Chernobyl disaster Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred on 25–26 April 1986 in the No. 4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, in northern Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, approximately north of Kiev. The event occurred during a late-night safety test which simulated a station blackout power-failure, in the course of which safety systems were intentionally turned off. A combination of inherent reactor design flaws and the reactor operators arranging the core in a manner contrary to
Chernobyl necklace of thyroid cancer may require surgery. The surgery may leave the patient with one or two horizontal scars at the base of the neck, dubbed the Chernobyl necklace. After the Chernobyl disaster, incidents of thyroid cancer among civilians in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland have risen sharply. It is estimated that many of those affected have the necklace, however, no statistical information of the affected population exists at this time. See the article on Chernobyl disaster effects for details. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, experts including Robert Alvarez and Natalia Manzurova believe that Japan faces a similar situation: its