The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was

a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the

No.4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant near Pripyat, in what was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR).

During a hurried late night power-failure stress test, in which safety

systems were deliberately turned off, a combination of inherent reactor
design flaws, together with the reactor operators arranging the core in a
manner contrary to the checklist for the stress test, eventually resulted
in uncontrolled reaction conditions that flashed water into steam generating
a destructive steam explosion and a subsequent open-air graphite "fire".This
"fire" produced considerable updrafts for about 9 days, that
lofted plumes of fission products into the atmosphere, with the estimated
radioactive inventory that was released during this very hot "fire" phase,
approximately equal in magnitude to the airborne fission products released
in the initial destructive explosion. Practically all of this radioactive material
would then go on to fall-out/precipitate onto much of the surface of the
western USSR and Europe.

The Chernobyl accident dominates the Energy accidents sub-category, of

most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of
cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified
as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear
Event Scale, the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan
in 2011. The struggle to safeguard against scenarios which were, at many
times falsely, perceived as having the potential for greater catastrophe and
the later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, ultimately
involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles.
During the accident, blast effects caused 2 deaths within the facility and
later 29 firemen and employees died in the days-to-months afterward
from acute radiation syndrome, with the potential for long-term cancers still
being investigated.

The remains of the No.4 reactor building were enclosed in a

large sarcophagus (radiation shield) by December 1986, at a time when
what was left of the reactor was entering the cold shut-down phase; the
enclosure was built quickly as occupational safety for the crews of the other
undamaged reactors at the power station, with No.3 continuing to produce
electricity into 2000.

The accident motivated safety upgrades on all remaining Soviet-designed

reactors in the RBMK (Chernobyl No.4) family, of which eleven continued to
power electric grids as of 2013.
It is almost 30 years since the Chernobyl disaster, a catastrophic nuclear
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the
USSR. On 26 April 1986 technicians at reactor number four of the nuclear
power plant were conducting a systems test when there was a sudden
power surge. The reactor's fuel elements broke, leading to a huge explosion
and blowing off the reactor cap. This exposed the graphite covering the
reactor to the air, and it ignited. The fire burned for nine days, sending a
huge plume of radiation into the environment. It has been estimated that
the Chernobyl disaster released into the atmosphere 400 times more
radioactive material than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.

The disaster killed 31 people almost immediately almost all of them

reactor staff and emergency workers. Between 30 and 50 emergency
workers died shortly afterwards from acute radiation. The long-term effects
are not yet known but a report suggested the eventual death toll could
reach 4,000.

The town of Pripyat, just a few kilometres from Chernobyl, was built in the
1970s to house the plant's workers and their families. Around 50,000 people
once lived here in apartment blocks on tree-lined streets. The town had 15
primary schools, five secondary schools and a technical college. There was a
hospital, two sports stadiums and an amusement park. Today Pripyat is a
ghost town, its streets overgrown, its apartment blocks lying derelict. Books
and toys litter the schools and kindergarten, a reminder of how quickly they
were evacuated. The rusting Ferris wheel that still dominates the town has
been widely photographed, and has become a symbol of the world's worst
nuclear disaster.
An aerial view of the now iconic Ferris wheel at a former amusement park in
Pripyat, abandoned after Chernobyl and increasingly reclaimed by
natureSean Gallup/Getty Images

Moss has invaded the dodgem cars that stand in the former amusement
park in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images

The ticket booth for the Ferris wheel in Pripyat has long since stopped
welcoming anyoneSean Gallup/Getty Images

An
emblem of the hammer and sickle on a Ukrainian flag stands on top of an
abandoned apartment building in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images
The former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, including destroyed reactor four,
can be seen on the horizon from the abandoned city of Pripyat.Sean
Gallup/Getty Images

Frozen in time: Schoolbooks lie on pupils' desks in a classroom at the

abandoned School Number 3 in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images
 Pupil
s' chairs and rotting floorboards are seen in an auditorium of the abandoned
School Number 3 in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images

Dusty Cold War-era gas masks once common in the former Soviet Union lie
strewn on the floor in a classroom of School Number 3 in PripyatSean
Gallup/Getty Images
 Doll
s and stuffed animals lie abandoned in the Zlataya Ribka (Golden Little Fish)
kindergarten in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images

Toys and children's chairs lie in the Zlataya Ribka (Golden Little Fish)
kindergarten in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images
Books litter the floor outside the library of the former Energetika cultural
centre in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images

Warped floorboards pile up on a basketball court under peeling walls at the

abandoned public swimming poolSean Gallup/Getty Images

Divin
g boards stand over a debris-filled pool at the abandoned Lazurna public
swimming facility in PripyatSean Gallup/Getty Images

, only a few kilometres south of the plant, had a population of 1,114. The
village was so badly contaminated by radiation fallout that authorities
bulldozed and buried all of Kopachi's homes and buildings, apart from the
kindergarten. Today Kopachi, which lies in the inner exclusion zone around
Chernobyl, is still contaminated with plutonium, cesium-137 and strontium-
90.

A doll lies on a child's bed at the abandoned kindergarten in the village of

Kopachi that remains contaminated by radiationSean Gallup/Getty Images

Books and music notes lie strewn on the floor in the abandoned
kindergarten in Kopachi, a village located inside the Chernobyl Exclusion
ZoneSean Gallup/Getty Images
The former Chernobyl power plant is currently undergoing a decades-long
decommissioning process of reactors one, two and three, which continued in
operation for years following the accident at reactor four. A consortium of
Western companies is building a movable enclosure called the New Safe
Confinement that will cover the reactor remains and its fragile sarcophagus
in order to prevent further contamination.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established soon after the disaster. All
villages in a 30km (19 mile) radius of the plant were evacuated and placed
under military control. The Exclusion Zone has since been widened and it
now covers an area of 2,600 square kilometres (1,600 square miles). Today
the Exclusion Zone is one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in
the world, but radiation levels vary widely across the zone.

A map at the Dityatki checkpoint shows the inner and outer zones of the
Chernobyl