The Chernobyl disaster was one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in human history, occurring on 26 April 1986 at Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the former Soviet Union. During a late-night safety test, operators made critical errors while the reactor was running under unstable conditions, and serious design flaws in the RBMK reactor intensified the situation. A sudden power surge caused explosions that destroyed the reactor core and releas