40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster - in pictures

  • Soviet television showed, on April 30, 1986, this picture of the Chernobyl plant on which a half-destroyed building could be seen, but commentary said there had been "no destruction, nor gigantic fires nor thousands of casualties". AFP
    Soviet television showed, on April 30, 1986, this picture of the Chernobyl plant on which a half-destroyed building could be seen, but commentary said there had been "no destruction, nor gigantic fires nor thousands of casualties". AFP
  • Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's fourth reactor, in this May 1986 file photo. Chernobyl's Number Four reactor caught fire and exploded in April 1986, sending a radioactive cloud of dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe. Reuters
    Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's fourth reactor, in this May 1986 file photo. Chernobyl's Number Four reactor caught fire and exploded in April 1986, sending a radioactive cloud of dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe. Reuters
  • "liquidators", some 600,000 front line soldiers, firemen and civilians who were deployed over four years to clean up after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. AFP
    "liquidators", some 600,000 front line soldiers, firemen and civilians who were deployed over four years to clean up after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. AFP
  • Undated picture of a military helicopter spreading a substance supposed to reduce the contamination of the air full of radioactive elements above the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a few days after its No. 4 reactor's blast. AFP
    Undated picture of a military helicopter spreading a substance supposed to reduce the contamination of the air full of radioactive elements above the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a few days after its No. 4 reactor's blast. AFP
  • An engineer working at the Ukrainian nuclear plant of Chernobyl is checked by doctors of the sanatorium of Lesnaya Polyana on May 15, 1986. AFP
    An engineer working at the Ukrainian nuclear plant of Chernobyl is checked by doctors of the sanatorium of Lesnaya Polyana on May 15, 1986. AFP
  • Oxana Gaibon (R), 17, and Alla Kozimierka, 15, both victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, receive infrared radiation treatment on December 12, 1994 at the Tarara Children Hospital in Havana, Cuba, as along with hundreds of other contaminated Russian and Ukranian adolescents they have been receiving free medical treatment in Cuba as part of a humanitarian project. AFP
    Oxana Gaibon (R), 17, and Alla Kozimierka, 15, both victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, receive infrared radiation treatment on December 12, 1994 at the Tarara Children Hospital in Havana, Cuba, as along with hundreds of other contaminated Russian and Ukranian adolescents they have been receiving free medical treatment in Cuba as part of a humanitarian project. AFP
  • An employee from the Belarussian radiation ecology reserve measures the level of radiation on milk canisters 20 April 2006 in the village of Gubarevichi, outside the 30-km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. AFP
    An employee from the Belarussian radiation ecology reserve measures the level of radiation on milk canisters 20 April 2006 in the village of Gubarevichi, outside the 30-km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. AFP
  • A swimming pool in the ghost town of Pripyat near Chernobyl's nuclear power plant 27 February, 2006. AFP
    A swimming pool in the ghost town of Pripyat near Chernobyl's nuclear power plant 27 February, 2006. AFP
  • Toys with gas masks sit on bed frames in a former kindergarten in the deserted city of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, 22 April 2016. EPA
    Toys with gas masks sit on bed frames in a former kindergarten in the deserted city of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, 22 April 2016. EPA
  • Damage to the containment vessel at the New Safe Confinement (NSC), which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to contain radiation, following a drone attack, in Chernobyl, on February 14, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP
    Damage to the containment vessel at the New Safe Confinement (NSC), which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to contain radiation, following a drone attack, in Chernobyl, on February 14, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP
  • Visitors in the control room of the plant's fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, 23 April 2026. EPA
    Visitors in the control room of the plant's fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, 23 April 2026. EPA