What Caused the Disaster?
The Chernobyl disaster was caused partially by a faulty reactor design within the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant and partially by the inadequately trained staff working with the reactors. The explosion occurred on April 26, 1986 in Ukraine which at the time was under the jurisdiction of the Soviet Union. The explosion of both steam and fire within the plant released more than five percent of the radioactive core into the surrounding area and eventually spread to other countries like Russia and Belarus. More than forty different types of radionuclides, a specific kind of atom or nucleus characterized by a distinct number of protons and neutrons that are radioactive, were released with explosion and made their way into the environment.
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