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blue-wave

(5,420 posts)
Sun Apr 26, 2026, 10:30 AM Yesterday

'Constant reminder of real threat:' World marks 40th anniversary of Chornobyl disaster

Source: Kyiv Independent

As the world marks the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, Ukrainian and foreign leaders have been commemorating the tragedy, while Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine continues to threaten nuclear safety across the country.

"We remember everyone who gave their lives while dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy. May all the victims of the Chornobyl disaster rest in peace," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on April 26.

The Chornobyl nuclear accident occurred on April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

In the early hours of that morning, the fourth reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded, initiating a meltdown of the reactor's core while tearing through the roof and spewing radioactive material across Ukraine, Belarus, and much of Europe.

Read more: https://kyivindependent.com/world-marks-40th-anniversary-of-chornobyl-disaster/

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
'Constant reminder of real threat:' World marks 40th anniversary of Chornobyl disaster (Original Post) blue-wave Yesterday OP
Yeah. We want trump appointees running nuclear plants. Turbineguy Yesterday #1
No. Please no. I can't take anymore! blue-wave Yesterday #3
Don't worry! There's a New generation of nuclear reactors coming. They're Small! They're Modular! (Okay, Worry.) thought crime 6 hrs ago #9
Hey, we had three mile island where nothing happened. twodogsbarking Yesterday #2
Hey, only 119,960 years to go before that Plutonium-239 burns off! LudwigPastorius 20 hrs ago #4
Inside Chornobyl, 40 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster - PBS NewsHour Rhiannon12866 18 hrs ago #5
I'm going to watch that now! blue-wave 16 hrs ago #6
Thanks! Rhiannon12866 16 hrs ago #7
The most horrible lesson we learned from this... hunter 10 hrs ago #8

thought crime

(1,725 posts)
9. Don't worry! There's a New generation of nuclear reactors coming. They're Small! They're Modular! (Okay, Worry.)
Mon Apr 27, 2026, 01:13 PM
6 hrs ago

From NPR:

The Trump administration has overhauled a set of nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR.

The sweeping changes were made to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5677187/nuclear-safety-rules-rewritten-trump


The DOE is boosting the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) that will allow most of the reactor construction to be done in a manufacturing plant, then shipped to an operating site. This will drastically lower overall cost. A small reactor could power a single facility like a data center. Many more reactors means many more potential points of failure, and the potential is raised if safety rules are relaxed.

LudwigPastorius

(14,888 posts)
4. Hey, only 119,960 years to go before that Plutonium-239 burns off!
Mon Apr 27, 2026, 12:03 AM
20 hrs ago

Avoid the rush. Book your vacation in the exclusion zone today!

Rhiannon12866

(257,369 posts)
7. Thanks!
Mon Apr 27, 2026, 03:33 AM
16 hrs ago

As I said in a reply, when I joined my grandmother and her peace group in the late '80s on the initial trip to visit her town's "sister town" high in the Caucasus Mountains in the USSR, we were scheduled to visit Kiev, but then Chernobyl happened and we visited Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia, instead. And knowing what I know now, I'm sorry that we never made it to Kiev.

hunter

(40,787 posts)
8. The most horrible lesson we learned from this...
Mon Apr 27, 2026, 09:57 AM
10 hrs ago

... is that humans living their ordinary lives do more damage to the natural environment than fallout from the worst possible sort of nuclear accident.

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