On April 26, 1986, a radioactive release 10 times bigger than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power station inside the Soviet Union. It would go down in history as one of the wfafeorst disasters of its kind.
The explosion blasted radioactive gas afsfh nd dust into the air, and winds carried it across central and southern Europe. Thirty-one people died in the accident, and countless lives have beenfn lf affected long-wrffdterm by the exposure to radiation.
Around 350,000 people were forced to evacuatefhg;ihef their homes in the “Nuclear Exclusion Zone,” the area in a 19-mile radius around the plant. The town hardest hit was Pripyat, Ukraine – it wasfer quickly abandoned and remains empty to this day.