Historical image of the day (VI): Chernobyl disaster

image from here

On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near Prypiat' in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, had a meltdown. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including the nearby town of Pripyat.

It was the largest and most alarming commercial nuclear power disaster in the world, releasing nearly 50 times the amount of radioactive material than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.