Chernobyl

Chernobyl or Chornobyl (IPA /tʃɜːrˈnoʊbᵻl/; Ukrainian: Чорнобиль, pronounced [tʃɔrˈnɔbɪlʲ]; Russian: Чернобыль, pronounced [tɕɪrˈnobɨlʲ], Polish: Czarnobyl pronounced [tʂarˈnɔbɨl], Yiddish: טשערנאבל‎ pronounced [tʃɛrnɔbl]) is a city in the restricted Chernobyl Exclusion Zone situated in Ivankiv Raion of northern Kiev Oblast, Ukraine near the border with Belarus. The city was the administrative center of Chernobyl Raion (district) from 1923 until it was disestablished in 1988. The city currently has 704 inhabitants.

The city was evacuated in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located 14.5 kilometres (9.0 mi) north-northwest, the most disastrous single nuclear event in history. The power plant was within Chernobyl Raion, but the city was not the residence of the power plant workers. When the power plant was under construction, Pripyat, a city larger and closer to the power plant, had been built as home for the power plant workers.

After the accident the Chernobyl Raion administration was transferred to the neighboring Ivankiv Raion. Though the city today is mostly a ghost town, a small number of people reside in houses marked with signs stating that the "Owner of this house lives here". Workers on watch and administrative personnel of the Zone of Alienation are stationed in the city on a long-term basis. Before its evacuation, the city had about 14,000 residents. The city of Slavutych, specifically built for those evacuated from Pripyat, also received the population relocated from Chernobyl.

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster (also referred to as Chernobyl or the Chernobyl accident) was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the town of Pripyat, in Ukraine (then officially the Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe.

The Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. During the accident itself, 31 people died, and long-term effects such as cancers are still being investigated.

CIH (computer virus)

CIH, also known as Chernobyl or Spacefiller, is a Microsoft Windows 9x computer virus which first emerged in 1998. It is one of the most damaging viruses, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in most cases destroying the system BIOS. The virus was created by Chen Ing-hau (陳盈豪, pinyin: Chén Yíngháo) who was a student at Tatung University in Taiwan. 60 million computers were believed to be infected by the virus internationally, resulting in an estimated $1 billion US dollars in commercial damages.

Chen claimed to have written the virus as a challenge against bold claims of antiviral efficiency by antivirus software developers. Chen stated that after the virus was spread across Tatung University by classmates, he apologized to the school and made an antivirus program available for public download; the antivirus program was co-authored with Weng Shi-hao (翁世豪), a student at Tamkang University. Prosecutors in Taiwan could not charge Chen at the time because no victims came forward with a lawsuit. These events led to new computer crime legislation in Taiwan.