On April 26th, 1986 in the early hours of the morning, 70 miles north of Kiev, one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing plumes of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and surrounding area. The Chernobyl disaster released between 100 and 400 times more radiation than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Traces of radiation were found in every country in the northern hemisphere, and some Scandinavian countries still have areas under close watch due to contamination from Chernobyl. According to Greenpeace, "perhaps less than 100 people died on the day of the Chernobyl accident, but the ongoing health impacts of Chernobyl are staggering. Our report... shows that the full consequences of the Chernobyl disaster could top a quarter of a million cancer cases and nearly 100,000 fatal cancers." One of the greatest effects of the disaster is the resulting social consequences on the hundreds of thousands of people who were evacuated from their homes without proper warning.
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