26 April 1986: Chernobyl's reactor explodes
On April 26, 1986 reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded, releasing radioactive material across Europe. Beyond the human toll, it chilled the nuclear industry for decades. New plant orders dried up in many countries and uranium spent much of the following years in a long slump. Only much later did concerns about climate and energy security revive interest in nuclear power.
The lesson: One catastrophe can reshape an entire industry's economics for a generation, regardless of later improvements.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Uranium (lb) at the start of 1990 → $8,000 today, vs $19,429 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 1990, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 8.0 times the money, but $11,429 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Uranium (lb) teaches: In markets where new mines take a decade to build, booms and busts run long; a single accident like Fukushima can reset demand for a generation.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $10.00 | $8,000 | $19,429 |
| 1995 | $10.00 | $8,000 | $14,783 |
| 2000 | $7.50 | $10,667 | $4,626 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
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More Uranium (lb) history
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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