Chernobyl: An unthinkable disaster

An explosion and fire destroyed the Chenobyl reactor, shown here shortly after the disaster in 1986

June 5, 2000
Web posted at: 12:08 p.m. EDT (1608 GMT)

KIEV, Ukraine (CNN) -- Under a plan announced by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma during a visit by his American counterpart to Ukraine, the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant's last working reactor is on its way to a permanent shutdown.

During U.S. President Bill Clinton's six-hour visit to Ukraine -- capping a seven-day European tour -- Kuchma asked for U.S. help in replacing the plant, damaged by a deadly April 1986 accident.

More than 3 million of Ukraine's 50 million people were affected by the disaster, caused when an unauthorized experiment in Reactor No. 4 went awry. Thirty-one people died immediately when a power surge triggered an explosion, and thousands more are believed to have died since then from the disaster's effects.

The explosion came early in the morning of April 26, 1986, and spewed into the air -- over Ukraine, Belarus and other areas outside the then-Soviet Union -- 30 to 40 times the radiation of the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Contamination ruined countless stores of food and damaged agriculture and livestock. Mutations surfaced as time went on. Radiation spread across Europe and eventually registered over the entire Northern Hemisphere.

One by one, Chernobyl's reactors have shut down over the years -- after the 1986 disaster, a fire stopped one of the remaining reactors in 1991, and a third reactor shut down in 1996.

Ukraine originally promised to have Reactor No. 3 shut down by the end of 1999, but -- citing lack of funds and a need for the energy the reactor provides -- delayed the closure.

The West has provided some funds to repair the concrete and steel sarcophagus built to cover the ruined reactor.

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