A nearby woodland became known as the “Red Forest”, from the rust coloured needles dropping from the dead pine trees. It is still one of the most radioactive places on earth. Animals and plants suffered mutations, stunted growth and behavioural anomalies. But Chernobyl today is far from the wasteland of popular imagination.

Chernobyl Radiation Today. Chernobyl radiation levels today are lower compared to what it was when the disaster first occurred but radiation still exists there many years after the disaster. Related to who can go there and who can’t, some rules have been set. All visitors of the area must be over the age of eighteen and must have permission to visit.

In 1986 my grandpa was a head of defense in emergency evacuation during first weeks after the reactor exploded. He lost all his fellow officers, his health and eventually his life shortly after the catastrophe. The answer to your question is yes. Chernobyl is dangerous.

Chernobyl today remains an “exclusion zone,” and photos have captured the eerie scene of lives interrupted. A teddy bar lies amidst the debris of time and neglect; the looming and now decaying Soviet-era apartment high rises still stand like lonely sentinels to a time and disaster past.

On April 26, 1986, the core of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant opened, sending plumes of radioactive material into the air surrounding Pripyat, a Ukranian city that was once part of the Soviet Union. Workers are now attempting to clean up the site, which hasn't been fully decontaminated.

How dangerous is it to visit Chernobyl? We asked a nuclear waste expert involved in the cleanup. Jun 14, 2019, 19:18 IST. Be mindful of the risks, but don't worry too much about radiation ...

The fire that resulted from it released tons of radioactive material into the air. After a few days, the Soviet government evacuated the area within a 30km radius. In Chernobyl today, this area is known as the Exclusion Zone. See the red Chernobyl Exclusion Zone on the map above.

Chernobyl disaster. 30 years later. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, an explosion destroyed reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl's Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union. Thirty years later, five million people still live on heavily contaminated lands and hundreds of thousands of people are sick or suffering.

Soon after the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, dozens of cleanup workers at the plant were exposed to radiation levels as high as 8,000 to 16,000 mSv, the equivalent of 80,000 to 160,000 chest X-rays. This led to at least 134 workers developing serious radiation sickness and caused 28 deaths.