Chernobyl - A Nuclear Wasteland 30 Years After The Catastrophe

The town of Pripyat was built in the 1970s - a perfect example of the model Soviet town, housing the families of the workers for the nearby Chernobyl nuclear plant.

Now it is abandoned and crumbling within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

On 26 April 1986, the meltdown of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant led to the worst civilian nuclear accident in history.

Poisonous radiation spewed from the plant into the surrounding landscape, contaminating the area and destroying the lives of the citizens.

Authorities evacuated approximately 43,000 people from Pripyat in the days following the disaster, and the city, with its high-rise apartment buildings, hospital, shops, schools, restaurants, cultural center and sports facilities, has remained a ghost town ever since.