"The reactor was now only producing around 5 percent of the minimum initial power level established as safe for the test.[23]
3 Control-room personnel consequently made the decision to restore power by extracting the majority of the reactor control rods to their upper limits.[26] Several minutes elapsed between their extraction and the point that the power output began to increase and subsequently stabilize at 160–200 MW (thermal), a much smaller value than the planned 700 MW. The rapid reduction in the power during the initial shutdown, and the subsequent operation at a level of less than 200 MW led to increased poisoning of the reactor core by the accumulation of xenon-135.[27][28] This restricted any further rise of reactor power, and made it necessary to extract additional control rods from the reactor core in order to counteract the poisoning."
Perhaps not a return to full power, but to increase power, regardless.
Increasing coolant flow actually contributed to the excursion. They ended up bringing all of the coolant close to the temp where it flashes over to steam.
The entire reactor configuration at the time was outside the bounds of the design limits, AND the parameters of the test. Operator error.
They wanted the reactor at 700mw thermal, not 30mw thermal. That is when the xenon poisoning occurred. Loss of coolant really cannot be considered any more than half responsible for the excursion, mechanically.
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