Chernobyl disaster: What happened to the nuclear reactor and how many died from radiation? Is it safe to visit Chernobyl now?

Tom Herbert16 July 2019

Chernobyl, the highly-acclaimed five-part drama which revisited the 1986 nuclear disaster in Soviet Ukraine, aired its final episode on Tuesday night.

The Sky Original miniseries explored the events leading up to the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant more than 30 years ago, along with the aftermath of the catastrophe.

Shortly after it release, Chernobyl became IMDB's top rated TV series and notched up an impressive rating on popular review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The worst civilian nuclear disaster ever, the Chernobyl disaster led to the deaths of thousands of people and the evacuation of the nearby city of Pripyat, which still lies abandoned.

Here, we explore what happened when the Chernobyl power plant exploded during a routine safety test in 1986.

Chernobyl - in pictures

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The build-up

Construction on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began in 1972, and it was considered a triumph of engineering on its completion in 1977.

It was built around nine miles northwest of the Ukranian town of Chernobyl in what was then the USSR, close to the small city of Pripyat which was founded in 1970 for workers at the plant.

In the spring of 1984 a series of tests were carried out on reactor number four to determine how long the turbines would keep operating for in the event of a loss of power.

The disaster

Tests were started on reactor four during the day on April 25, 1986, however a combination of factors caused them to be partially postponed until later on that evening. But the night team had little time to prepare for and carry out the tests, while many were unaware of the reactor's design flaws.

Nevertheless the crew had to switch off the safety systems in the early hours of April 26, in order to carry out the routine safety test on the reactor. But flaws in its design and a poor understanding of how it worked meant it was in an unstable configuration as the experiment began.

During the test, power levels began to spike as parts of the reactor reached more than 3,000C. The reactor overheated and, in combination with its design flaws, generated an explosion comparable with a nuclear bomb but releasing radiation the equivalent of 500 bombs. The explosion blew off the concrete lid and sent a plume of radioactive material two kilometres into the atmosphere.

The aftermath

Two people were killed in the initial explosion, and it took firefighters nine days to tackle the blaze that followed. The heat was so intense that it melted their boots, and many were not told of the nature of the fire.

Nobody has an accurate count of how many died indirectly; mortality rates have been obscured by propaganda and reports were lost when the Soviet Union broke up. After the disaster, an 18-mile radius known as the “Exclusion Zone” was set up around the reactor.

The nuclear fallout reached across the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and even went as far as Scandinavia and some parts of western Europe.

Over the next few weeks, 134 servicemen were hospitalised with acute radiation sickness, with 28 dying in the months afterwards. The long-term health implications of the accident on those affected by the disaster is still being determined.

However, despite the severity of the disaster Pripyat was not immediately evacuated. Many in the town went about their day as normal and it wasn't until people started falling ill hours later, complaining of headaches, vomiting and metallic tastes in their mouths, that evacuation began at 2pm that day. Pripyat is still abandoned and the sight of the never-used fairground that was scheduled to open just a week afterwards stands as a stark reminder of the nature of the disaster.

Is it safe to live there now?

The site, along with Pripyat, has been open to tourists since 2010, but although scientists from other countries have corroborated Ukraine’s claims that it’s safe to visit, many are still nervous. The area within the Exclusion Zone is still abandoned, although some returned to their homes inside it. Officials believe the area won't be safe to live in for another 20,000 years, and workers there are only allowed to work five hours a day a month before taking 15 rest days.

However the lack of human impact has led to some slight positives - there have been suggestions that the zone has a future as a nature reserve, with wolves, beavers and the rare Przewalski’s horse flourishing.

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