ICM AC-40-137A (ZIL-131), Soviet Firetruck

On the night of April 26, 1986, one of the largest, and probably the loudest, catastrophes in the history of nuclear energy occurred. On that day, there was a failure at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat in the then Soviet Union (now Ukraine). This failure occurred as a result of overheating of the core of the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor in the power unit No. 4 of the above-mentioned power plant, which led to a hydrogen explosion, fire, and the release of significant amounts of radioactive substances into the atmosphere. It is assumed that as a result of the disaster, an area of approximately 130,000 km2 was contaminated, and probably more than 350,000 people were displaced. It is also worth adding that 31 people died directly as a result of the catastrophe and in the course of extinguishing the fire, but the number of victims who died as a result of radiation sickness is very difficult to estimate and ranges from several to several hundred thousand people. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 put a heavy burden on the then Soviet authorities in terms of propaganda and image, both at the local and central level, which often showed complete indolence in the course of crisis management.