Chernobyl xenon poisoning reactor power drop

500 MW → 30 MW or less reactor power

Xenon drove Chernobyl’s reactor power down

During the Chernobyl test, xenon-135 poisoning unexpectedly reduced reactor power from 500 MW to 30 MW or less. Restoring power required operators to withdraw many control rods, leaving the reactor in a dangerously abnormal configuration.

Cape Verde has a diaspora larger than its population at home

Generations of emigration have created Cape Verdean communities across Europe, the Americas and Africa. Estimates of the diaspora vary depending on whether they count only people born in Cape Verde or also their descendants. By broad definitions, the number of people with Cape Verdean roots living abroad exceeds the country's resident population.

A nonexistent island marked a border

Old maps showed Isle Phelipeaux in Lake Superior as an apparent duplicate of Isle Royale. Explorers used it as a landmark for the boundary between the United States and the territory that would become Canada, but later surveys found no island there.

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Chernobyl xenon poisoning reactor power drop

Xenon drove Chernobyl’s reactor power down

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