@hronolenta: The Night That Changed the World: My Shift at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 Description: In the Soviet Union on April 26, 1986, we were having the most ordinary night shift at the fourth power unit. We were simply carrying out the experiment as we were told. Then at 1:23 a.m. there was a dull thud — and the reactor roof was simply torn off. We stood in stunned silence, watching burning pieces of graphite fly into the black sky, while the city of Pripyat, just a few kilometers away, slept peacefully. No one yet understood that the worst nuclear disaster in history had just happened.