Chernobyl’s Lingering Radioactive Threat

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was caused by just 5% of the nuclear material in Reactor 4 being explosively ejected. The remaining 95%-around 182 tons of volatile radioactive material-still lies within the reactor's ruins. Before the New Safe Confinement was completed in 2017, the decaying metal shield over the reactor posed a serious risk of collapse. If it had crumbled, it could have triggered an apocalyptic release of radioactive dust across Europe, potentially exceeding the devastation of the original disaster.

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