Chernobyl isn’t known worldwide as a city but a nuclear disaster. It was once an idyllic and prosperous place in Soviet Russia with an economy that revolved around the power station and farming but on 26 April 1986 everything changed when due a series of careless mistakes light water graphite moderated reactor No.4 exploded and released tonnes of highly radioactive material directly into the atmosphere. It is the worst nuclear disaster outside of war to date.
While only 31 deaths were recorded as a direct result of the explosion, many thousands of people have been affected by radiation poisoning to varying degrees, not just in Ukraine but around the world.
The exposed reactor core was hurriedly covered up with a concrete sarcophagus in 1986. But now this structure is well beyond it’s lifespan and on the brink of collapse. The documentary “Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb” follows the team who are working on a brand new 36,000-tonne steel structure which is to be placed directly over the top of the old one and will hopefully last for at least the next 100 years.
