22th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster

Candles during a prayer service in the Chernobyl church on the 22-nd anniversary of Chernobyl in Kiev, on Saturday, April 26, 2008. April 26, 2008 Ukraine commemorates the 22nd anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. 83% of people suffered from this disaster ( 92% of those involved in liquidation) are in poor health. Is the world's worst ever nuclear accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. Photo by Mikhail Markiv / POOL / UNIAN