This is a classic article from Â鶹´«Ã½’s archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. It was first published in the 1 May 1986 issue
A NUCLEAR reactor at the Soviet Union’s largest nuclear power station was in flames this week. An initial cloud of radioactive material that blew across Scandinavia grabbed the world’s headlines. But, as the fire worsened, a much more perilous rain of radioactivity began to fall, devastating an area around the reactor up to 100 kilometres across.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just north of Kiev in the Ukraine seems to…
