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Today marks the 34th anniversary of the worst nuclear catastrophe in human history: the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine.
On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m., reactor n. ° 4 of the Soviet era exploded, changing the lives of millions of people around the world, decades ahead. 213 people were admitted to the hospital minutes after the serious incident and 31 died immediately.
To date, there is speculation about the cause of the accident. The basic version is a combination of incorrect staff actions.
Most of the victims were firefighters trying to extinguish the fire but unaware of the poisonous radioactive smoke. Radioactive contamination covers more than 200,000 square kilometers, mainly in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
Tens of thousands have been evacuated, but the damage is a fact: the Chernobyl disaster has caused more than a quarter of a million cancer cases, of which almost 100,000 have been fatal, according to reports from health authorities in Europe.
Thousands of participants later managed to build a concrete sarcophagus containing much of the fuel in the destroyed reactor and tons of radioactive metal and dust. In 2017, the sarcophagus was replaced with a new one, and the project cost $ 1.4 billion.
The concrete arch is 162 meters long and 108 meters high. In its current form, the new roof weighs more than 26,000. To this day, the nearest city, Pripyat remains a symbol of tragedy, depopulated by high levels of radiation.
In 2019, HBO reread the tragedy the world knows about days after it happened. The Chernobyl miniseries traced the causes and consequences of the nuclear power plant accident, making it the most watched production of the year.
After that, interest in the scene of the tragedy resumed, and the city of Pripyat became a world tourist destination for lovers of intense emotions.
