The International Atomic Energy Association ( IAEA) has said radiation levels have fallen by a factor of several hundred and that most contaminated land has been made safe. The United Nations and the World Health Organization have found that other than the tens of thousands exposed immediately after the accident, there is no evidence to show Chernobyl’s leaked radiation has had a major impact on public health. The reactor was sealed inside an 18-mile exclusion zone, deemed too contaminated for people to live and known now just as the Zone. The disaster, the worst nuclear accident in history, eventually affected 3 million people and forced the evacuation of over 300,000.

The claims throw attention onto the fact that even 30 years on, the long-term health effects of Chernobyl remain intensely disputed. But as the workers spruced up the route to the world’s worst nuclear disaster zone, some affected by the accident said with the passing of time their plights were increasingly being downplayed and accused Ukraine’s government of trying to save money by cutting support to them.

Lurk shadow of chernobyl