Chernobyl murdered during the Nazi occupation of 1941–44. Twenty years later, the area was chosen as the site of the first nuclear power station to be built on Ukrainian soil. The Duga over-the-horizon radar array, several miles outside of Chernobyl, was the origin of the Russian Woodpecker; it was designed as part of an anti-ballistic missile early warning radar network. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chernobyl remained part of Ukraine. On 26 April 1986, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded after tests were done on the reactor improperly and the operators lost control.
Nuclear power power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions. Opponents, such as Greenpeace and NIRS, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. Some accidents have occurred in nuclear power plants. These include the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, and the more contained Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. There have also been some nuclear submarine accidents. In terms of lives lost per unit of energy generated, nuclear reactors have caused the lowest number of fatalities per unit