Chornobyl - An explosion that has lasted 40 years

Chornobyl - an explosion occurred on April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m. at Reactor No. 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The explosion happened during a technological experiment conducted on Moscow's instructions and in direct violation of nuclear safety rules. Two explosions were heard within seconds of each other, and the reactor was completely destroyed.

The total activity of radioactive isotopes released into the atmosphere was thirty times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation levels inside the destroyed reactor reached twenty thousand roentgens, while five hundred roentgens over five hours is considered lethal for a human being. Around 8.5 million people received significant radiation exposure, and more than 300,000 were forced to leave their homes forever. Nearly 600,000 people became the liquidators of the disaster consequences. Some 145,000 square kilometres of land in present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation were contaminated. The exclusion zone around the plant is roughly the size of the Greater Accra Region, and safe life may not be possible for another twenty thousand years in the ten-kilometre radius around the reactor.

For two days after the blast, the world knew nothing at all. The first warning came from a Danish nuclear laboratory, which on the evening of April 27 detected a maximum-category accident at an unidentified Soviet reactor. On April 28, the Swedish government publicly demanded explanations from Moscow. Later that day, Soviet central television announced: "An accident has occurred at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One reactor has been damaged. Measures are being taken. A government commission has been established." On **May 1,