The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation is an officially designated exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. It is also commonly known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-Kilometre Zone, or simply The Zone.
The entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone at Checkpoint "Dytiatky"
Satellite image of the reactor and surrounding area in April 2009.
The oak Partisan's Tree or Cross Tree. The power plant is visible in the background.
Abandoned apartment blocks in Pripyat
The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The initial emergency response and subsequent mitigation efforts involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion roubles—roughly US$68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation. It was the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the costliest disaster in human history, costing an estimated US$700 billion.
Reactor 4 several months after the disaster. Reactor 3 can be seen behind the ventilation stack.
Steam plumes continued to be generated days after the initial explosion
Firefighter Leonid Telyatnikov being decorated for bravery
Video still image showing a graphite moderator block ejected from the core
