Chornobyl Catastrophe) was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred
on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then
officially Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of
the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire
released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere,
which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe.The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.
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