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Damage at reactor 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, a few weeks after the 1986 accident.Credit: Igor Kostin/Laski Diffusion/Getty

Reflecting on the disaster that struck Chornobyl on 26 April 1986, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev lamented that the “victims of the tragedy were confronted by a crisis which they could scarcely understand and against which they had no defence”. Such is the nature of low-probability, high-impact events. Policymakers often struggle to commit the time, energy and resources needed to adequately prepare for them.

Nuclear-weapons risks are back — and we need to act like it

Forty years after Chornobyl, more nuclear disasters are inevitable — plan for them