On April 26th 1986 at 1:23 A.M. reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, near the town of Pripyat, ruptured a vessel during several extreme power spikes. Several explosions followed and these caused the graphite moderator components of the reactor to be exposed to air, setting them on fire. The fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. It drifted over large parts of the Sovjet Union and Western Europe.
50 People died as a direct result of the disaster and it is thought up to 4000 people have died as a result of being exposed to the radioactive materials which entered the atmosphere. Over 350.000 were evacuated from contaminated areas around Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Even Today, the area surrounding Chernobyl still looks like a ghost town.
