The 26 April 1986 Reactor 4 Explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant That Released About 400 Times the Radiation of the Hiroshima Bomb
The RBMK-1000 reactor at Chernobyl Reactor Block 4 exploded at 1:23:40 a.m. on 26 April 1986 during a poorly-managed safety test. The reactor lid blew off. Graphite moderator caught fire. The 10-day fire released approximately 400 times more radioactive material than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Approximately 350,000 people were eventually evacuated permanently from the 30-km exclusion zone.
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