With the soaring popularity of the HBO series Chernobyl, Scottish scientist and vlogger Scott Manley explains the science of an RBMK nuclear reactor, the physical attributes of uranium and Xenon-135, the fission process and neutron absorption. Manley also analyzed the physics behind the catastrophic explosion of reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986.
With the TV show doing a great job at delivering its explanation in a manner that most people can easily understand, I felt I wanted to do a more detailed description. So I cover basic reactor physics, explain how the RBMK reactor works, how Xenon 135 works, Why the control rods included graphite tips, and why the reactor became unstable and ran away.