Chernobyl disaster

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This article is about Chernobyl disaster. For miniseries, see Chernobyl (miniseries).

Chernobyl disaster

The nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (center). Turbine

building (lower left). Reactor 3 (center right).

Date 26 April 1986; 33 years ago

Time 01:23 (Moscow Time, UTC+3)

Location Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

Cause Inadvertent explosion of core during emergency shutdown

of reactor whilst undergoing power failure test

 31 or 54 from blast trauma or ARS

Deaths
 4,000- 93,000+ (due to the disaster's long-term health

effects)[1][2]
.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
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Portraits of deceased Chernobyl liquidators used for an anti-nuclearpower protest in Geneva

The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear
accident that occurred on 25–26 April 1986 in the No. 4 nuclear reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant, near the now-abandoned city of Pripyat, in northern Ukrainian SSR.[8]
The accident occurred during a late-night safety test which simulated a station blackout power-
failure, in the course of which both emergency safety and power-regulating systems were
intentionally turned off.[9] A combination of inherent reactor design flaws as well as reactor operators
arranging the core in a manner contrary to the checklist for the test eventually resulted in
uncontrolled reaction conditions. Water flashed into steam generating a destructive steam
explosion and a subsequent open-air graphite fire.[note 1] This fire produced considerable updrafts for
about nine days. The heat was so intense that it melted firefighters' boots.[12] The fire was finally
contained on 4 May 1986.[13] The lofted plumes of fission products released into the atmosphere by
the fire precipitated onto western Europe and parts of the USSR. The estimated radioactive
inventory that was released during this very hot fire phase approximately equaled in magnitude the
airborne fission products released in the initial destructive explosion.[14]
The total number of casualties, including deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster, remains a
controversial and disputed issue.[4] During the accident, steam-blast effects caused two deaths within
the facility: one immediately after the explosion, and the other compounded by a lethal dose of
radiation. Over the coming days and weeks, 134 servicemen were hospitalized with acute radiation
syndrome (ARS), of whom 28 firemen and employees died in the days-to-months
afterward.[15] Additionally, approximately fourteen radiation induced cancer deaths among this group
of 134 hospitalized survivors were to follow within the next ten years (1996).[16] Among the wider
population, an excess of 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths were documented as of 2011.[1][17] It will
take further time and investigation to definitively determine the elevated relative risk of cancer
among the surviving employees, those that were initially hospitalized with ARS, and the population
at large.[18]
The Chernobyl accident is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history,
both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified as a
level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being
the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.[19] The struggle to safeguard against scenarios that were
perceived[20] as having the potential for greater catastrophe, together with
later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, ultimately involved over 500,000 workers
(called liquidators) and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles.[21]
The remains of the No. 4 reactor building were enclosed in a large cover which was named the
"Shelter Structure", often known as "sarcophagus." The purpose of the structure was to reduce the
spread of the remaining radioactive dust and debris from the wreckage, thus limiting radioactive
contamination, and the protection of the site from further weathering. The sarcophagus was finished
in December 1986, at a time when what was left of the reactor was entering the cold
shutdown phase. The enclosure was not intended to be used as a radiation shield, but was built
quickly as occupational safety for the crews of the other undamaged reactors at the power station,
with No. 3 continuing to produce electricity up until 2000.[22][23] An international team enclosed both
the No. 4 reactor building and the original sarcophagus in a new, larger, state-of-the-art covering—
the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement—in 2017.