Why was iodine given to people exposed to radioactivity after Chernobyl?Chernobyl. Even those who don’t actually know where it is or what happened there use the word as a metaphor for catastrophe and irrevocable destruction. At 1:23 in the morning on April 26, 1986, in the northern Ukranian city of Pripyat, a nuclear power plant called Chernobyl exploded and sent an enormous radioactive plume into the atmosphere, spreading radiation for hundreds of miles. You may be wondering why we’re ...