On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl atomic reactor exploded resulting in largest nuclear disaster in history, being the only accident of a commercial reactor to cause death from radiation. At first, Soviet officials attempted to hide the catastrophe, but as particles caused by a blast 10 times bigger than Hiroshima carried toxic vapor and dust across southern and central Europe it became impossible to hide.

Although 350,000 Ukrainians were forced to evacuate their homes in dozens of villages and towns, tens of thousands refused to leave and remain today in zones 2, and 3. Zone 1, the most lethal, remains empty and out-of-bounds.

Larry Towell recently visited zones 2 and 3 to document abandoned homes and meet residents who stayed. He also encountered persons recently displaced by the war in eastern Ukraine, who’d come to settle and raise their families here due to cheap real estate,

Although Pripyat, the town nearest the reactor, remains devoid of inhabitants, it has become a tourist attraction for those willing to pay exorbitant fees to photograph gas masks and children’s dolls set up to accommodate photo ops. Larry illegally sneaked into Polisske, also in the nuclear exclusion zone (Zone 1) a city that once housed 11,000 persons, in order to document the empty radioactive town being reclaimed by nature.

The nuclear power plant clean-up is scheduled for completion in 2065.

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