At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, what was supposed to be a routine safety test began at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant(officially the Vladimir I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant). Delays had already pushed the reactor into an unstable state, and a mix of operator error and design flaws set the stage for catastrophe.
Moments into the test, a massive steam explosion tore through Reactor No. 4. The core was blown apart, pipes ruptured, fuel channels shattered, and superheated water flashed instantly to steam. Almost immediately, a second, more powerful explosion, estimated at roughly 225 tons of TNT, ripped the reactor open to the night air. The exact cause of that second blast is still debated.
Burning graphite and reactor debris were hurled onto nearby buildings, igniting fires across the site. With the reactor exposed, air rushed in, fueling the blaze and carrying radioactive material high into the atmosphere. Fallout spread across much of Europe, contaminating crops and livestock, sickening people, and triggering mass distribution of iodine tablets to reduce thyroid exposure.
By the time the containment structure known as the sarcophagus was completed in late 1986, an estimated 5–10% of the reactor’s radioactive core had already been released, compared to being many times greater than the fallout from the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The long-term human toll remains difficult to pin down. While exact numbers of premature deaths are debated, one clear impact was a sharp rise in childhood thyroid cancer in the years that followed. In the aftermath, more than 25,000 children, many suffering from thyroid cancer and leukemia, were treated in Cuba as part of a large-scale humanitarian effort.
If you’re interested, I cover the full story here:
by aid2000iscool
5 Comments
I wonder what became of them, I can’t imagine what they endured.
In Cuba, so it got that far and was that major even there? Or was this some transporation thing due to better equipped facilities there? The story and your post doesn’t explain much context on this image
Why did I see graphite on the roof
That photo is said to be them receiving “infrared radiation treatment”
Translation: Heat lamps, they’re sitting under heat lamps,
A charity called Chernobyl Aid Ireland did something similar and many Irish families volunteered to host kids from Chernobyl and surrounding areas for summer and winter holidays to give their bodies a chance to recover and get medical treatment.