The nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (center). Turbine building (lower left). Reactor 3 (center right).

Date 26 April 1986 Time 01:23:45 (Moscow Time UTC+3) Location Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, now Ukraine The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (officially Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central Moscow's authorities. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster).[1] The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.

April 26, 1986. Reactor 4 at Chernobyl was scheduled to be shut down, but a decision was made to use the shut-down as an opportunity to test a theory. It had never been proven that cooling could be maintained in the event of an external power failure. Engineers believed that residual energy from the turbine rotation could be used to pump cooling water until emergency generators kicked in. Unfortunately, the test was poorly conceived and badly executed. The resulting runaway nuclear reaction, fire and explosion released more than 400-fold the amount of radiation from the Hiroshima bomb, hitting Belarus hardest and extending as far as Ireland. A total of 56 deaths and over 4,000 cancer cases are attributed directly to the accident.

The greatest lessons arising from this event involve the response: Emergency personnel were not informed of the risk, and the public was put at greater exposure due to poor evacuation measures. Today, a 30-kilometer exclusion zone remains unoccupied around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where large amounts of nuclear material in a decaying sarcophagus continue to incite concern.

Location of Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Part of the Pacific War, World War II

Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

Date Location Result

August 6 and 9, 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan Debated; possibly crucial in the surrender of Japan Belligerents

United States

Empire of Japan Units involved

509th Composite Group Casualties and losses 90,000166,000 killed in Hiroshima 60,00080,000 killed in Nagasaki

None

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date

For six months before the atomic bombings, the United States intensely fire-bombed 67 Japanese cities. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. By executive order of President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945,[3][4] followed by the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,00080,000 in Nagasaki,[1] with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 1520% died from radiation sickness, 2030% from flash burns, and 5060% from other injuries, compounded by illness.[5] In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.[6][7][8]
Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II. Germany had signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe.