A women waiting for her operation on her thyroid gland at the Thyroid Cancer Institute, Kiev. The Ukraine has had an explosion of thyroid cancer. At the institute of Endocrinology doctors saw a sharp increase three to four years after Chernobyl. First, mainly children were diagnosed; now the majority are adult women. Chernobyl in the Ukraine became the site of the most infamous nuclear disaster accident of all. In 1986 the explosion of the nuclear reactor affected the lives of millions in Western Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Both countries have plans to build new reactors to export energy to Europe.