The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident.
The Chernobyl disaster , also referred to as the Chernobyl accident , was a catastrophic nuclear accident . Similarly , nuclear physicist Yevgeny Velikhov , < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4918742.stm > noted some 2 weeks after the accident that `` Until now the possibility of a catastrophe really did exist : A great quantity of fuel and graphite of the reactor was in an incandescent state '' That is , all the nuclear-decay heat that was generated inside the uranium fuel ( heat which would normally be extracted by back-up coolant pumps , in an undamaged reactor ) was instead responsible for making the fuel itself and any graphite in contact with it , to glow red-hot .