37 years ago, on April 26, 1986, an accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant – an explosion and fire during tests at the fourth power unit. The station’s reactor was completely destroyed and a large amount of radioactive substances were released into the environment. About 600 station personnel and firefighters received high doses of radiation, 28 of whom died already in 1986. In total, in the first months after the disaster, about 100 people died as a result of radiation, 134 liquidators of the accident suffered from acute radiation sickness. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was finally closed only in December 2000. The disaster and its consequences are in the photo gallery of Russian media.
Aerial photograph taken two to three days after the explosion.AP
Soviet television broadcasts images after the accident. April 30, 1986AP
A nurse takes blood for analysis from a Finnish construction worker returning from Kiev. May 2, 1986 Leif Weckstrom/AP
West Berliners pour milk on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin to protest against levels of radioactivity in food which have increased since the Chernobyl accident. May 11, 1986 Peter Homann/AP
A worker in a protective suit at a landfill in Berlin where contaminated vegetables were stored after the Chernobyl accident. May 9, 1986 Rainer Klostermeier / AP
Liquidators of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the Soyuzpechat kiosk. Chernobyl, May 28, 1986 Valery Zufarov / TASS
A helicopter dropping chemicals to suppress radiation approaches the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. May 12, 1986 Vladimir Repik / AP
Major A. Reshetnyak, head of the military road inspection of sector No. 2, provides traffic safety on the road to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the accident. May 28, 1986 Valery Zufarov / TASS
Specialists of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for the Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (VNIIAES), senior researcher G. Yu. Makushin and operator PE Zherebtsov (from left to right), who delivered the robotics to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. May 26, 1986 B. Prikhodko / TASS
Technician examines the inhabitants of Kiev. May 9, 1986 Boris Yurchenko / AP
A technician checks water drawn from a stream near Kiev. May 9, 1986 Boris Yurchenko / AP
Dosimetric control of vehicles leaving the border of the thirty-kilometer exclusion zone after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. May 10, 1986 Valery Zufarov, Vladimir Repik / TASS
A paramedic examines people evacuated to Ukraine’s Kopelovo state farm near Kiev. May 11, 1986 Boris Yurchenko / AP
Operational meeting on the construction of “Shelter” above the fourth emergency power unit. August 1986 Valery Zufarov, Vladimir Repik / TASS
A special point for the decontamination of vehicles leaving the border of the thirty-kilometer exclusion zone after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. February 1987 Valery Zufarov / TASS
The electric welder of the Chernobyl assembly department of the Hydroelectromontazh trusts Vitaly Kayun during repair and restoration work at the facilities of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the accident. February 1987 Valery Zufarov / TASS
A team of film isolators during the decontamination of the premises of the third power unit after the accident at the Chernobolsk nuclear power plant. February 1987 Valery Zufarov / TASS
Restoration works at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the accident. February 1987 Valery Zufarov / TASS
Former director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov, deputy chief engineer Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov and chief engineer Nikolai Maksimovich Fomin (left to right), accused in the case of the accident of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, during sentencing at a meeting of the Supreme Court of the USSR, July 29, 1987 Vladimir Samokhotsky / TASS
The exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Kiev region. March 1991 Vladimir Velengurin / TASS
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