40 Facts About Chornobyl
27/04/26, 03:00
April 26, 2026, marks 40 years since the Chornobyl disaster
The city of Chornobyl was first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle in 1193 as hunting grounds of Kyiv princes.
The name of the city comes from the plant wormwood, which grew abundantly in the Pripyat River valley.
In the 18th century, Chornobyl was one of the largest centers of Hasidism (a mystical branch of Judaism), and a significant part of its population was Jewish.
The satellite city of Pripyat was founded only in 1970 specifically for nuclear power plant workers.
Pripyat was considered a “model Soviet city” with a young population and modern infrastructure.
The average age of Pripyat residents at the time of the accident was only 26.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was planned to become the largest in the world: besides four operating units, the fifth and sixth were under construction, and six more reactors were planned.
The station was built near Kyiv due to the arms race — it was meant to power the giant radar “Duga.”
The height of the “Duga” radar antenna reaches 150 meters, and it required enormous amounts of energy.
Until April 1986, the Chornobyl plant was officially considered one of the safest and most reliable in the world.
The explosion at the fourth reactor occurred on April 26, 1986, at 01:23:47 during a technical experiment.
Recordings of dispatcher phone calls from that night have been preserved, capturing the shift from routine work to the realization of disaster.
28 firefighters rushed into the fire without proper protection, preventing the spread of flames to the third reactor.
The release of radioactive substances is estimated at 50 million curies — 400 times more powerful than the bomb in Hiroshima.
The main damaging factor in the first days was radioactive iodine-131.
Radiation levels on the roof of the fourth reactor reached 12,000 roentgens per hour (a lethal dose is 500 roentgens).
The work of “bio-robots” on the roof was carried out by 18-year-old conscript soldiers who manually removed graphite.
About 10 square kilometers of pine forest died instantly, becoming known as the Red Forest.
The Red Forest did not decay because high radiation killed the bacteria responsible for decomposition.
About 600,000 people participated in ликвидація (liquidation) efforts overall.
The government of Japan allocated over 250 million dollars to address the consequences of the disaster and build protective structures.
More than 120 Japanese volunteer doctors worked in Ukraine, examining over 200,000 children using their own methods.
Japanese medical teams provided Ukrainian hospitals with hundreds of diagnostic devices and portable ultrasound machines.
Residents of Pripyat were evacuated only 36 hours after the explosion.
For the evacuation of 50,000 people, 1,200 buses were used, forming a column 20 kilometers long.
People were allowed to take belongings for only three days, with promises of a quick return to avoid panic.
The total number of displaced people from contaminated territories later exceeded 350,000.
Due to pressure from authorities and fear of mutations, thousands of women in affected areas were forced to undergo abortions in 1986.
On May 1, 1986, a public demonstration was held in Kyiv, bringing schoolchildren under radioactive fallout.
The term “Zone” refers to the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant.
“Self-settlers” still live in the Zone — people who returned to their homes despite official bans.
Without human presence, the Zone has become a nature reserve, where populations of Przewalski's horse and bison have recovered.
In November 2016, a giant arch-shaped confinement structure was installed over the destroyed reactor.
This arch weighs 36,000 tons and is the largest movable metal structure in the world.
Its installation reduced radiation levels near the plant by ten times.
On February 24, 2022, during the russian invasion of Ukraine, russian forces captured the plant and held personnel hostage for 600 hours.
russian troops dug trenches directly in the Red Forest, raising radioactive dust from the soil layers.
During their retreat in March 2022, they looted and damaged scientific monitoring laboratories.
In February 2025, a Russian “Shahed” drone struck the confinement structure, creating a 6-meter hole in its outer shell.
Today, Chornobyl remains a site of global significance and a symbol of the fight against nuclear terrorism.