A few days before the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, there was quite a large fire in the surroundings of the power station. For seven hours, a fire spread throughout an 18-mile exclusion zone around the plant. Due to strong winds, there was fear the fire might reach the capital city of Kiev. Thus, some of the people there were evacuated. The cause of the fire was unclear, however it appeared that it may have been started by a cigarette dropped by a grave site. Apparently, there was never any fear of the fire spreading to the nearby Nuclear Power Station, which still had 2 reactors in operation.

One day before the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion, it was also reported that a worker at Reactor No. 3 disposed of some radioactive material in a container that was not properly sealed. That worker was suspended and ordered to retake safety exams. The worker was carrying waste away from an inoperative water filtration system that was in the process of being dismantled. Even before this incident, the previous November saw a radiation spill at Chernobyl, which initially went unreported.