On April 26 1986,the No 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power station blew apart. Facing nuclear catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, Soviet authorities tried to contain the situation by sending thousands of ill-equipped men into a radioactive maelstrom. In an extract from a new book by Russian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, or eyewitnesses recall the terrible human cost of a catastrophe still unfolding todayWhen a routine test went catastrophically inaccurate,a chain reaction went out of control in No 4 reactor of Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine, creating a fireball that blew off the reactor's 1000-tonne steel-and-concrete lid. Burning graphite and hot reactor-core material ejected by the explosions started many other fires, and including some on the combustible tar roof of the adjacent reactor unit. There were 31 fatalities as an immediate result of the explosion and acute radiation exposure in fighting the fires,and more than 200 cases of severe radiation sickness in the days that followed.
Evacuation of residents under the plume was delayed by the Soviet authorities' unwillingness to confess the gravity of the incident. Eventually, more than 100000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area in Ukraine and Belarus.
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Source: theguardian.com