![]() Reactor 4 several months after the disaster. Reactor 3 can be seen behind the ventilation stack. | |
Date | April 26, 1986 |
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Time | 01:23 MSD (UTC+04:00) |
Duration | 1986-Present |
Location | Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant |
Type | Nuclear Accident |
Cause | Reactor design and operator error |
Outcome | INES Level 7 |
Deaths | 28 from Radiation Posioning, 2 killed in disaster, 15 from terminal thyroid cancer |
Missing | 1 |
Nuclear energy |
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The Chernobyl disaster[1] was a nuclear disaster. It happened on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the town of Pripyat, Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The station is 110 kilometres north of the nation's capital, Kyiv.
The event was one of the worst accidents in the history of nuclear power. It was rated level 7, the most severe level, on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The only other accident with a level 7 rating is Fukushima. The RBMK reactors that were used at the plant had no containment building to keep the radiation in. Radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and the eastern United States. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated. About 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.[2][3] About 360,000 people needed to be moved to other places where they could live after the accident. Many people suffered from acute radiation poisoning and long-term illnesses such as thyroid cancer.[4][5]