NET ZERO
The disasters
Chernobyl disaster 1986 was a year of extreme highs and lows for the North Pacific neighbours , still deep in a Cold War .
In a move which delighted homemakers across the USA , The Oprah Winfrey Show started broadcasting coast to coast , beginning with episodes such as ‘ How to release your inner sexpot ’. However , it was the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegration which dominated television sets .
Over in The Soviet Union , the Mir Space Station began orbiting Earth and was celebrated as the largest of its kind at that time . But back on Earth , the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was blasted into infamy when reactor 4 exploded , after safety measures were not adhered to . This caused radioactive particles , which are poisonous to living beings , to travel as far as Sweden .
Two Chernobyl employees died from the explosion and 28 people died from acute radiation syndrome just weeks later . It is disputed that the number of fatalities may be higher .
Ukraine has maintained a permanent ‘ sarcophagus ’ to contain the radiation , yet the site will remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years . However , the site is popular with tourists , with 200,000 people visiting in 2019 .
2011 Fukushima disaster The year the Iraq War ended saw a great deal of death . The executions of Muammar Gaddafi and Osama bin Laden were widely celebrated , North Korea endured a period of mandatory mourning for Kim Jong Il and fantasy hero Ned Stark was killed off in the first season of A Game of Thrones .
110 November 2021
In Japan , another earthquake caused a tsunami , which killed 18,000 people and displaced close to half a million individuals . The earthquake had a 9.0 magnitude and was the fourth most powerful ever recorded , with tremors felt as far away as Cuba . The resulting tsunami ran straight into the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant , which flooded , overheated and triggered a meltdown .
As radiation leaked from the power plant , liquidators battled to stem the flow of deadly radiation into the atmosphere . Across Japan ,
10 % of the world ' s electricity is produced from nuclear energy
85 % of Uranium is mined across Kazakhstan , Canada , Australia , Namibia , Niger and Russia