At 1:23 am, April 28, 1986, the nuclear plant in Chernobyl (then part of the USSR) suffered a catastrophic meltdown, spewing radioactive material across the western Soviet Union and Europe. The result of a systems test gone wrong, the disaster is widely considered the worst nuclear mishap in history, matched on the International Nuclear Event Scale by only the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. Though the Soviet government initially tried to hide the accident, the surrounding areas had to be evacuated due to lethal levels of radiation. Twenty-eight years later, the region has become a ghost town, a barren expanse of silent cities. There is much to discuss when it comes to Chernobyl, but for today I want to share photos of what the city looks like now. These frames show a real nuclear wasteland and a world without people.
A nearby city in the 1990s. The forest has begun to blanket the streets.
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