Chernobyl Disaster: Rare Footage from Inside the Exclusion Zone (1990)

On 5 June 1990, ITN’s cameras ventured inside the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union – just four years after the site became the epicentre of the world’s worst-ever civil nuclear incident. Following the catastrophic meltdown of reactor No. 4 on 26 April 1986, the plant as well as the nearby city of Pripyat were evacuated and an exclusion zone of 2,600 square kilometers was established around Chernobyl. But the energy generated by the plant’s remaining reactors was still needed – and so, therefore, were the workers who operated the plant. As well as capturing incredible pictures of the plant, including the newly constructed concrete shell designed to contain the lethal radiation being emitted by reactor No.4, ITN’s crew captured the working rhythms of those who commuted daily to and from the plant’s control room. Geiger counters in hand, the crew also made their way into the ghost city of Pripyat, capturing the eery, unsettling signs of a once-bustling city abandoned in a moment of crisis. Not all fled in 1986, however, and some returned. The crew also recorded the farmers who stayed behind to till the land inside the exclusion zone. #Chernobyl #ChernobylExclusionZone #ExclusionZone #GhostTown #GhostCity #Pripyat #ColdWar #SovietUnion #USSR #Ukraine #NuclearPower #NuclearPowerPlant #PowerPlant #Meltdown #NuclearMeltdown #Radiation #Radioactive #HalfLife #Disaster #Eery #Spooky #SovietWave #Soviet #Ukraina #Ukrainian #Abandoned #AbandonedPlaces #AbandonedBuildings #Desolate #Deserted 00:00 Introduction 01:28 Passing Through the Checkpoint 02:50 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Reactor No. 4) 03:39 Clocking In (Decontamination) 04:07 Inside the Control Room 06:20 The Ghost City of Pripyat 06:57 Classroom 10:40 Pripyat Amusement Park 13:00 Tilling the Land 17:02 Hospital (Young Patients at Play) 20:00 Chernobyl Seen From the Sky 22:20 Air Views of Pripyat To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below: To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below: 🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) - @ITNArchive 🎥 Follow us on Twitter - 🎥 Like us on Facebook - 🎥 Check out our TikTok - @itnarchive1955