- The accident has gone down in history as the world's worst nuclear disaster .
- Around 350,000 people were evacuated following the explosion, with many leaving their homes and all of their worldly belongings behind forever.
- The areas surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, including the nearby city of Pripyat, have since deteriorated into abandoned ghost towns.
- But some residents have returned to their villages following the explosion and evacuation, despite dangerous levels of radiation, and some remain there today.
- Here's what daily life looks like in one of the most polluted parts of the world.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Photos show what daily life is really like inside Chernobyl's exclusion zone, one of the most polluted areas in the world
On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located in the then- Soviet Union , experienced a power surge, resulting in an explosion that sent a cloud of radioactive materials across parts of Europe.
In April 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant caused an explosion that sent a cloud of radioactive particles across parts of Europe. It was the worlds worst nuclear disaster and the equivalent of 500 nuclear bombs.
AP
Source: Business Insider , Adventure , BBC
Thirty-one people died in the explosion, and the areas surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were left permanently contaminated they are now considered to be some of the most polluted areas on the planet.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Source: Reuters
As a result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a nuclear exclusion zone was established in 1986 around the area most heavily affected by the radiation. It spanned about a 19-mile radius around the Chernobyl power plant and was later expanded to cover more affected areas. Around 350,000 people were evacuated.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Without knowing it at the time, most evacuees left their homes and belongings behind forever, leaving hundreds of abandoned towns and villages in their wake.
Igor Kostin/Sygma/Contributor
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is now the officially designated exclusion zone in Ukraine.
Google Maps/Andrew Blackwell/Business Insider
Source: visitchernobyl.com , BBC , USA Today
It adjoins the exclusion zone in neighboring Belarus, known as the Palieski State Radioecological Reserve. Though the explosion took place in Ukraine, much of the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster was blown north to Belarus.
Google Maps/Andrew Blackwell/Business Insider
While the exclusion zone is considered to be too polluted for human habitation, the highly toxic air, water, and soil hasnt stopped some people from returning to their radiation-exposed homes and land.
Igor Kostin/Sygma via Getty Images
Source: The Guardian
Ivan Shamyanok, who told Reuters in 2016 that he lives in the Belarusian village of Tulgovich in the exclusion zone, refused the offer to relocate following the explosion.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
He said he has never felt any effects of radiation sickness, a prominent concern following the disaster in 1986.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
In fact, Shamyanok said he doesnt have any problems with his health. "I sing a little, take a turn in the yard, take things slowly like this, and I live," he told Reuters.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
There are an estimated 200 "Samosely," or self settlers, who made the decision to ignore safety warnings and return to their villages following the 1986 meltdown.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Adventure
The Samosely live in the estimated 162 villages within the exclusion zone.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Adventure and Business Insider
Many of the Samosely are elderly.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
And most are women in their 70s and 80s.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Shamyanok told Reuters in 2016 that he was 90 years old.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
He said there werent many people left in his village. "Will people move back? No, they wont come back," Shamyanok told Reuters in 2016. "The ones who wanted to have died already."
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
Its technically considered illegal to live in the villages within the exclusion zone.
GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images
Source: BBC
But many who chose to return did so because they felt they had no choice.
GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images
Source: The Guardian
Especially for those who have ancestral ties to the land they were evacuated from.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: The Guardian
Ivan Semenyuk, who told Adventure in 2018 that he was 82 years old, said he was reluctant to obey evacuation orders in the days following the explosion in 1986, and he wouldnt have left if armed guards hadnt forced them to.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
Semenyuk said that he returned to his village of Parishev, about eight miles from the nuclear power plant, two years after the explosion. He said that his wife Marya, pictured below, passed away in 2017.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
Semenyuk remembers what happened the night of the explosion he could hear the glass in the window shaking, but even when he was told what had happened, he said he wasnt scared.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
"I remember them handing out lots of alcohol to guard against the radiation," Semenyuk told Adventure in 2018.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
He said that life inside the exclusion zone is difficult, though he keeps himself busy by cooking for his chickens and chopping firewood.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
He said he still believes it was the right decision to come back to his village after the explosion.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
"I didnt like the noise in Kyiv," Semenyuk told Adventure, referring to the Ukranian capital city, which is sometimes spelled Kiev. "If I need fish, I go fishing; if I need mushrooms, I go foraging."
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
Semenyuk said that contrary to popular belief, the radiation levels are low, at least where he was living.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Adventure
But radiation readings across the affected zones can be sporadic.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
And the long-term effects of radiation exposure are heavily debated.
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images
According to a United Nations report, for residents living in low contamination areas for 20 years after the explosion, the radiation they were exposed to amounts to the equivalent exposure given off from a CAT scan.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
But the environmentalist group Greenpeace concluded in a review that children in the contaminated zone exhibited weak respiratory, digestive, and immune systems.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP and Greenpeace
And a study funded by the European Union found that 81% of 4,000 children living in the contaminated zone over the course of three years showed cardiovascular insufficiencies, meaning the strength of the muscles in their hearts was reduced, which can lead to shortness of breath.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP and CardioSecur
Water and land within the zone have shown signs of contamination that are still present today.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
The Ukranian Institute of Agricultural Radiology recently found amounts of radioactive caesium-137 in cows milk in some areas outside the exclusion zone that could be potentially dangerous when ingested.
GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images
Source: BBC and Science Direct
That means radioactive particles oozed into the ground and grass, which had then been consumed by livestock.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: BBC
According to Ukraines Institute of Agricultural Radiology, high radiation levels have been found in foods grown in the forests within the contaminated zone two to five times higher than what is considered safe.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
Ingesting large quantities of radiation puts residents at risk of serious health issues, like thyroid cancer.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Source: BBC
Victoria Vetrova told the AP in 2016 that her 8-year-old son has an enlarged thyroid, which is a condition that has been linked to radioactive exposure.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
Vetrova lives in the village of Zalyshany, which is in the fourth zone of the exclusion zone, 32 miles southwest of the ruined power plant. After the nuclear meltdown in 1986, the most heavily affected areas in Ukraine were categorized into four zones. Evacuations were carried out in the first three, with residents there qualifying for resettlement.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
But the fourth zone wasnt considered as contaminated as the other three zones, since its further away from the power plant, and instead is eligible for government aid to help with health issues stemming from the radioactive fallout.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
But in 2015, a financially weakened Ukranian government canceled lunches at local schools, cutting off the only source of uncontaminated food for 350,000 children in the area, according to the AP.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
So to feed her four children, Vetrova relied upon milk from her familys two cows and by what she found scavenging the forest, despite the toxicity she said she knows is lurking in the land.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
"We are aware of the dangers, but what can we do?" Vetrova told the AP. "There is no other way to survive."
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
"Hot meals in the schools were the only clean food, which was tested for radiation, for the children," Natalya Stepanchuk, a teacher in Zalyshany, told the AP in 2016. "Now the children have gone over to the local food, over which there is absolutely no control."
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
The lunch cancellations didnt affect kindergartens, but the cook for a local kindergarten, Lyubov Shevchuk, said the older children faint from lack of food. "I try to at least give them some hot tea, or take from one child to give to another," Shevchuk told the AP.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
Nine-year-old Olesya Petrova lives in Zalyshany and told the AP that she often goes without lunch. Shes fond of scrounging for berries and other tidbits in the forest, despite the potential radiation ingestion.
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
"In the forest, you dont need money," Petrova told the AP. "Theres all kinds of food that can feed everyone."
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Source: AP
People living in the contaminated zone have other ways to be resourceful as well.
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images
Source: Getty
In the village of Tulgovich, where Ivan Semenyuk told Reuters he lived, a mobile shop stops by once or twice a week selling residents foodstuffs.
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images
Shamyanok told Reuters that his granddaughter also comes to cook for him on Saturdays and to clean his house.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
But other than that, Shamyanoks life is a quiet one.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
He told Reuters he wakes up at 6 a.m. to eat breakfast and feed his pigs and dog.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
He said, in fact, that life didnt change much for him after the Chernobyl disaster.
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Source: Reuters
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SEE ALSO: Striking photos from the villages surrounding Chernobyl, taken by people who still live there
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