<P> The Chernobyl disaster , also referred to as the Chernobyl accident , was a catastrophic nuclear accident . It occurred on 25 -- 26 April 1986 in the No. 4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now - abandoned town of Pripyat , in northern Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , Soviet Union , approximately 104 km ( 65 mi ) north of Kiev . </P>
nuclear power plant that blew up in russia
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant