On April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear disaster occurred just outside the city of Pripyat. Located not too far from the capital Kiev, Ukraine. According to History.com, more than 70,000 people suffered the effects of this disaster. It and much of the land (18 square miles) around that area will be uninhabitable for the next 150 years, forcing up to 150,000 citizens to relocate permanently. At the time of the explosion, Chernobyl was the largest and oldest nuclear power plant in the world. With four 1,000 megawatt reactors, a reactor explosion and meltdown could affect hundreds, if not thousands of people. However, the Soviet government tried to cover it up or hide it from its own people, as well as from the rest of the world. The Soviet Union initially reported the deaths of two people and asked for advice on fighting graphite fires. Even as Sweden was starting to detect dangerous levels of radioactivity, the Soviet Union still failed to take responsibility and warn surrounding nations. It wasn't until years later that the full story was made public. “Workers at the plant were running tests on the system. They turned off the emergency safety systems and the cooling system, against established regulations, in preparation for the tests. Even when warning signs of overheating began to appear, the workers failed to stop the test. Xenon gases built up and at 1:23 am the first explosion rocked the reactor. A total of three explosions eventually blew off the 1,000-ton steel top of the reactor” (History). Failure to stop this test resulted in a radioactive fireball billowing into the sky, along with 1,000-foot flames. The fire lasted almost 8 days. The story... middle of paper... uty 4: Modern Warfare also has a couple of missions featuring Pripyat. For movies and shows, according to IMDb, Chernobyl Diaries seems to be the most popular and revolves around a group of university students who go on a tour through Pripyat, only to be haunted and hunted by mysterious creatures. While literature offers a variety of different titles such as the 1988 Marvel comic The Meltdown which featured Wolverine and Havok. In conclusion, the Chernobyl disaster was a tragedy that cost thousands of lives. An influenced an entire region of that world. And it will take a long time for everything to return to normal there. However, it gave us a chance to explore what went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again. And not only that, but as a gamer, I love the STALKER series and making this article made the games so much better.