but only claimed 1 life, and injured 22–24 people. July 23, 1984: Romeoville, Illinois, Union Oil refinery explosion killed 19 people. November 19, 1984: San Juanico Disaster. An explosion at a liquid petroleum gas tank farm killed hundreds and injured thousands in San Juan Ixhuatepec, Mexico. April 26, 1986: Chernobyl disaster. At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Soviet Union, (modern-day Ukraine) a test on reactor number four went out of control, resulting in a nuclear meltdown. The ensuing steam explosion and radiation killed up to 50 people with estimates that there may be between 4,000 and several hundred thousand additional cancer deaths over time, although this has not yet been observed and was estimated based on the contested linear no-threshold model. Nuclear fallout could be detected as far away as Canada. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, covering portions of Belarus and Ukraine surrounding Pripyat, remains contaminated and mostly uninhabited. Pripyat itself was totally evacuated and remains as a ghost town, although teeming with wildlife. May 5, 1988: Norco, Louisiana, Shell Oil refinery explosion. Hydrocarbon gas escaped from a corroded pipe in a catalytic cracker and was ignited. Louisiana State Police evacuated 2,800 residents from nearby neighborhoods. Seven workers were killed and 42 injured. The total cost arising from the Norco blast is estimated at US$706 million. July 6, 1988: Piper Alpha disaster. An explosion and resulting fire on a North Sea oil production platform killed 167 men. The total insured loss was about US$3.4 billion. To date it is rated as the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms both of lives lost and impact to industry. March 24, 1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, dumping an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million litres, or 250,000 barrels) of crude oil into the sea. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur. 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds died, as well as at least 2,800 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were destroyed. Overall reductions in population have been seen in various ocean animals, including stunted growth in pink salmon populations. Sea otters and ducks also showed higher death rates in following years, partially because they ingested