Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor 4 after the 1986 disaster

Chernobyl: The Night the Soviet Union Lied to the World

At 1:23 AM on April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded with a force that blew the 1,000-ton reactor lid clean off its housing. It was the worst nuclear accident in human history — and the Soviet government’s first instinct was to lie about it. Not just to the world. To its own people. To the firefighters it sent in without proper equipment. To the children still playing outside in radioactive rain. ...

May 30, 2026 · 7 min · Grim Chronicle