Environment Melt Down
Chernobyl
What
The Chernobyl was the worst nuclear power plant disaster in all of history. Chernobyl remains the only Level 7 incident on the International Nuclear Event Scale ever to happen. The high level of radiation in the environment caused many people to get sick and even die. Plants and animals in the area were also affected. Even now people still do not live and work in the area.
When
This tragedy happened on April 26 1986
Where
The power plant was located Pripyat (former Ukrainian
USSR Solviet Union)
Why and How It happened
The operating crew at the Chernobyl nuclear plant were planning to test if their turbines could produce enough energy to keep the cooling pumps running in case their was power loss. In order to make sure there were no breaks in the power of the reactor, the safety system was shut off. This test did not work out and there was a huge explosion. A huge amount of radiation went into the environment. This accident caused more radiation than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.