Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Inside the untouched Chernobyl control center of the third reactor.
- The Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster in 1986 was the worst nuclear disasters in history.
- 150,000 people in the area had to be permanently relocated, and an estimated 4,000 clean-up workers suffered from radiation poisoning.
- Experts say that upwards of 70,000 people experienced severe poisoning from the accident.
Thirty-two years ago on April 26, 1986, a radioactive release 10 times bigger than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power station inside the Soviet Union.
Chernobyl would go down in history as one of the worst disasters of its kind.
The explosion in Chernobyl blasted radioactive gas and dust into the air, and winds carried it across central and southern Europe. Thirty-one people died in the accident, and thousands of lives have been affected long-term by the exposure to radiation.
Around 150,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in the "Nuclear Exclusion Zone," the area in a 18-mile radius around the plant. The town hardest hit was Pripyat, Ukraine, where the Chernobyl plant was located. The town was evacuated and remains empty to this day.
In 2012, construction began on the New Safe Confinement structure, which covers the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Ahead, 19 photos that go inside the eerie Chernobyl plant and the New Safe Confinement structure.