More than 24 hours after the explosion of Reactor 4, the people of neighboring Pripyat were going about their daily business when three thousand buses arrived on the morning of April 27, 1986 and loaded everyone into them. The citizens were told it was only for a short period of time, only take what you need, and that was the last time they ever saw their homes, their family photos, their children’s clothing.
Before the accident, it was a thriving town, the shops filled with items that were scarce everywhere else in the Soviet Union. The government wanted to show the world that living next to an enormous nuclear power plant was perfectly safe. It’s likely the Poliburo would’ve kept this mess their very own secret had the Swedish nuclear commission not discovered the rising radiation levels three days later.
Can you imagine three thousands buses pulling into a small American city and loading people onto them without full explanation? It’s enough to knock Miley Cyrus off the front page of cnn.com.
WRITTEN 12/23/2013
