Scientists Develop New Theory on Chernobyl Blasts

Scientists Develop New Theory on Chernobyl Blasts
Repairs are being made to the damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Aug. 5, 1986 after one of the plant’s four reactors exploded on April 26 of that year. Zufarov/AFP/Getty Images
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Three scientists have published a paper claiming that the first explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine in April, 1986, was in fact a nuclear explosion and not a steam explosion as experts had previously thought.

Nuclear physicists Lars-Erik De Geer, Christer Persson and Henning Rodhe analyzed the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl that had spread both east and west.