THE LONG SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL.

NUCLEAR energy; NUCLEAR power plant accidents; CHORNOBYLSKA atomna elektrostantsiia (Chornobyl, Ukraine); RADIOACTIVE fallout; CIVILIAN evacuation

This article looks at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion near Pripyat in what is now Belarus, which occurred on April 26, 1986, twenty years later to the month. The fallout from the explosion had 400 times more radioactivity than was released at Hiroshima and drove a third of a million people from their homes. The concrete-and-steel crypt built over the reactor after the explosion now threatens to collapse and work is under way for a replacement. INSETS: CHERNOBYL'S DEADLY FOOTPRINT;ENTOMBING THE REACTOR.