How The Chernobyl Disaster Affected The UK.

Between the 25th and the 26th of April, 1986, Reactor Number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant went into meltdown: the tragically ironic result of a safety test simulating a power failure.

Located in the now-abandoned Ukrainian town of Pripyat, the doomed reactor spewed a huge plume of radioactive debris and smoke into the atmosphere.

This would be humanity’s worst nuclear disaster (so far), and it had a profound effect on the surrounding landscape. However, it also affected the wider world.

It is estimated that the explosion released about four hundred times more radioactive material into the atmosphere than both the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Despite being over 1,600 miles apart, the United Kingdom felt the effects of Chernobyl’s radioactive cloud.

Whilst the UK thankfully suffered no immediate and serious danger from the Chernobyl Disaster, the fact it felt the effects from so far away still goes to show how far-reaching the explosion was.

More so, it truly puts into perspective how linked together our little world really is and just how much what we do affects the atmosphere for all of us.