Soon, the world realised that it was witnessing a historic event. Despite the death of two people in the explosions, the hospitalisation of workers and firefighters, and the danger from fallout and fire, no one in the surrounding areas-including the nearby city of Pripyat, which was built in the 1970s to house workers at the plant-was evacuated until about 36 hours after the disaster began. Finally, the nuclear core itself was exposed, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere.įirefighters attempted to put out a series of blazes at the plant, and eventually helicopters dumped sand and other materials in an attempt to squelch the fires and contain the contamination. Despite attempts to shut down the reactor entirely, another power surge caused a chain reaction of explosions inside. During the test, however, workers violated safety protocols and power surged inside the plant. Lenin Nuclear Power Station’s fourth reactor, and workers planned to use the downtime to test whether the reactor could still be cooled if the plant lost power. On April 25, 1986, routine maintenance was scheduled at V.I.
