A quarter-century before a tsunami triggered a nuclear crisis in Japan, the world's attention was riveted by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant as it spewed radioactive material across much of the Northern Hemisphere. A generation later, thousands of people live in the region - and even still work at the disabled plant.
A reactor at the plant exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone of about 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.
Image: A graffiti is pictured on a wall in the ghost city of Pripyat near the fourth nuclear reactor (background) at the former Chernobyl Nuclear power plant on April 4, 2011. A project to build a new sarcophagus over the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor lacks some 600 million euros of the 1.5 billion needed, a Ukrainian official said last week. The concrete sarcophagus capping the reactor has developed cracks over the past 25 years and is not considered failsafe.
Images: AFP
Text: AP
