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.

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

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.

Forty years after Chornobyl, the central truth is painfully clear. Nuclear safety cannot coexist with imperial violence. No occupation of a nuclear plant can ever be normal. No drone strike on a confi

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"