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The Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor meltdown and fire occurred in the Soviet Union.
At 1:23 am on April 26, 1986, a powerful explosion in Chernobyl's Reactor
Number 4 blew aside a 1,000-metric-ton, two-foot-thick steel lid and blasted
through the concrete containment wall around the reactor. The reactor burst
into flames. Two men died in the first few moments of the explosion. Thirty
others, mostly firemen, died in the months to follow.
Massive quantities of radioactive material were released. The explosion sent a
radioactive plume 1,500 meters in the air. Eastern Europe and Scandinavia
detected radiation from Chernobyl the next day. Soviet authorities evacuated
135,000 people within 30 kilometers of Chernobyl. By the end of May, the
authorities evacuated villages beyond the 30 kilometer radius.
In response to the Chernobyl accident, the U.S. Department of Energy
investigated and shut down the N-Reactor at its Hanford Site in Eastern
Washington. N-Reactor was the only American production reactor remotely similar
to the Chernobyl reactor. N-Reactor was never restarted.
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