The following outline provides an overview of and topical guide to the Chernobyl disaster, a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986, when the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded during a test. The explosion and reactor core fire spread radioactive contaminants across the Soviet Union and Europe. An exclusion zone was formed around the plant, evacuating over 100,000 people primarily from the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The response involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18billion rubles (about $84.5billion USD in 2025). It remains the worst nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in history, with an estimated cost of US$700 billion.
Overview
- Pronunciation: Chernobyl disaster ( , ); also known as Chornobyl disaster
- Name: Chernobyl disaster or Chernobyl nuclear accident; also Chornobyl disaster or Chornobyl nuclear accident
* Belarusian name:
* Russian name:
* Ukrainian name:
*26 April
*1986 in the Soviet Union
*1986 in science
Disaster
Russo-Ukrainian War
Places and geography
Power plant
Exclusion zone
Other
Media
Non-fiction
- The Bell of Chernobyl, a documentary film
- ', a documentary film
- ', a Russian scientific publication
- Chernobyl Heart, a documentary film
- Chornobyl.3828, a Ukrainian documentary film
- The Russian Woodpecker, a documentary film
- TORCH report, a scientific report
- The Truth About Chernobyl, a memoir book
- ', a book
- Voices from Chernobyl, a documentary film
- White Horse, a documentary film
- ', a 2022 documentary
Fiction
- Aurora, a 2006 film
- ', a video game
- Chernobyl, a 2019 TV series
- Chernobyl, a novel by Frederik Pohl
- ', a 2021 Russian disaster film
- Chernobyl Diaries, a 2012 disaster horror film
- ', a Russian TV series
- Chernobylite, a 2021 science fiction survival video game
- ', a 1990 Soviet film
- ', a 2017 film
- ', a 2015 film
- ', a film
- Stalking the Atomic City. Life among the decadent and the depraved of Chornobyl, a novel by Markiyan Kamysh about illegal trips to Chernobyl
- '
- ', a film
- ', a 2007 video game
- ', a 2008 video game
- ', a 2009 video game
- ', a 2024 video game
- Wolves Eat Dogs, a novel by Martin Cruz Smith
- Chornobyl Liquidators, a 2024 video game
Organizations
People
- Individual involvement in the Chernobyl disaster
- Aleksandr Akimov, block 4 shift leader
- Yury Bandazhevsky, Belarusian scientist who was jailed 4 years possibly because of his investigations on Chernobyl's consequences
- Viktor Bryukhanov, plant director
- Anatoly Dyatlov, plant vice chief engineer, the test supervisor
- Elena Filatova, Ukrainian photographer known for her website, containing a photo-essay of purported solo motorcycle rides through Chernobyl's zone of alienation
- Nikolai Fomin, plant chief engineer
- Vasily Ignatenko, firefighter
- Valery Khodemchuk, shift circulating pump operator
- Viktor Kibenok, firefighter shift leader
- Valery Legasov, chief of the investigation committee of the Chernobyl disaster
- Liquidator (Chernobyl), people who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster
- Vassili Nesterenko, physicist from Belarus involved as a liquidator, and working on the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster
- Vladimir Pikalov, headed the Chemical Troops of the USSR, on-scene military commander
- Volodymyr Pravyk, firefighter
- Adi Roche, chief executive of the charity Chernobyl Children International
- Boris Shcherbina, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, supervised the crisis management
- Wladimir Tchertkoff, Journalist who made documentary films featuring the liquidators
- Leonid Telyatnikov, firefighter, head of the plant fire department
- Leonid Toptunov, shift reactor control engineer
Other
See also
References
External links