ABSTRACT
On the banks of the Pripyat River in Ukraine, near the border of Belarus, a nuclear power plant was hastily constructed in 1983, utilizing outdated 1960s technology. On 26 April 1986, an explosion occurred blowing the lid off the reactor and releasing seven tons of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. A mile-high nuclear cloud rained down isotopes on an unsuspecting population of five million. Because of the direction of the winds after the explosion, Belarus received 70 percent of the fallout (Ukraine received 20 percent and Russia 10 percent). The rest fell on Western Europe.
