US Edition40 Years Since the Chernobyl Disaster
- On Sunday, Ukraine marks the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion, the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster, which occurred 70 miles north of Kyiv on April 26, 1986.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency determined the main cause was "severe deficiencies in the design of the reactor and the shutdown system" combined with violation of operation procedures.
- According to the United Nations, some 600,000 "liquidators" were exposed to high radiation levels during cleanup, while 48,000 residents of nearby Pripyat were evacuated as the area became an exclusion zone.
- Russian forces occupied the plant in 2022, and a drone strike in February 2025 punctured the New Safe Confinement structure, compromising its ability to contain radiation.
- Cleanup of Unit 4 is slated to continue until 2064, though Nikolai Pobedin, a longtime plant worker, maintains that nuclear energy remains essential for the future despite risks.
29 Articles
29 Articles
The Independent
The Independent (US)‘We are hostages of Chernobyl’: 40 years on, families reel from nuclear disaster
For 40 years, the residents of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus have grappled with the devastating effects of the world’s worst nuclear accident. They tell Alex Croft about the day that their lives were changed forever
‘I miss our land. Chernobyl broke us’: The families who lost their homes after world’s worst nuclear accident
For 40 years, the residents of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus have grappled with the devastating effects of the world’s worst nuclear accident. They tell Alex Croft about the day that their lives were changed forever
The explosion of the nuclear reactor on 26 April 1986 was the greatest disaster in the history of civilian nuclear power. The incident still shapes the region today. Now Russia's war against Ukraine threatens the security concept for the next decades.
Children in 1986, Ukrainians and Belarusians recount how the disaster forged their identity.
Inside Chornobyl, 40 years after the nuclear disaster
Forty years ago, the world’s worst nuclear power disaster exploded into history at the Soviet Union’s Chornobyl nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine. The ensuing cover-up and clean-up operation made Chornobyl a byword for dereliction and mismanagement. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky and cinematographer Amanda Bailly report from the Chornobyl exclusion zone.
This Sunday, April 26, the world will remember that 40 years ago was one of the worst disasters in our contemporary history: the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. That night
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