Facts We May Not Know About Chernobyl Disaster

A Steam Explosion

After the initial explosion, authorities were horrified to discover that, despite extinguishing all the fires within 6 hours, they were not safe yet. The nuclear reactor in the plant was still melting, and was going to melt through the floor and plunge into the water tanks used to keep the plant cool. If this would have happened, the difference in temperatures would’ve caused a second, more powerful steam explosion that would have spread deadly radioactivity all throughout Europe, rendering it uninhabitable for the next half-million years.