Following the April 26, 1986, explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, soldiers, firefighters, engineers, miners and medics were summoned from across the USSR. They were known as “liquidators” — an ominous Soviet-era catchall term for those assigned to eliminate a problem.

Photos of the infamous nuclear Chernobyl site show the abandoned power plant frozen in time — with a control panel still lit up ahead of the 40th anniversary of the unprecedented disaster.

Efrem Lukatsky, a Kyiv-based photographer for The Associated Press, was living in the city on April 26, 1986, when the explosion and fire struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about a two-hour drive away.

The nuclear incident at Chernobyl spread radiation across Europe and led to political changes that played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Once classified files from East Germany reveal the extent of Soviet actions to hide the true extent of catastrophe.

In the early hours of 26 April 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded after a planned safety test went catastrophically wrong. The Chernobyl disaster was the result of a chain of critical errors — and its fallout was unprecedented.

Lancaster , In the novel When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift, the Chernobyl disaster and its legacy is extrapolated to a near future where natural habitats are depleted and precarious. 40 years on from the disaster,

The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster fueled global fears about nuclear energy and slowed down its development in Europe and other regions

In the initial aftermath of the nuclear power plant explosion, authorities told the bride's mother "not to panic" and that "all planned events in the city of Pripyat should go ahead"