During the time of Chernobyl, the Cold War was raging between Russia and the United States making all information confidential. The Chernobyl accident happened in 1986. Due to secrecy between Russia and the U.S., the cleanup was extremely challenging. After the explosion, over 300,000 citizens were evacuated. The cleanup process was created because of the devastating explosion. The Soviet Union used a certain type of reactor called an RBMK reactor, thought to be the safest nuclear reactor used.  Each of Chernobyl's 4 reactors could each produce 1000 megawatts of energy Although seemingly very safe, RBMK reactors are very unstable at low power. After the explosion, many people were exposed to incredibly dangerous levels of radiation. The radiation the citizens were exposed to come in two different forms. Radioiodine, which mainly causes thyroid cancer, and Radiocaesium that affects the whole body. The contaminated area spans from 30-35 acres around the Chernobyl power plant. With such a wide area affected, many people were called to the task of cleaning up. They were called the Chernobyl Liquidators.​​​​​​​