Chernobyl disaster: four ways it continues to have an impact

Twenty-five years ago April 26, the Chernobyl power plant exploded in Ukraine. The disaster remains the world’s worst nuclear accident.

'Zone of Alienation'

To this day, an 18.5 mile no-go zone exists around Chernobyl, filled with abandoned homes and cars. The “zone of alienation” includes the town of Pripyat that once had 50,000 residents and today is a ghost town. The entire region remains economically stagnant because businesses are reluctant to invest in the area. Ihor Gramotkin, the director of the Chernobyl power plant, said that it would be 20,000 years before the area would be inhabitable again.
According to the Guardian, 330,000 of the 500,000 people who lived within the 77,000 square mile zone deemed contaminated by the radiation were evacuated.

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