April 26, 1986. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine. At 01:23 local time the fourth reactor explodes and causes a nuclear meltdown, blanketing nearby towns with a lethal dose of radiation.
Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia are badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. The truth is that a plume of fallout drifted throughout western Russia and Europe, reaching its dark hands as far as the UK and even crossed the sea, to North America.
A small handful of people perish, while tens of thousands feel the after effects for decades to come.
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