Broadcast: May 3, 2026 at 4:00 p,m.
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On April 26th, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union blasted a plume of radioactive debris a half mile into the sky, blanketing Europe. Witnesses described a laser of blue light eerily shooting up from the reactor core.
Built to represent the bright future of nuclear power, Chernobyl instead became the biggest nuclear disaster in history. In the first of a two-part series, this episode retells the story of the accident, the role that design flaws and human error played, and the futile attempts at radiation containment.