Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation
Also known as: Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster · Chernobyl accident · Chernobyl incident · Chornobyl nuclear reactor disaster · Chornobyl disaster · 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Examine the failed safety test at reactor four, the emergency response, and the delayed evacuation of Pripyat, distinguishing technical failures from later myths.
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Accident site
Accident site in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) is a former nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. 5 kilometres (10 mi) northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 kilometres (10 mi) from the Belarus–Ukraine border, and about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Kyiv.
Reactor design
Reactor design in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. The RBMK is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union. It is somewhat like a boiling water reactor as water boils in the pressure tubes.
Supervised the test
Supervised the test in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov was a Soviet nuclear engineer who was the deputy chief engineer for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Scientific investigator
Scientific investigator in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Valery Alekseyevich Legasov was a Soviet inorganic chemist, professor at Moscow State University, first deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.
Government response
Government response in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina was a Soviet politician who served as a Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1984 to 1989.
Evacuated city
Evacuated city in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970.
Emergency workforce
Emergency workforce in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Chernobyl liquidators were the civil and military personnel who were called upon to deal with the consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union on the site of the catastrophe and in affected areas.
Restricted territory
Restricted territory in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, also known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, is also called the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.
Soviet leader
Soviet leader in “Chernobyl, 26 April 1986: The Reactor Test and Evacuation”. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985, and additionally as head of state from 1988.