It was just another blustery cold day in the small Soviet town of Pripyat. The men were splitting wood to hear there homes. The women were inside weaving and cooking. Children would play outside typically, but not on days with artic winds. The small town was your very typical Russian settlement of the 20 century. Until it was all undone in a matter of moments. Just south west down the Pripyat river was a large power plant. This plant generated nuclear energy to be used to power nearby cities across the Soviet Union. Nuclear power was a large growing trend. Having discovered the true power of nuclear energy during the World War Two. Countries that could afford to maintain nuclear plants had shifted that way in an effort to increase energy production. However this plant contained a significant number of issues. Safety and maintenance of both crews and nuclear reactors was heavily neglected. This led to minor accidents occasionally, but nothing typically more then a single injury. That was until the accidental reaction, that occurred in reactor four. The initial testing of the reactor

Showed it had been fully operational. This was because of a bad reading by an under experienced, overworked operator. This reading had shown the reactor producing an unusually unstable reaction. The man taking the reading brushed this off as gauging issue. Instead of alerting the rest of the crew to the possible danger the operator continued on to get a reading of the next reactor. A few hrs later a new test reading had to be done on the reactor. While in the process of testing a mixture of steam and hydrogen caused the reactor to burst. This meltdown caused a large explosion. The fire broke out immediately as radiation from the reactor spewed into the atmosphere. The impact was felt immediately as workers in the plant scrambled to evacuate. Some 20-30 people already lost in the initial blast. The reactive debris being spit into the sourroudning swamplands was devastating. A large area of wilderness sorrounding the town was surely contaminated. The Pripyat river had gone from normal flowing body of water to a radioactive cesspool in a matter of a couple hours. The river being so close by and the sorrounding area being mostly muddy swamp land helped to prevent fires from spreading at rapid rates. However nothing could prevent the damage caused by the radiaiton that was infecting everything in a huge radius of the initial blast. With an estimated 1000 square mile radius being effected by the blast. Soviet officials scrambled to entomb both the damaged reactor, and the blast zone that had already been covered in radiation. An investigation was launched immediately into what could have caused such a large scale disaster. Multiple variables were found to be at fault. Cooling rods inside the reactor seemed to not be working up to proper specifications. The reactor itself seemed poorly maintained. The final Piece of the investigation into what launched three towns, and an entire nation into turmoil uncovered a dark truth. The reactor had been tested improperly for at least a week leading up to its detonation. The crews had been noticing reactor 4 giving unstable readings, but just shrugged this off as coincidence. Assuming that this was the only reactor showing any issues the men had assumed the gauge was faulty. Instead of proper protocol of stopping the reactor, and inspecting the gauging they continued operations as normal. This grave mistake caused what was known as the largest nuclear catastrophe the world has ever known.