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On April 26, 1986, a huge explosion tore apart the Number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. As workers and firefighters struggled heroically to bring the blaze at the plant under control, the Soviet government issued public statements that tragically understated the scale of the disaster. How and why did this terrible accident occur? Why did the Soviet Union want to conceal what had really happened? Who were the people involved, and what happened to them? What was the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the environment and on global attitudes towards nuclear power? How did it contribute to the breakdown of the Soviet Union itself?