In what year did the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl melt down?

The story behind the answer

1986 is correct: on April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Pripyat (then in the Ukrainian SSR) exploded during a late-night safety test. A combination of RBMK reactor design flaws and operator errors caused an uncontrollable power surge, core meltdown, and a massive release of radiation—rated Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the most severe.

The disaster forced the evacuation of Pripyat and created an exclusion zone that still exists. It also fueled global debate over nuclear safety and influenced Soviet policies under glasnost. To remember the year,