A disastrous nuclear power plant disaster occurring in the Ukraine at Pripyat near Chernobyl, a city some 65 miles north of Kiev in 1986. The accident happened on 25-26th April at Reactor Unit 4 after a poorly designed experiment went wrong. Workers made a series of gaffs including shutting down the power regulating systems and the safety systems and continuing to run the reactor at 7% power after removing most of the control rods from the core. Other mistakes compounded the problems at the plant and at 1.23a.m on 26th April the chain reaction in the core went out of control. There were several explosions and a large fireball blew the lid off the reactor which led to large volumes of radioactive material being released into the atmosphere and a partial meltdown of the core. The incident affected the whole of the Northern hemisphere with strong wind currents carrying the radiation far afield.

The hideous legacy of the accident is a country and especially a local area devastated by the effects of radiation. Food is contaminated and medical problems are widespread including huge rises in the incidence of cancers and Hydracephalus prominent in the young.