Chernobyl

Mar 8, 2025
A woman sits at the bedside of a severely burned man in a hospital bed.
REREADING
What it means to be a ‘Chernobyl person’ — the survivors’ stories

In her 1997 book, Chernobyl Prayer, the Nobel prizewinning journalist Svetlana Alexievich records the testimonies of survivors of the Soviet nuclear catastrophe

The Times
Jul 13, 2024
a man in a suit and striped shirt is standing in front of a white wall .
Student who carried out fake Chernobyl radiation tests jailed for indecent assault

John Beaumont admitted the offences against three students at the University of St Andrews during the 1980s

The Times
Oct 6, 2023
John Beaumont carried out the attacks on students at St Andrews University in the 1980s
Sex assault victims duped by theology student’s ‘Chernobyl radiation test’ lies

A theology postgraduate carried out sexual assaults on fellow students at a Scottish university after claiming he was conducting radiation tests for the...

The Times
Apr 29, 2023
A visit to Chernobyl nuclear power plant which had a catastrophic failure in 1986. Abandoned village homes in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. One of the villagers who refused to leave, 90 year old Hanna Zavorotnya, Baba Hanya
LOUISE CALLAGHAN IN UKRAINE
We live near Chernobyl. Why did Russians dig trenches in our radioactive woods?

Even Ukrainians who stayed after the nuclear disaster tried to warn their enemies

The Sunday Times
Dec 5, 2022
Nuclear Option
LEADING ARTICLE
Nuclear Option

Ukrainians and Brits are making schnapps from apples grown in the exclusion zone. Cheers to that

The Times
ADVERTISEMENT
Oct 25, 2022
Old Car in Bodie Ghost Town, Historical State Park in California, USA
BOOK EXTRACT
Ghost towns and ancient cities — the world’s most beautiful abandoned places

From Gold Rush settlements to lost Colombian civilisations, Oliver Smith takes a tour of stunning but forgotten wonders

The Sunday Times
Oct 6, 2022
An Eastern San Antonio tree frog captured inside Chernobyl’s high contamination zone displayed much higher levels of skin pigmentation
Dark frogs shed light on evolution around Chernobyl

As you approach Chernobyl, the Geiger counters get noisier, the people get sparser and — a new study has found — the frogs get blacker. Tree frogs around the...

The Times
Apr 27, 2022
UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-ENERGY
RICHARD LLOYD PARRY | DISPATCH
Chernobyl’s next clean-up: hundreds of Russian mines

When Putin’s forces ended their occupation of the nuclear disaster zone they did not leave in peace. It will take years to remove their death traps

The Times
Apr 26, 2022
Raisa Miknovitch Carolan, a survivor of the first Chernobyl disaster, with Adi Roche, chief executive of Chernobyl Children Ireland
WAR IN UKRAINE
Irish Chernobyl charity fears repeat disaster

Reports of an alarming rise in radioactivity due to the war in Ukraine could result in a second Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the head of an Irish aid...

The Times
Apr 1, 2022
: A general view shows a New Safe Confinement structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl
WAR IN UKRAINE
Sick soldiers flee Chernobyl

Russian troops have pulled out of Chernobyl and handed control back to Ukrainian authorities after soldiers suffered radiation poisoning from digging trenches...

The Times

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
Mar 8, 2025
REREADING
What it means to be a ‘Chernobyl person’ — the survivors’ stories

In her 1997 book, Chernobyl Prayer, the Nobel prizewinning journalist Svetlana Alexievich records the testimonies of survivors of the Soviet nuclear catastrophe

The Times
Jul 13, 2024
Student who carried out fake Chernobyl radiation tests jailed for indecent assault

John Beaumont admitted the offences against three students at the University of St Andrews during the 1980s

The Times
Oct 6, 2023
Sex assault victims duped by theology student’s ‘Chernobyl radiation test’ lies

A theology postgraduate carried out sexual assaults on fellow students at a Scottish university after claiming he was conducting radiation tests for the...

The Times
Apr 29, 2023
LOUISE CALLAGHAN IN UKRAINE
We live near Chernobyl. Why did Russians dig trenches in our radioactive woods?

Even Ukrainians who stayed after the nuclear disaster tried to warn their enemies

The Sunday Times
Dec 5, 2022
LEADING ARTICLE
Nuclear Option

Ukrainians and Brits are making schnapps from apples grown in the exclusion zone. Cheers to that

The Times
ADVERTISEMENT
Oct 25, 2022
BOOK EXTRACT
Ghost towns and ancient cities — the world’s most beautiful abandoned places

From Gold Rush settlements to lost Colombian civilisations, Oliver Smith takes a tour of stunning but forgotten wonders

The Sunday Times
Oct 6, 2022
Dark frogs shed light on evolution around Chernobyl

As you approach Chernobyl, the Geiger counters get noisier, the people get sparser and — a new study has found — the frogs get blacker. Tree frogs around the...

The Times
Apr 27, 2022
RICHARD LLOYD PARRY | DISPATCH
Chernobyl’s next clean-up: hundreds of Russian mines

When Putin’s forces ended their occupation of the nuclear disaster zone they did not leave in peace. It will take years to remove their death traps

The Times
Apr 26, 2022
WAR IN UKRAINE
Irish Chernobyl charity fears repeat disaster

Reports of an alarming rise in radioactivity due to the war in Ukraine could result in a second Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the head of an Irish aid...

The Times
Apr 1, 2022
WAR IN UKRAINE
Sick soldiers flee Chernobyl

Russian troops have pulled out of Chernobyl and handed control back to Ukrainian authorities after soldiers suffered radiation poisoning from digging trenches...

The Times

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that began on April 26, 1986, with the explosion of the No 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat in what is now northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about ten days.