Lesser known facts about Chernobyl, second biggest Nuclear disaster history has ever seen

Follow us on

HBO's mini-series Chernobyl has two episodes left and is already on the top trending show on IMDB with a thrilling average review score of 9.6/10. The show has managed to beat Game of Thrones. The show depicts the catastrophic nuclear disaster happened in Ukraine, Chernobyl on 26 April 1986. Some people reviewed it as the best depiction of the Chernobyl disaster and the stories of its victims. This tragic nuclear disaster till date is one of the worst incidents that the world has ever experienced in history. Take a look at some interesting facts about the Chernobyl disaster, that will surely help you understand the show in depth:

The disaster took place in a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Chernobyl on 26 April 1986 around mid-night 1:23 AM. The reason that lead this tragedy was overheating of reactor number 4 which end up in fire, that resulted in release of massive amount of radioactive material into the environment.

As per the reports of the International Nuclear Event Scale, the Chernobyl tragedy remains the only level 7 incident, which made is the worst man-made disaster of all time. 

This incident was even worse than the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Sources revealed that the amount of radiation released in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was 100 times more than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident.The range of nuclear rain affected a larger area, it was spread as far as Ireland. 

In order to contain the situation, about 800,000 men exposed themselves to the harmful radiation, which caused the death of 25,000 lives and around 70,000 were disabled. Around 20% of the people committed suicide after the incident.

Some families have returned to the affected area to take advantage of the government's compensation benefit. More than 5 million people live in contaminated areas now. 

Due to the radiation leak the nearby forest turned into a bright ginger colour, so the forest was named as the 'Red Forest'.

Some part of Eastern Europe like a land-locked country Belarus also got affected because of the 70% of the contamination received from Chernobyl. 

According to a report of the Greenpeace, around 60,000 cases of thyroid cancer arise due to the incident.

According to the reports, due to Ukraine's electricity needs the remaining three reactor units were operated for some years. 2nd unit shut down in 1991,1st in 1996 and the last and 3rd unit in 2000. If the reports are to be believed, about 200 tons of radioactive material is still present inside the nuclear reactor, till date.

According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, within the span of four months following the disaster 28 workers at Chernobyl lost their lives.
Officials claim that it can take around 100 years to operate the station completely. 

The matter of concern is the psychological distress caused by the tragedy which is still impactful and is the largest public health concern right now according to sources.

The reports say activities like radioactive waste processing or the development of natural preserves is done in the areas around the nuclear reactor.

In the nuclear disaster, about 100,000 people lost their lives due to the harmful radiation, and 90% of local children developed cancer and 5% of adults were also diagnosed with it.

Now, Chernobyl has become one of the most unique wildlife sanctuaries in the world and home to animals like deers, wolves, eagles, beavers and many more. The people who work inside the tourist site are allowed to stay for a limited period of time. The visitors are not allowed to stay more than a few hours near the affected power station area.