UK Edition
Chernobyl 31 years on: Photographs from inside the exclusion zone
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April 26th 2017 marks 31 years since the word’s worst nuclear accident. The damaged reactor, No.4, is now encased in a giant concrete arch, installed in 2016. Work to remove the radioactive waste produced by the reactor could take decades.
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The nearby town of Pripyat is still abandoned though, due to high levels of radiation. Some parts of Chernobyl will not be radiation-free for at least 24,000 years because of substances such as Plutonium 139.
Source: GLEB GARANICH/Reuters
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Chernobyl's official photographer Anatoliy Rasskazov took this photograph in the first hours after the deadly explosion. A highly radioactive vapour trail is seen coming from the heart of the destroyed reactor. Rasskazov got some 300 Roentgen (fatal is 500 Roentgen) while taking photos of the plant. He died of cancer in 2010.
Source: Anatoliy Rasskazov/AP
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The reactor burned for a fortnight, spewing the largest-ever uncontrolled amount of radioactive material into the environment. It took Mikhail Gorbachev 18 days to appear on TV to admit the scale of the accident. Public health data was kept secret for three years.
Source: EPA
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Women paint a fence on a grave at a cemetery on the eve of "Radunitsa", or the Day of Rejoicing, a holiday in the Eastern Orthodox Church to remember the dead, in the abandoned village of Tulgovichi, in Belarus, near the exclusion zone. Every year residents, who left their villages after the Chernobyl blast, gather at the cemeteries for a day to visit their relatives' graves, and to meet with former friends and neighbours.
Source: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
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Until 2016, the reactor was covered by a hastily-built concrete sarcophagus. Thousands of emergency workers helped clean up the aftermath of the explosion and build the sarcophagus, some died within a month of the accident.
Source: OLEG NIKISHIN/AP
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It is estimated that the workers received radiation levels of 6,000 millisieverts. The average annual radiation dose of a person living in the United States is 6.2 millisieverts. Radioactivity levels remain high in the surrounding area: a British charity recently found that children are still being born with serious deformities and rare types of cancer.
Source: Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock
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Normally a no-go zone, the area around the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear reactor rarely sees tourists and visitors. But Roman Verant captured the eerie scenes where the world's worst nuclear disaster took place.
Chernobyl's neighbours: Life after the radioactive rains poured down
Source: Roman Verant/Caters
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Some of the pictures clearly show how the town of Pripyat has become so abandoned since the accident in 1986, and the landscape has now changed from being a bustling inhabited town to a scene invaded by Mother Nature.
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The bizarre juxtaposition of the beautiful orange sunset against the empty, ghostly buildings brings out both sides of the tragedy that has left the once bustling town uninhabited.
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Entering the exclusion zone can prove fatal if the strict rules are not followed. The area is maintained by around 3,000 scientists, policemen and other workers. Another 3,000 workers are building new confinement and storage facilities.
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Chernobyl photographer Roman Verant, a clerk for an insurance business in Vienna, first visited the site five years ago. Since then, she has visited seven times, giving her the chance to capture some of the most poignant images from her 42 days in the exclusion zone, but staying safe from the radiation that still pours out.
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Roman said: "I was assured that I would not be taken to the dangerously "hot" places and that a competent guide would be equipped with a Geiger counter on the trip, so I wouldn't need to worry, as long as I followed some basic rules."
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The final scene of devastation and destruction cause by the accident is seen in the rooms with peeling wallpaper and rotting pianos. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev considers the nuclear disaster to be 'one of the final nails in the coffin' for the Soviet Union.
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The sheer terror evoked by the thought of nuclear radiation pouring out is reflected in the image of the child screaming on the wall of the balcony, against the empty skyline that only contains long grass.
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Trees have taken over the eerie, abandoned landscape surrounding Chernobyl. Researchers have found that the dead trees and plants near the nuclear power station decay at a much slower rate due to radiation, leaving masses of dead flora stuck in limbo.
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Forgotten hospital beds are left to ruin. The once modern care facility, which served 400 patients, stands untouched exactly as it was left after the disaster happened over three decades ago.
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Public transport piled high in the abandoned Jupiter bus factory in Pripyat. Some of these buses ferried workers daily to the nuclear power plant from the town, which had a population of 50,000 - mainly workers and their families.
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What looks like a control room in the former power plant. The Soviet state planned to make Chernobyl the biggest nuclear power station in the world, at six reactors. The disaster happened at Reactor No. 4, immediately ending all hope of ever achieving this dream.
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A room with a unique view at Pripyat. Some former residents found life outside the exclusion so unbearable that they decided to return and live within it, despite the risks from the high levels of surrounding radiation.
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The Azure swimming pool in Pripyat town lies dusty and forgotten. After the disaster, the pool remained open for a further 10 years for use by those working at the power plants. Today that decade of additional use isn’t obvious, with the condition of its crumbling interior matching those abandoned years earlier.
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A painting of Vladimir Lenin lies abandoned, symbolising the end of the Soviet dream. The Soviet Union was officially dissolved on 26 December 1991, creating 15 separate countries in the former bloc.
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An abandoned Ferris wheel in the city's amusement park, which is popular with groups of tourists who visit the site daily. The Ferris wheel in particular has become a symbol of the nuclear disaster.
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The sun sets over Chernobyl, with a ruined theme park ride in the foreground. The abandoned wasteland around the power station (visible in the distance) is one of the most important habitats for scientists studying native wildlife in Europe.
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Biological specimen jars sit on a windowsill. Scientific debate is ongoing over whether congenital birth defects can be attributed to Chernobyl radiation, though doctors in the region report a significant rise in congenital conditions since 1986 Read
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An abandoned flat at Pripyat. The town. purpose-built by the Soviet regime with excellent community facilities, was intended to serve as a model for a workers' utopia. Now, an estimated 180 mainly elderly people still live within the 30km exclusion zone around Chernobyl.
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The striking stained glass windows of Cafe Pripyat, which was a popular meeting place for young, trendy city-dwellers before the disaster. Compared to the uniform blocks that dominate Pripyat, the architecture of the cafe - a building designed purely for pleasure - is a radical joy.
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A child's bedroom lies empty, with toys and clothes still remaining. "The Chernobyl disaster has resulted in at least 50,000 children not being born," claimed regional tabloid KP v Ukraine on the 30th anniversary of the disaster last year. For the citizens of Ukraine, Chernobyl is not just a historical event but an unescapable living reality.