#16: The Chernobyl Safety Test (1986)
On April 26, 1986, operators at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union began a procedure on Reactor No. 4. The test was poorly planned and conducted under dangerously unstable conditions. Operators reduced the reactor’s power and disabled multiple critical safety systems to run their experiment. It was a recipe for disaster. A sudden, massive power surge ripped through the reactor core, causing a series of explosions and a fire that blew the roof off the building. The accident unleashed a cloud of radioactive material that spread across Europe, forcing mass evacuations and creating a permanent exclusion zone.
