Chernobyl in pictures: 30 years on

Image: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
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In the early hours of 26 April 1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. The disaster at the Soviet plant remains the worst nuclear accident in history.
An exclusion zone, which has a radius of 30km and covers an area roughly the size of Luxembourg - remains in place around the site in Ukraine. Although largely uninhabited by humans, there are signs that animal life is returning.
This collection of striking photos offers a glimpse inside the exclusion zone.










![A picture of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin is seen through wild flowers inside a hospital in the abandoned town of Pripyat, in the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant March 31, 2006. [Around 50,000 Pripyat residents were evacuated after the disaster, taking only few belongings. Ukraine is preparing to mark the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster, when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded, spreading radioactivity across Europe and the Soviet Union. ] - RTXOG56](https://assets.weforum.org/editor/SQTHrAoXdlpwcHkrYwOgkCtY_iFkhpFPuAf0igEhXCw.jpg)

![A worker measures radiation levels at a cemetery for contaminated equipment used during the Chernobyl catastrophe, near the village of Rossokha inside the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant March 30, 2006. [Ukraine is preparing to mark the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster, when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded, spreading a radioactive cloud across Europe and the Soviet Union.] - RTXOGWP](https://assets.weforum.org/editor/pZ1VhqgDezSHf-osLKtFQdBlNk7wb9YZG2qoyzOQLTg.jpg)

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