In 1986, nuclear reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Power Complex experienced a catastrophic meltdown

as the result of a flawed reactor design and a series of mistakes made by inadequately trained personnel.

This resulted in the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever

recorded for any civilian operation. The radioactivity exposure will have lasting consequences, but is all lost for this area of Ukraine.

Should we really wall off an entire area and hope that nature takes its course and the land recovers?

Will this area ever be habitable again, or is there no escaping the past?

Let's find out in today's episode of PRISM of the past.

Hello everyone and welcome to a new episode.

Today I'm going to be talking about what happened at Chernobyl.

I've discussed Three Mile Island and other nuclear incidents before and if you can't

really mention nuclear disasters without having Chernobyl come to mind so I figured I

really did have to cover Chernobyl even if just once. I'm sure many of you tuning in weren't even born when the

Chernobyl disaster happened in 1986, but considering how far back some of these prism of the past

topics get, this one honestly feels pretty recent.

So let's get into it.

To begin with, the Chernobyl power complex lay about 130 kilometers north of Kyiv Ukraine.

It consisted of four nuclear reactors, the first two were

constructed between 1970 and 1977, whereas units three and four were completed in

1983. Two more reactors were under construction at the time of the incident.

This surprised me because that means this nuclear incident took place within just a few years of these four units being finished.

This already is a huge red flag pointing to an issue with the construction of the units. This area of

with the construction of the units. This area of Ukraine itself has been described as a Belarusian type woodland area with a low population density.

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