Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Explosion: 30 Years After The Worst Nuclear Accident Of The 20th Century

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was a nuclear power station located in Pripyat, Ukraine. It was destroyed accidentally by an explosion on April 26, 1986. Millions of people have been affected by the radiation exposure in the atmosphere during that time. After 30 years, many people are still suffering from the nuclear explosion, causing them to obtain different illnesses.

According to Oregon Live, the technicians were operating a test whether the turbines could keep the cooling pumps running even with a loss of power. After 30 seconds of the test, the power rose and the emergency shutdown did not work. The reactor's fuel rods then broke, causing an explosion in Unit 4.

World-Nuclear states that the fires and explosion released at least 5 percent of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere. It is recorded that two Chernobyl workers died during the explosion. There were also 28 people who died after a few weeks because of radiation poisoning.

Furthermore, studies in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine showed that more than one million people were affected by exposure to radiation. There were about 4,000 cases that had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, including 2000 children.

USA Today shares stories that have been living in the shadow of this nuclear disaster. In 1996, they saw young people in a room at the Institute of Endocrinology who were being cured for thyroid illnesses due to exposure to excess radiation.

Some people were suffering from illnesses such as cancer; this includes an 8-year-old girl, Vika Chervinska, in 2006. According to Greenpeace, there about 90,000 people who would likely die of cancer because of the radiation from the explosion of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. United Nations also predicts that there would be a death toll of around 4,000.

Kens 5 states that Chernobyl will not be radiation free. It would likely take about 24,000 years to eradicate the radiation.