The Chernobyl disaster, which occurred on April 26, 1986, was caused by an explosion at the number 4 reactor of the Soviet Union's nuclear power plant, leading to a massive release of radiation across Europe. The incident resulted in the evacuation of 336,000 people and is estimated to have caused thousands of cancer-related deaths due to radiation exposure. Following the disaster, the damaged reactor was sealed, and by the end of 2000, all reactors at the plant were officially shut down.

1. Chernobyl

2. Facts: Chernobyl was a Soviet Union Nuclear Power Plant Located near the town of Pripyat, which is now present day Ukrainian. The nuclear reactor accident occurred on April 26, 1986 at 1:23 a.m.

3. What happened? The Chernobyl disaster happened when the plants number 4 reactor exploded, this along with several other explosions caused by the previous explosion sent a gigantic cloud of radiation to spread across the land. This included the nearby town of Pripyat. The nuclear fallout that occurred there was 4 hundred times more than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

4. What happened? continued… The toxic cloud drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe, some nuclear rain fell as far away as Ireland. All this resulted in the evacuation of 336,000 people, and 57 direct deaths. An estimated 800,000 people suffered radiation exposure, which could have resulted in 4,000 cancer deaths over the lifetime of people who were exposed to the radiation, in addition about 100,000 fatal cancers are expected over all.

5. What is being done? The damaged reactor was sealed off and 660 ft of concrete was placed between the disaster site and the operational buildings. The Ukrainian government continued to let the three remaining reactors operate because of an energy shortage in the country. But in 1991 a fire broke out in the turbine building of reactor 2. The authorities said the reactor was damaged beyond repair and had it was taken offline. Reactor 1 was decommissioned in November 1996 as part of a deal between the Ukraine government and international groups such like the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to end operations at the plant. On December 15, 2000, then President Leonid Kuchma personally turned off Reactor 3 in an official ceremony, shutting down the entire site. A New Safe Confinement structure will be built by the end of 2011. It’s going to be a metal arch 105 meters high and 257 meters across, it will cover both unit 4 and the quicky built 1986 structure.

6. History This the largest disaster regarding radiation in the history of the world. The May, 1979, accident at Three Mile Island was extremely mild compared to the accident at Chernobyl. There were no casualties, and the total population exposure to radiation will most likely cause not a single cancer. Because of the accident, the NRC forced the plant to be shut down. But only a decade later the undamaged plant was allowed to produce power. It produced full power for a full year with no interruptions afterwords.

7. Pictures

9. Video: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/26164-history-in-the-making-meltdown-at-chernobyl-video.htm Howstuffworks.com