At 01:23 on April 26, 1986, a human error during a safety test triggered a blast in reactor number four at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.⁣ ⁣ The explosion tore the inside of the building apart, sending a plume of radioactive smoke into the atmosphere, with nuclear fuel burning for more than 10 days. It became the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history.⁣ ⁣ The area was evacuated and became an exclusion zone. The city of Pripyat, 3km from the plant with a population of 48,000 residents in 1986, was completely evacuated.⁣ ⁣ It remains abandoned, with its empty decaying buildings -- including a rusting amusement park and ferris wheel -- resembling a post-apocalyptic ghost town.⁣ ⁣ #chornobyl #nuclear