While no major city is entirely uninhabitable due to radiation today, Pripyat (near Chernobyl) and the surrounding Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine are famous for being highly radioactive and largely abandoned since the 1986 disaster, with some residents living in less contaminated parts of Chernobyl itself. Other significantly radioactive locations include areas around the Fukushima Daiichi Plant in Japan and historical nuclear test sites like Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk Polygon.
Iodine, strontium and caesium were the most dangerous of the elements released, and have half-lives of 8 days, 29 years, and 30 years respectively. The isotopes Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 are therefore still present in the area to this day. While iodine is linked to thyroid cancer, Strontium can lead to leukaemia.
Yes, Chernobyl is still highly radioactive in many areas, especially near the damaged reactor, but radiation levels vary significantly; some parts of the exclusion zone have contamination low enough for potential limited agriculture, while a 2025 drone strike damaged the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure, raising concerns about long-term containment, although immediate levels stayed stable as the NSC's function is to contain the original sarcophagus's radioactive material, not the entire zone.
Chernobyl is now safe to visit, with very low radiation levels similar to those on a trans-Atlantic flight, but it is subject to very strict regulations. It is only possible to visit the Exclusion Zone with an official Chernobyl guide.
How long will Chernobyl stay radioactive? Scientific estimates suggest some radioactive areas may be habitable within 30-60 years, while heavily contaminated areas will stay radioactive for over a millennium.
Radiation from Chernobyl caused mutations in animals, harming their health and ability to reproduce. Many animals in the Chernobyl exclusion zone are radioactive and some, like birds, show physical abnormalities.
The blame for the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has been variously attributed to the operating personnel, the plant management, the design of the reactor, and the lack of adequate safety information in the Soviet nuclear industry.
From the second to tenth day after the accident, some 5000 tonnes of boron, dolomite, sand, clay, and lead were dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.
Even momentary exposure would be even to give you severe radiation sickness. The Elephant's Foot has since lost some of its potency due to the natural radioactive decay of uranium, so much so that scientists, clean-up crews, and photographers were able to visit the site years later.
In a landmark 2023 study, the research team discovered evidence of genetic differences between canine populations living in two distinct areas of the CEZ, suggesting Chernobyl's dogs could have adapted to chemical and environmental exposures over generations.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's unit 4 was destroyed in the April 1986 accident (you can read more about it in the World Nuclear Association's Chernobyl Accident information paper) with a shelter constructed in a matter of months to encase the damaged unit, which allowed the other units at the plant to continue ...
About Radioactive Fallout From Nuclear Weapons Testing. Fallout typically contains hundreds of different radionuclides. Some stay in the environment for a long time because they have long half-lives, like cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.
Obviously you can no longer see the actual reactor as it's hiddent underneath the new "sarcophagus" they finished buliding in 2016. However, you can get quite close to the strcture and for those who go inside the power plant, you can actually go inside the Control Room #4, where the accident basically started.
Go as far below ground as possible or in the center of a tall building. During the time with the highest radiation levels it is safest to stay inside, sheltered away from the radioactive material outside. Radiation levels are extremely dangerous after a nuclear detonation but the levels reduce rapidly.
Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov and Boris Baranov are the three men who made up Chernobyl's so-called 'Suicide Squad'. They bravely entered the basement of the nuclear reactor to try and save the lives of millions of people.
Chernobyl will remain radioactive for a very long time, potentially thousands of years. The radioactive materials released during the disaster in 1986 have different half-lives, which is the time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms to decay.
All six were found guilty and Dyatlov was given the maximum sentence of ten years. From prison, he wrote letters trying to explain RBMK reactor flaws he had discovered, as well as to restore his and the other operators' reputations.
In response to the disaster, the former Soviet Union established a 30-km exclusion zone around the facility and evacuated over 120,000 people from 189 cities and communities. The evacuees were not allowed to bring anything that they could not carry, and their pets had to be left behind.
The three men would live longer than a few weeks and none would succumb to ARS, as modern myth would have you believe. As of 2015, it was reported that two of the men were still alive and still working within the industry. The third man, Boris Baranov, passed away in 2005 of a heart attack.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was a catastrophic accident, BBC Science Focus looks at whether this could happen again. Probably not.
Discovered months after the initial meltdown, the Elephant's Foot was so intensely radioactive that studying it was lethal. The most famous image was captured in 1996 by Artur Korneyev, a radiation specialist working to measure and locate the rogue fuel.
In the radioactive ruins of the Chernobyl reactor, researchers found black fungi—especially Cladosporium sphaerospermum—growing on the reactor's inner walls decades after the disaster.
Vertical walls assembled around, but not supported by, the existing structures of the reactor building seal the ends of the structure. The arches are constructed of tubular steel members and are externally clad with three-layer sandwich panels. These external panels are also used on the end walls of the structure.