mo4ch:>In Chernobyl's shadow: Soviet Union's worst transport tragedy (PHOTOS) | Mo4ch News

Just three years after the meltdown at Chernobyl nuclear plant, the USSR was rattled by another energy-related tragedy. Almost 600 people burned to death when a gas pipeline blast destroyed two trains near Ufa in in 1989.The worst transport accident in Russian and Soviet history occurred on a stretch of the Trans-Siberian railway east of Ufa, in the Republic of Bashkiria. A major leak at a nearby pipeline had led to gas pooling in a hollow through which the tracks were laid. At 1:15 am local time on June 4, possibly ignited by a spark from the wheels of a braking engine, the accumulated gas exploded.The blast was so strong that some analysts compared it to the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It had an explosive yield equivalent to between 250 to 300 tons of TNT, according to the Russian military, and created a pillar of fire visible 100 kilometers away. Trees in a four-kilometer radius were scorched or splintered.Two trains packed with sleeping passengers were thrown off the…