When an ill-conceived experiment at Chernobyl nuclear power station went wrong on 26 April 1986, the consequences were catastrophic.

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Technicians on Reactor Number Four at the Soviet plant, in Ukraine, hoped to ascertain whether the reactor turbine could power the cooling pumps, in case of electrical failure. They did this by running the reactor on low power but disabling emergency safety systems – including the automatic shutdown.

Authors

Jonny Wilkes
Jonny WilkesFreelance writer

Jonny Wilkes is a former staff writer for BBC History Revealed, and he continues to write for both the magazine and HistoryExtra. He has BA in History from the University of York.

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