On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded, following a test to simulate cooling the reactor during a blackout that instead triggered a power surge through pre-existing design flaws; the reactor components ruptured, coolant was lost, and the resulting steam explosions and meltdown destroyed the reactor building, followed by a core fire that spread radioactive contaminants across the Soviet Union and Europe. It is one of only two nuclear accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan. The Soviet government established a 10 kilometre exclusion zone 36 hours after the accident, evacuating around 49,000 people, later expanded to 30 kilometres and roughly 68,000 more evacuees; it did not publicly acknowledge the disaster until two days after the explosion, when elevated radiation levels were detected in Sweden. The response involved more than 500,000 personnel and an estimated cost of 18 billion rubles, and the disaster remains the most destructive and most expensive in the history of nuclear power, estimated at 700 billion US dollars.
Facts
LocationChernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat, Ukraine 1 Death Toll, Low EstimateLower long-term estimate is United Nations figure for Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Death Toll, High EstimateUpper long-term estimate covers all of Europe. Classification
Event TypeScientific or Technological Event 1 Connections
In Era
Source Chernobyl disaster, Wikipedia
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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject took place.
Sources
1. Chernobyl disaster, Wikipedia
Lead paragraph, year of explosion
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded.
Lead paragraph, date of explosion
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded.
Lead paragraph, site of explosion
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded.
Death toll section, long-term estimates
Long-term death estimates range from up to 4,000 in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (per the United Nations) to 16,000 in total across Europe.
Death toll section, upper estimate
Long-term death estimates range from up to 4,000 in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (per the United Nations) to 16,000 in total across Europe.
Chernobyl Disaster: Event Type
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded, following a test to simulate cooling the reactor during a blackout that instead triggered a power surge through pre-existing design flaws; the reactor components ruptured, coolant was lost, and the resulting steam explosions and meltdown destroyed the reactor building, followed by a core fire that spread radioactive contaminants across the Soviet Union and Europe.
In Era: The Contemporary Period, lead paragraph and infobox, dates
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded. The acciden
In Group: Events of the Late Cold War and After, 1970 to 1999, Lead
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded.
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