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 in Australia to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against". Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear". Nuclear reactors are banned in Queensland and Tasmania. Uranium mining was