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Chernobyl: Special report newsletter

Editors  |  Paste BN

On April 26, 1986, an explosion destroyed reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl's Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union. Thirty years later, 5 million people live on heavily contaminated lands in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of people are sick or suffering. Paste BN traveled to this still-scarred area to report on people living in the shadow of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe.

30 years later, Chernobyl's searing legacy still crippling and killing

The true impact from Chernobyl may not be known for decades to come. Some parts of Chernobyl, an area the size of Rhode Island, will not be radiation-free, if ever, for at least 24,000 years. Some say that the total death toll from the Chernobyl disaster could reach 1 million. A safe dose of radiation? Opinions vary wildly, but certainly there are abnormalities with the wildlife. Here's a timeline of how the nuclear nightmare unfolded.

The 'liquidator': He cleaned up after — and is paying the price

Sergey Krasilnikov, 65, was one of about 800,000 soldiers, firefighters, engineers, miners, farmers and volunteers tasked with taking part in the Chernobyl cleanup operation after the accident. He shared his powerful story with Paste BN.

Why a babushka in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone refuses to leave home

They endure isolation, eerie silence and contaminated land so they can die in a place familiar to them. About 180 self-settlers in the zone are left, most of them women. This Ukrainian grandmother and her sisters refuse to leave the exclusion zone — and their hospitality could be dangerous.

A former Soviet showplace welcomes 'extreme tourists'

Most people who visit Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone are interested in seeing the deserted city of Pripyat, a place full of decay. The Ukrainian government is increasingly promoting the zone as a place for “extreme tourism." These are the kinds of people who travel there.

Read more in Paste BN's special section
30 years after the Chernobyl disaster 

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