EP 93: The Chernobyl Disaster

This week on Hashtag History, we are discussing the Chernobyl Disaster. This was an incident that occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine where a test went disastrously wrong and resulted in a radioactive explosion. Two people would die as a direct result of the explosion with nearly thirty more people dying over the course of the next few months due to exposure to the radiation. What is particularly devastating about this incident in History was the lack of transparency and the cover-up attempt on the part of the Soviet Union. This would lead to radioactive contamination throughout the Soviet Union and Western Europe for some ten days following the explosion. It is now estimated that upwards of 125,000 people died as a result of Chernobyl, having been exposed to radiation at levels nearly 400 times greater than those of the Hiroshima bombing. Chernobyl is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in History.

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