Anatomy of a disaster

Chornobyl, earlier spelt Chernobyl, is about 135km from Kyiv.

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At 1:25am on April 26, 1986, a chemical (not nuclear) blast at the fourth reactor of the nuclear power plant resulted in the outflow of 11 tonnes of nuclear fuel into the air, along with Caesium-137, Strontium-90 and other radioactive elements; its force was 400 times that of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The impact was felt to varying degrees in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and across Europe. The fourth reactor was put into operation in 1984; it was the newest. At the time of the accident, 160 people were on site, with 300 more in the adjacent offices. Overall, 6,00,000 liquidators (those who managed the immediate aftermath) helped in the cle