Chernobyl 26 years later

"Post from the past": Today, April 26, celebrated 26 years since the Chernobyl disaster. In 1986, the Chernobyl reactor number 4 explosion, and several hundred workers and firefighters were trying to put out a fire that burned 10 days. Radiation cloud enveloped the world, it was the worst nuclear disaster in the world. Then killed about 50 people and damaged hundreds of stations rescuers. Determine the magnitude of the disaster and its impact on human health is still hard - only to cancer that developed as a result of the administered dose of radiation, died from 4 to 200 thousand people. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian government announced that is going to narrow the range to which tourists can approach the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, it is expected that the steel body called the New Safe Confinement weighing 20,000 tons, will be completed by 2013.

1. Military helicopter conducting decontamination and decontamination of the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a few days after the explosion at reactor number 4. (STF / AFP / Getty Images)

2. Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where there was the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century, in April 1986. Front of the tube - the destroyed fourth reactor. Over the chimney and is very close to the fourth reactor was the third reactor, which stopped work on December 6, 2000. (AP Photo)

3. Repairs at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, October 1, 1986 after the largest explosion in April, because of which affected 3,235,984 Ukrainians, and the radioactive cloud enveloped much of Europe. (ZUFAROV / AFP / Getty Images)

4. Part of the roof collapsed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after a fire Oct. 13, 1991. (AP Photo / Efrm Lucasky)

5. Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Telyatnikov, the head of Pripyat Fire Brigade that fought the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, points to a photo of the fourth reactor after an explosion April 26, 1986. The reactor was then filled with cement. Telyatnikov 36-year-old was ospitalized for two months with acute radiation sickness. He was twice decorated for bravery, was awarded the title Hero of the USSR. (Reuters)

6. Repair work at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Aug. 5, 1986. (ZUFAROV / AFP / Getty Images)

7. An employee of the Institute of Atomic Energy. Kurchatov in the sun-drenched cement flow into the room after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion September 15, 1989, three years after the disaster. (AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel)

8. Chernobyl nuclear power plant worker checks the radiation level in the engine compartment of the first and second energy unit 5 June 1986. (Reuters)

9. Cemetery irradiated equipment near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 10 November 2000. About 1,350 Soviet military helicopters, buses, bulldozers, tankers, transporters, fire engines and ambulances were used to combat the effects of man-made disaster in Chernobyl. All were irradiated during cleaning operations. (AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky)

10. An employee of the Institute of Atomic Energy. Kurchatov mechanics in the room in the block № 4 September 15, 1989. (AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel)

11. Warsaw hospital nurse tries to put drops of iodine solution is a three-year girl in May 1986. After the disaster at Chernobyl in many neighboring countries have taken every possible measure against a possible radiation damage. (AP Photo / Czarek Sokolowski)

12. Concrete at the site where the manufactured concrete sarcophagus, at the fourth reactor in October 1986. (Reuters)

13. The representative of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Konovalov stuffed with mutated colt in Zhytomyr, March 11, 1996. Konovalov studying biological mutations after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Stallion nicknamed "Gorbachev" after Konovalov brought a picture of the poor animal's overall growth in the Supreme Council in 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, to show the effects of the disaster. (AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky)

14. Vladimir Lenin statue in a small park at the port of Chernobyl, near the frozen river Pripyat January 29, 2006. Port of Chernobyl was abandoned shortly after the crash of 1986. (Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)

15. General view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 26, 1986. (Reuters / Mykola Lazarenko)

16. The screen of the control unit first energy room at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which has the process of unloading the last batch of nuclear fuel from the reactor 30 November 2006. (SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP / Getty Images)

17. Raven on the sign "Radiation danger" in the 30-km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the village Babchin, Belarus December 23, 2009. (Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko)

18. Ukrainian students wear masks during a training exercise at school not far from exclusion zone April 3, 2006. (AP Photo / Oded Balilty)

19. View of Chernobyl nuclear power plant from the ghost town of Pripyat April 13, 2006. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

20. Ferris wheel in the ghost town of Pripyat which was evacuated after the explosion. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

21. Cribs in a hospital in the deserted town of Pripyat, in the exclusion zone around the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 2, 2006. Pripyat town with a population of 47,000 people was completely evacuated within a few days after the incident. (AP Photo / Oded Balilty)

22. General view of the city of Pripyat April 13, 2006. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

23. Guide dosimeter in which the radiation level is 12 times higher than normal. The girl photographed behind concrete sarcophagus of the destroyed fourth nuclear power plant unit. Every year thousands of people come to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where in April 1986 was the largest man-made disaster century. (GENYA SAVILOV / AFP / Getty Images)

24. Weeping 67-year-old Nastassja Vasilyev at his home in the disaster-hit village Radnyya in the restricted area, 45 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Dozens of towns and villages in the affected area were deserted, and the inhabitants were evacuated. However, in spite of warnings about radiation, many residents have returned to the house, because it failed to take root elsewhere. (AP Photo / Sergey Ponomarev)

25. Ukrainian with a dog on the street ghost town in Chernobyl April 13, 2006. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

26. Abandoned house in the deserted village Redkovka, 35 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, March 30, 2006. (AP Photo / Sergey Ponomarev)

27. Wolf in a field in the restricted zone around the Chernobyl reactor, near the village of Babchin. Wild animals in the exclusion zone proliferate, despite the radiation, as people left the area. (Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko)

28. A man lights a candle at the monument to Chernobyl victims in Slavutich, 50 km from the crash site, where once lived the majority of plant employees.(SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP / Getty Images)

29. Photos of the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, military and firefighters worked immediately after the explosion in 1986, the museum in Kiev.(Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

30. The reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Left Chernobyl monument, erected in 2006. Picture taken May 10, 2007. (AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky)

31. Worker with drilling machine checks the sarcophagi in the reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Reuters)

32. MCR (main control) 4-th power. Geiger counters registered about 80,000 mikrorentgenov per hour, which in 4000 times the safe level. (AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky, file)

33. An employee of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the control room of the reactor № 4 February 24, 2011 on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the largest man-made disaster. (SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP / Getty Images)

34. Graffiti on the wall of a building in the ghost town of Pripyat 22 February 2011. (SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP / Getty Images)

35. One of the buildings inside in the abandoned city of Pripyat. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

36. A man in his former home in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl, Lomysh in the village, in the south-east of Minsk, March 18, 2011. (Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko)

37. Nine-year-Savienok Anya, born disabled due to irradiation, at his home in the village of Straholese, just for a restricted area April 1, 2006. (Reuters / Damir Sagolj)

38. Girl walks past a sign at the fire station with the image of time, temperature and radiation background in Vladivostok, March 16, 2011. (Reuters / Yuri Maltsev)

39. Eight-year-Ukrainian Vick Czerwinski, who suffers from cancer, with his mother in a hospital in Kiev April 18, 2006. In its 2006 report, "Greenpeace" noted that more than 90,000 people are likely to die from cancer, resulting from exposure following the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Although previous reports by the UN reported that the death rate for that reason does not exceed 4 million people. Other findings emphasize the continuing uncertainty about the sequence of the largest industrial disaster in the world on human health. April 26 this year will be exactly 25 years since the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo / Oded Balilty)