Pripyat Incident

The Pripyat Incident is the common name for a radiological disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine SSR, on April 26, 1986. The Pripyat Incident is considered the greatest nuclear disaster of all time, and is directly responsible for the creation of the Black Desert, indirectly causing the formation of the Eurasian Soviet, inspiring the Humanoid Robotics Renaissance, and, indirectly, contributing to the conditions that allowed the Third World War.

The accident was the result of inappropriate operation of one of the site's RBMK reactors during a safety test, owing to the test procedure having been designed by personnel that did not have full awareness of the unusual behaviour of this class of reactor at low power output over extended periods, causing an uncontrolled criticality event that resulted in full meltdown of the subject reactor. The runaway meltdown and attendant fires and other contributing disasters ultimately lead to the groundwater of the entire Dnipro Basin downstream of Pripyat with long-lived radionuclides.

The requirement for high-grade robotics to enable decontamination and search-and-rescue within the affected area, which became known as the Black Desert, spurred on the Second Robotics Revolution, and ultimately, Project Lorica and the emergence of the Lorica platform as the world's leading fighting vehicle design. Even by the formation of the Terran Hegemony, the effects of the Pripyat Incident are still being felt and the affected area is still subject to travel restrictions and decontamination efforts.