Hackaday

The Chornobyl Family channel is building a full-sized functional replica of an RBMK reactor control room, and their latest focus is the SKALA industrial control system. SKALA used multiple V-3M processor racks with 20k 24-bit words of RAM each to gather and process sensor data in real-time. The system ran programs like DREG, KRV, and PRIZMA, loaded from paper tape onto magnetic tapes. SKALA's DREG program produced the last recorded data from Reactor #4 before the disaster. Operators interacted via special keyboards with command codes, and a Mnemonic Display showed system status. The post highlights how much institutional knowledge of these legacy industrial systems is at risk of being lost as aging reactors go offline or are modernized.

Inside SKALA: How Chernobyl’s Reactor Was Actually Controlled