Chernobyl disaster

Sources

  1. Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR, exploded on 26 April 1986.Chernobyl disaster
  2. The Soviet government set up a 10-kilometre exclusion zone 36 hours after the accident, initially evacuating around 49,000 people.Chernobyl disaster
  3. The Exclusion Zone was originally a 30 km radius around the plant and was later enlarged to about 2600 square km.Chernobyl disaster
  4. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant lies at 51.389553, 30.099147.Source
  5. At 1:23 am on 26 April 1986, the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat exploded, exposing the uranium core.Boris Shcherbina
  6. Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl plant exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23:45 a.m.Valery Legasov
  7. Major Leonid Telyatnikov arrived at 01:47 and officially took scene command from Pravyk, who had been the de-facto site commander until then.Volodymyr Pravyk
  8. At 02:01 Pravyk reported over the radio an explosion in the reactor compartment of unit four.Volodymyr Pravyk
  9. A 20-second announcement on the TV programme Vremya at 21:02 on 28 April was the first official Soviet announcement of a nuclear accident.Chernobyl disaster
  10. On 6 May, Shcherbina gave the first Soviet news conference on the disaster, admitting people near the plant had been exposed to radiation for 36 hours before evacuation.Boris Shcherbina
  11. The fire inside reactor 4 burned until 10 May 1986.Chernobyl disaster
  12. Design of the sarcophagus started on 20 May 1986, 24 days after the disaster, and construction ran from June to late November.Chernobyl disaster
  13. In a Politburo session on 3 July 1986 chaired by Gorbachev, Shcherbina presented the commission's findings, blaming both the Chernobyl staff and the design of RBMK reactors.Boris Shcherbina
  14. Reactor no. 1 was decommissioned in November 1996 as part of a deal between the Ukrainian government and international organizations.Chernobyl disaster
  15. The Chernobyl Shelter Fund was established in 1997 at the G8 summit in Denver.Chernobyl disaster
  16. On 12 February 2013 a 600 square metre section of the turbine-building roof collapsed next to the sarcophagus, causing a new release of radioactivity.Chernobyl disaster
  17. In April 2020 forest fires spread through 20,000 ha of the exclusion zone.Chernobyl disaster
  18. Aleksandr Akimov was in charge of the Unit 4 night shift, and Leonid Toptunov was the senior reactor control engineer.Chernobyl disaster
  19. On 26 April 1986 Dyatlov supervised a test at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl plant.Anatoly Dyatlov
  20. The first firefighters on the scene were under Lieutenant Volodymyr Pravyk, who died two weeks later of acute radiation sickness.Chernobyl disaster
  21. By 1986, Pravyk was commander of the fire brigade's third watch and a lieutenant in the MVD.Volodymyr Pravyk
  22. The investigative commission was headed by Valery Legasov and arrived at the plant on the evening of 26 April.Chernobyl disaster
  23. Because Shcherbina was in Siberia, he arrived in Chernobyl only late on the night of 26 April, almost a full day after the explosions.Boris Shcherbina
  24. Legasov met Boris Shcherbina, head of the government commission, at Vnukovo airport, and was put in charge of containing the radiation when the team reached Pripyat.Valery Legasov
  25. At a joint meeting at 10:00 a.m. on 27 April, Shcherbina and the commission announced they would evacuate nearby residents the same day.Boris Shcherbina
  26. Gorbachev and Ryzhkov decided to form a commission headed by Shcherbina, who was then Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.Boris Shcherbina
  27. The Soviet government did not publicly acknowledge the disaster until elevated radiation levels were detected in Sweden.Chernobyl disaster
  28. The Soviet Union admitted the accident only after Sweden suggested it would alert the IAEA.Chernobyl disaster
  29. Pripyat lies at 51.40611111111111, 30.057222222222222.Source
  30. Kyiv lies at 50.45, 30.523611111111.Source
  31. Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant lies at 60.40333333, 18.16666667.Source
  32. In 1973 Dyatlov moved to Pripyat to work at the newly constructed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.Anatoly Dyatlov
  33. On 5 May Legasov was summoned to meet the Politburo in Moscow, including Mikhail Gorbachev, to report on progress.Valery Legasov
  34. Toptunov died from acute radiation poisoning on 14 May 1986 and was buried at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow.Leonid Toptunov
  35. At a turbulent Politburo meeting on 3 July, the causes of the accident and flaws in the RBMK reactor were discussed.Valery Legasov
  36. Legasov hanged himself on 27 April 1988 in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.Valery Legasov
  37. Dyatlov died in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 13 December 1995, aged 64.Anatoly Dyatlov
  38. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone lies at 51.3, 30.005.Source
  39. Shcherbytsky was buried at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.Volodymyr Shcherbytsky

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