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Nuclear Disasters

As Japan scrambles to cope with a nuclear reactor damaged in the quake, Josh Dzieza talks to a nuclear expert at MIT about how the plants work, worst-case scenarios, and more.

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Igor Kostin / AP Photo,IGOR KOSTIN
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April 26, 1986

Widely regarded as the worst nuclear disaster in history—and the only one to be classified a level 7 " major accident" on the International Nuclear Event Scale—the catastrophe occurred during a systems test at reactor No.

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