What happened in Chernobyl and what were the consequences of the nuclear accident?

Chernobyl was one of the greatest nuclear disasters that humanity has experienced in its entire history. On April 26, 1896, the Vladimir Illich Lenin nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine suffered a major leak in its central reactor, highlighting the dangers of nuclear energy to people and the environment.

What happened?

After many years since the incident occurred, there are still many doubts that arise about what happened. On April 25, plant workers had to do maintenance work on the plant’s fourth reactor.

Their job was to check what would happen if the power station were to lose power. This they would check while the reactor was idle. According to investigations, security protocols were violated and the power of the plant began to rise unexpectedly and suddenly.

After a few minutes, the central part of the reactor was exposed and began to expel large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere . Disaster began to loom over Chernobyl.

An attempt was made to throw sand into the reactor to try to put out the flames and avoid contamination to the atmosphere, but it was of no use. Two workers died at the station itself as a result of the explosion, and members of the station were evacuated to the hospital that same day.

Effects of the accident

The way of acting of the authorities has always been investigated. It took 36 hours until the city of Prípiat, the closest to the plant, was evacuated. The accident was officially announced three days later, when all of Europe had already seen the radioactive sky.

On the same April 26, 50 people died when they came into contact with the radioactive material. Everything was contaminated, especially the city of Prípiat, which was evacuated completely but late.

Its 50,000 inhabitants were taken to other parts of the country, but the exposure to radiation had already been enough to leave significant consequences on the population.

The milk became contaminated and 5,000 children suffered a malignant tumor due to contact with this food, the animals died, and Prípiat became an empty ghost town. Most alarming was the exponential increase in thyroid cancer among the population that came into contact with the radioactive material.

35 years later, Chernobyl remains a black memory of recent European history. In 20216 the construction of a concrete sarcophagus at the plant was completed to prevent new radioactive material from being expelled.