The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 25 and 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. On April 27 the 30,000 inhabitants of Pryp’yat began to be evacuated. A cover-up was attempted, but on April 28 Swedish monitoring stations reported abnormally high levels of wind-transported radioactivity and pressed for an explanation. The Soviet government admitted there had been an accident at Chernobyl, thus setting off an international outcry over the dangers posed by the radioactive emissions. By May 4 both the heat and the radioactivity leaking from the reactor core were being contained, albeit at great risk to workers. Chernobyl is one of the worst disasters in the history of nuclear power generation.
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