25 Vintage Pics from the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and Today

Take in the worst nuclear disaster in history, moment to moment through the decades.

Published 2 weeks ago

In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat exploded.

Caused by a faulty reactor design and a poorly run safety test, the aftermath was serious for all of Europe and was a key moment in the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union. Helicopters dropped sand on the melting core in an effort to contain it but radioactive contamination reached as far as Sweden.

As the decades passed, new containment structures were erected and the risk has substantially subsided. But illness and mutations persist, alongside the now abandoned, eerie ghost town of Pripyat.

Here are photos of the plant before the disaster, the immediate chaos after, and the calm, ghostly terrors that the area still reckons with today.

1
Colorized image of the Chernobyl Power Plant before the explosion
1986

2
Main control room of the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility

3
Central hall of the Chernobyl reactor before the explosion
1986
4
The burning aftermath of the explosion
April 18, 1986

5
The No. 4 reactor wreckage
April 26, 1986
6
Helicopter shot of the exploded Chernobyl reactor
Taken a few days after the explosion
7
A helicopter that flew too close to the contamination zone crashes
October 2, 1986

8
A worker measures the radiation levels
Pripyat, 1986
9
A helicopter drops sand over the reactor core in an effort to contain contamination
Pripyat, 1986
10
Workers clear out radioactive material
Chernobyl, 1986

11
A worker wearing a protective overalls and mask works with boxes of contaminated vegetables on the landfill
Berlin May 1986
12
Firefighters in protective suits clean cars at the German border
May 1986
13
The evacuation of 47,000 inhabitants
Pripyat, 1986

14
A Swedish farmer wearing anti-atomic gear shifts fodder contaminated by the radioactive cloud of Chernobyl
June 1986
15
Front pages of four British morning newspapers reflecting the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
April 30th, 1986
16
Soviet refugees are checked for radioactivity at a Vienna airport
April 30, 1986

17
"Oh God, it rains," reads the graffiti above the symbol for radioactivity on the wall of a house
Frankfurt, Germany May 1986
18
A sign advertises vegetables as free of contamination in a market
May 1986
19
Yura Kudriakse, 12, a victim of the nuclear disaster, waits for his turn to receive psychiatric treatment at the Tarara Children Hospital
Havana, Cuba December 1986

20
The No. 4 reactor, the crux of the disaster, was entombed a few weeks after the disaster
Pripyat, 1986
21
The new containment dome over the explosion area
2016
22
A rusting crib containing a baby doll and blanket sits in the Pripyat hospital maternity ward
2017