One of the very first photographs of the Chernobyl nuclear plant after the accident of April 26, 1986

Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in April 26, 1986.

One of the very first photographs of the Chernobyl nuclear plant after the accident of April 26, 1986. The picture was taken by Igor Kostin fourteen hours after the explosion. The image quality is very low because of the cloud of radioactive material leaked from reactor no. 4. At the time the author was working in Kyiv and managed to get to the place thanks to a helicopter friend who was called over the nuclear plant to monitor the ongoing fire. Kostin will describe the experience in his book: "Nothing lets assume that there was an accident, apart from an almost translucent white smoke. I open the window, as I always do to avoid reflections A strong gust of hot air fills the helicopter cabin. I immediately feel like scratching my throat. It's a weird new sensation. Can hardly swallow my saliva. Getting the first set of photos. Braces suddenly got stuck. Press snap but oh well!. In Kyiv, under development, the film seems to be covered in a matte layer. Almost every negative is completely black. As if the braces were opened and the film was exposed to the light. I didn't understand then, now I know it was due to radioactivity. Tinkling with the film, I end up getting an acceptable copy to send to Moscow". The Chernobyl disaster[a] was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. Called the world's worst-ever civil nuclear incident, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The initial emergency response, together with later decontamination of the environment, involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion roubles—roughly US $68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation. Following the disaster, Pripyat was abandoned and eventually replaced by the new purpose-built city of Slavutych. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus was built by December 1986. It reduced the spread of radioactive contamination from the wreckage and protected it from weathering. The confinement shelter also provided radiological protection for the crews of the undamaged reactors at the site, which were restarted in late 1986 and 1987. However, this containment structure was only intended to last for 30 years, and required considerable reinforcement in the early 2000s. The Shelter was heavily supplemented in 2017 by the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, which was constructed around the old structure. This larger enclosure aims to enable the removal of both the sarcophagus and the reactor debris while containing the radioactive materials inside. Clean-up is scheduled for completion by 2065.