The explosion at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine on April 26, 1986, changed the lives of thousands of Soviet citizens.
The plant was located 20 kilometres from of the Belarus border, near the confluence of the Uzh and Prypiat rivers and the Kyiv Reservoir. The area was remote, with scattered farms across a rural landscape.
Wind and rainfall dispersed the radiation to the north and northwest. The authorities evacuated the city of Prypiat, three kilometres to the north where 55,000 workers lived, 40 hours after the accident.
