On April 26, 1986, there was a 10-fold higher radioactive leakage than the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. The disaster occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, inside the then Soviet Union. This moment will remain in history as one of the worst disasters of its kind in the world. The explosion was accompanied by emissions of gas and radioactive dust, and the winds carried these leaks across Central and Southern Europe. 31 people died in the accident and countless lives were affected in the long term due to exposure to radiation.
Almost 350,000 people were forced to evacuate from their own homes. Evacuated were those in the Nuclear Exclusion Zone, which extends over a radius of 30 km around the power plant. The city, which suffered the toughest blow, was Pripyat, who was quickly abandoned and left empty until today.
At the time of the accident, the power plant had four 1,000-megawatt reactors combined. The fifth reactor was working.
One of the many problems lies in the reactor isolation structure, which was built entirely of concrete and reinforced with steel.
The official cause of the explosion was an electrical engineering experiment that deviated from the plan.
Engineers wanted to test if it was possible to produce electricity from the turbines. Even though the reactors were stopped, the turbines were still inert. To carry out the experiment, they stopped several automatic fire control commands and also removed most of the boiler control boards that had both neutron absorption capability and limit the reaction.
In a short period of time, engineers have fallen too much power levels of the reactor. That fatal mistake led to a whole series of destructive decisions, eventually leading to a massive chemical explosion.
Romania, especially the West part, where is also my hometown it was very affected by this disaster, it's been 32 years since then and there are still side effects.
Part 2 will come soon!