Chernobyl

Chernobyl refers to the area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 exploded during an unsafe safety test, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere and across parts of Europe.

Twenty-eight emergency workers and plant staff died within the first weeks from acute radiation syndrome. In the following years, many thousands more people were exposed to elevated radiation, with health effects including cancers and other illnesses that are still debated and studied.

Approximately 30 kilometers around the plant was evacuated and placed under strict control as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone; the city of Pripyat and surrounding villages were abandoned. The Exclusion Zone covers about 2,600 square kilometers (1,000 square miles) of land. The area remains largely uninhabited but is periodically visited for monitoring, research, and increasingly guided tours.

A concrete shelter, the so-called sarcophagus, was constructed around the destroyed reactor to contain the radiation. In 2016, a large steel arch known as the New Safe Confinement was installed to improve containment and safety.

The disaster influenced nuclear safety standards and international policy, leading to reforms in reactor design, emergency response, and public communication. Today, the site is a location for scientific research, training, and guided tours, with ongoing decommissioning and remediation work.