Chernobyl disaster: Quick Facts

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Oct. 18, 2026

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Facts

Also Known As	Chornobyl accident
Date	April 26, 1986 - May 4, 1986
Location	Ukraine

Photos and Videos

The abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, showing the damaged reactor building and rusting structures surrounded by power lines and overgrown vegetation.

Map showing the Chernobyl nuclear accident exclusion zone in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus. The initial 30-kilometer radius exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is marked with a red circle, while the present-day exclusion zone is shaded in orange, covering a larger, irregular area that includes the towns of Prypyat and Chernobyl. An inset map highlights the affected region within Ukraine and Belarus.

helicopter inspection of the Chernobyl nuclear power station

destroyed reactor Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station

Long, decaying hallway of an abandoned school in Pripyat, with peeling blue paint, broken windows, and debris scattered across the floor.

monument to emergency workers who responded to Chernobyl disaster

Pryp'yat, Ukraine

What really happened in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster?

A journey through the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

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Topics

nuclear reactor nuclear power Nuclear Exclusion Zones 30th Anniversary of Chernobyl fallout

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