April 26: Lesson from a Disaster

     It was supposed to be a test of the safety margin in the nuclear reactor cooling system. Could a “coasting” generator, using residual steam from a shut-down reactor, produce enough electric power to keep its cooling pumps going? The back-up diesel-powered generators take 50 seconds to reach full power to run those pumps. Could a ”coasting” generator produce enough electricity to cover that margin of time?

     Reactor #4 was scheduled for a routine maintenance shut-down. It was the right situation to test the theory. The test began Friday, at the beginning of the midnight shift. Various back-up systems were being shut down. By 1:23 AM, the reactor and its support systems were ready for the actual test. By now, the reactor was overheating, and a great amount of steam was being created in the reactor core, steam heading for the generator.

     The “coasting” phase of the test began with the shut down of this steam line to the generator. It took place at 1:23 AM. By the end of 60 seconds, reactor chamber #4 blew up, killing 53 workers outright, and releasing radioactive toxins into atmosphere, further causing radiation sickness and cancers over the next weeks and months to people in a wide area from Ukraine-to-Sweden, and to nations as far west as Germany.

     The infamous Chernobyl disaster occurred on this date, April 26, 1986. It occurred because the nuclear plant operators were playing too close to a margin of disaster. These were smart people. Why would they attempt such a dangerous course of action? Curiosity? The thrill of a dare? The need to know?

     Why do people “toy” with sin? Satan deceives them into believing that they are very strong spiritually, that no temptation will make them fall. Satan will then lead them into the most lurid situation (“margin of disaster”) that he can find for his victim: an alcoholic party; a “lover’s lane” in some desolate area; a private place where money is counted; a public place where one’s sins are exposed. Satan makes it all too convenient for his victim to succumb to drunkenness, to adultery, to thievery, to lying.

     It is for this reason that Jesus calls us away from the “margin of disaster,” when He calls us to examine our hearts, to intercept our lust, long before it seeks expression. (See Mtt. 5:21 – 28.) Jesus calls us to stay as far away from compromising situations as we can!

     Do we?