Engineers race to build a massive dome to contain the crumbling remains of the reactor.

Building Chernobyl's MegaTomb NOVA

Premiered April 26, 2017
Building Chernobyl's MegaTomb

In 1986, in the heart of Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded, releasing 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima Bomb. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Thirty workers died, 50,000 people fled the nearest city, and radioactive fallout made an area larger than Long Island a no-go zone. Hastily, a so-called “sarcophagus” was built to contain the radioactive materials.

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NOVA

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