubes, which is considered very unstable.
I remember reading something about the reactor having a positive void coefficient and the steam pressure is what made the lid blow - hence my comment about poor reactor design being the main issue. Pretty sure the reactor design was banned in the western world since the incident.
