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IMAGO History, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 40th anniversary on 26 April

Apr 26, 2026

The following photos have been selected for you by the IMAGO picture desk on this topic. For more pictures please use the search function.

  • March 6, 2026, Chernobyl, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine: Reactor 4 sarcophagus in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant area Chernobyl Ukraine - ZUMAp199 20260306_zip_p199_015 Copyright: xMatteoxPlacuccix
  • Chernobyl Zone Dec 18, 2000 - Chernobyl, Ukraine - (File Photo) Chernobyl nuclear power plant in December 2000 when it was finally shut down. The rest of the plant had continued to function after the explosion of Block 4 in 1986. Copyright: xPhotoXpressx
  • Chernobyl 20 Years After: Kids of Worst Human Made Disaster Katia Alekhno(15 years old) from Bobruisk-Belarus shows the picture of her self shot in 1986 year (when she was 6 )right after Chernobyl disaster when she got sick of leukaemia.Fortunately she survived... Copyright: xPhotoXPressx
  • May 24, 1986 - Chernobyl, Ukraine - File Photo Decontamination team members at work. Copyright: xPhotoXpressx Chernobyl Ukraine - ZUMA1072 19860524_ave_x01_742 Copyright: xIMAGO PhotoXpressx
  • May 24 - 30, 1986. Brigade of rescue team that built the tunnel to the damaged block 4 of Chernobyl NPP. Copyright: xPhotoXPressx Moscow Ukraine - ZUMA1072 19860502_rua_x01_363 Copyright: xIMAGO PhotoXPressx
  • May 24 - 30, 1986. Captain Alexander Razgon - Chief of stuff of decomination team in the zone of Chernobyl NPP. Copyright: xPhotoXPressx Moscow Ukraine - ZUMA1072 19860502_rua_x01_356 Copyright: xIMAGO PhotoXPressx
  • Chernobyl 20 Years After: Kids of Worst Human Made Disaster May 24 - 30, 1986. Administrative office building of Chernobyl NPP. Copyright: xPhotoXPressx
  • Chernobyl 20 Years After: Kids of Worst Human Made Disaster May 24 - 30, 1986.View onto the 4th damaged block of Chernobyl NPP. Copyright: xPhotoXPressx
  • Commemoration for 29th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE - APRIL 26: Ukraine s President Petro Poroshenko (C) stands in one minute s silence after he laid flowers on the memorial at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant within the commemoration ceremonies for the 29th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, on April 26, 2015 in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Chernobyl nuclear disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Chernobyl Kyyivs ka Oblast. Editorial use only. Please get in touch for any other usage. Copyright: x2025xAnadoluxUkrainianxPresidencyxPressxOfficex
  • 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE - APRIL 27: A view from Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is seen during the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disasterin Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 27, 2016. The Chernobyl accident occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat. Kiev Ukraine. Editorial use only. Please get in touch for any other usage. Copyright: x2025xAnadoluxGökhanxBalcıx
  • 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE - APRIL 27: An internal view from abandoned kindergarden at a village close to Pripyat is seen during the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine on April 27, 2016. The Chernobyl accident occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat. Kiev Ukraine. Editorial use only. Please get in touch for any other usage. Copyright: x2025xAnadoluxGökhanxBalcıx
  • American doctor Robert Gale 1165717 15.08.1986 Victim of the Chernobyl accident (April 26, 1986) being treated in the 6th hospital of the USSR Ministry of Health. Vladimir Vyatkin Sputnik Moscow Russia Copyright: xVladimirxVyatkinx
  • Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster 8976539 03.09.1986 The Ukrainian SSR. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster on April 26, 1986, the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century in terms of scope and damage. The panorama of the nuclear power plant four months after the incident. Sputnik Chernobyl Kiev region Ukraine Copyright: xx
  • Russian drone hits Chornobyl shelter Rescuers work at the site where a Russian attack drone with an explosive warhead hits the New Safe Confinement at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on January 14, 2025. The structure, put in place in 2016, protects the remains of Reactor 4 destroyed during the 1986 Chornobyl disaster. Kyiv region Ukraine Copyright: xVolodymyrxTarasovx originalFilename: ukrinform-russiand250214_npVrd.jpg
  • Bilder des Jahres 2024, News 04 April News Themen der Woche KW17 News Bilder des Tages April 26, 2024, Slavutych, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, presents state awards to survivors and family members of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster on the 38th anniversary, April 26, 2024, in Slavutych, Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has threatened a similar disaster with the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces. Slavutych Ukraine - ZUMAp138 20240426_zaa_p138_031 Copyright: xUkrainexPresidency UkrainianxPrex
  • Post-accident clean-up at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 1098527 08.05.1986 Post-accident clean-up at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Remote-control robot operators. Igor Kostin Sputnik Kiev region Ukraine Copyright: xIgorxKostinx
  • The Chernobyl nuclear power plant 802566 30.11.1987 The Chernobyl nuclear power plant named after Lenin, the site of the April 26, 1986 major nuclear accident. Igor Kostin Sputnik Chernobyl Kiev region Ukraine Copyright: xIgorxKostinx
  • Moscow, USSR. General Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev addresses the public on the accident at the Lenin Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the Central Television. Yuri Lizunov TASS 31983655
  • Kiev Region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. A worker controlls radiation situation at reactor No. 1 of the Lenin Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the Chernobyl disaster. On April 26, 1986 an explosion at reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant occurred during a reactor shutdown within a safety test necessary for a scheduled maintenance. Valery Zufarov TASS 19093646
  • Kiev Region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. The Mi-26 helicopter decontaminates the area from the air in the thirty-kilometer exclusion zone after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in the reactor no. 4 of the nuclear power plant during equipment tests after the shutdown of the reactor for the next scheduled preventive maintenance. Valery Zufarov TASS 1470256
  • Kiev Region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. Workers of the Construction Directorate No. 605 of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building celebrates the completion of work on covering the reactor hall during the construction of the Shelter over the destroyed reactor No. 4, cleaning the roof of the reactor No. 3 from radioactive debris and launching the reactor No. 1 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the accident with the raising of the state flag of the USSR on the concrete distribution boom. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the reactor No. 4 of the nuclear power plant during equipment tests after the shutdown of the reactor for the next scheduled preventive maintenance. The banner reads: We will fulfill the task of the governm 1227223
  • Kiev Region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. The view shows the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the accident. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in the reactor no. 4 of the nuclear power plant during equipment tests after the shutdown of the reactor for the next scheduled preventive maintenance. Valery Zufarov TASS 4458699
  • Kiev Region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. The view shows the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the accident. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in the reactor no. 4 of the nuclear power plant during equipment tests after the shutdown of the reactor for the next scheduled preventive maintenance. Valery Zufarov, Vladimir Repik TASS 32395725
  • Remembrance Of The 36th Anniversary Of Chernobyl Accident In Slavutych, Ukraine Alexander, worker in the electricity of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant during the accident, looks for his colleagues in the memorial for the dead workers in the accident in Slavutych, city in northern of Ukraine where most of the worker of the nuclear plant currently work. Slavutych Kyiv Ukraine Copyright: xCelestinoxArcex originalFilename: arce-remembra220426_npY3F.jpg
  • Disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 921507 27.04.1986 Disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The No trespassing! shield. Igor Kostin Sputnik Kiev region Ukraine Copyright: xIgorxKostinx
  • Radiation control out in fields 1098526 27.04.1986 Radiation monitoring technicians dressed in special protective gear perform radiation control in the fields near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Igor Kostin Sputnik Kiev region Ukraine Copyright: xIgorxKostinx
  • The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where exploded nuclear reactor number 4 on the April 27th, 1986, causing the most devastating nuclear disaster in history, of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, July 1st, 1997. (CTKxPhoto DanxKrzywon) CTKPhotoFO00216843
  • Apr 29, 2007 - Chernobyl, Ukraine - A dosimeter shows the current radiation level outside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In the background is Fourth Block of the plant, where the Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986 during an ill-advised late night safety test. After 21 years, the radiation outside the plant remains high enough that stopping here for more than a brief period is not recommended. Nevertheless, this site is one of many which tourists visit during a one-day excursion into the Exclusion Zone. Chernobyl has become one of Ukraine s hottest tourist destinations. The Exclusion Zone with highest Chernobyl contamination covers 819 square miles. In total, radioactive fallout contaminated 56,700 square miles of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, a region home to six million people. - ZUMAmr6_ 20070429_rua_mr6_029
  • Mit einem Schweigemarsch durch die Hanauer Innenstadt gedachten am 26.04.1990 etwa 300 Menschen dem vierten Jahrestag der Reaktorkatastrophe von Tschernobyl. Die Teilnehmer forderten als Konsequenz aus dem Reaktorunfall die Stilllegung aller Atomanlagen. DER ABDRUCK DES EPD-FOTOS IST HONORARPFLICHTIG! Demonstration gegen Atomkraft - Jahrestag von Tschernobyl 366045 EDITORIAL USE ONLY
  • Ukrainian SSR. USSR. Radiation measuring on the decontaminated territory. TASS_1475372
  • Slavutich. Ukrainian SSR. USSR. Workers of construction association 605 gathered at the meeting to celebrate the end of a construction phase of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus over Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear-Power Plant. TASS_1473081
  • Zeltstadt der Liquidatoren - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Liquidatoren pflügen und messen die Strahlung in der Sperrzone - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Ehemaliger Kontrollraum des Reaktorblock 4 - 25 Jahre nach der Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Dekontamination eines Hauses in der Sperrzone - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Liquidator während der Aufräumarbeiten - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Liquidatoren während der Aufräumarbeiten - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Der zerstörte Reaktorblock 4 - Katastrophe von Tschernobyl
  • Ukraine Konflikt, Historie Ukrainian SSR. On the 23rd of February 1989 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev (C) visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Photo TASS Vladimir Samokhotsky TASS_32174
  • (100426) -- KIEV, April 26, 2010 (Xinhua) -- Women hold pictures of their husbands died in the Chernobyl nuclear accident during a commemoration ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the accident in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, April 26, 2010. On April 26, 1986, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, which is considered the worst nuclear accident in history. (Xinhua Song Zongli) (lmz) (4)UKRAINE-CHERNOBYL-COMMEMORATION
  • Schaltzentrale im AKW Tschernobyl TASS_203669
  • Bau des AKW Tschernobyl TASS_34076
  • AKW Tschernobyl nach der Katastrophe TASS_747988
  • AKW Tschernobyl nach der Katastrophe TASS_266794
  • AKW Tschernobyl nach der Katastrophe TASS_231797
  • Bagger schieben Erdreich auf nach der Katastrophe im AKW Tschernobyl TASS_450637
  • Dekontaminierungsmaßnahmen nach der Katastrophe im AKW Tschernobyl TASS_27047
  • Zerstörte Turbinenhalle des Atomkraftwerks Tschernobyl nach einem Brand
  • Techniker bei Reparaturarbeiten in der zerstörten Turbinenhalle des Atomkraftwerks Tschernobyl