乌克兰切尔诺贝利核事故（庄婷）
切尔诺贝利核事故，是一件发生在苏联统治下乌克兰境内切尔诺贝利核电站的核子反应堆事故。该事故被认为是历史上最严重的核电事故，也是首例被国际核事件分级表评为第七级事件的特大事故（第二例是2011年3月11日发生在日本福岛县的福岛第一核电站事故）。普里皮亚季城因此被废弃。
1986年4月26日凌晨1点23分，乌克兰普里皮亚季邻近的切尔诺贝利核电厂的第四号反应堆发生了爆炸。连续的爆炸引发了大火并散发出大量高能辐射物质到大气层中，这些辐射尘涵盖了大面积区域。这次灾难所释放出的辐射线剂量是二战时期爆炸于广岛的原子弹的400倍以上。这场灾难总共损失大概两千亿美元（已计算通货膨胀），是近代历史中代价最“昂贵”的灾难事件。
事故导致31人当场死亡，上万人由于放射性物质远期影响而致命或重病，至今仍有被放射线影响而导致畸形胎儿的出生。这是有史以来最严重的核事故。外泄的辐射尘随着大气飘散到欧洲十几个国家。乌克兰、白俄罗斯、俄罗斯受污染最为严重，由于风向的关系，据估计约有60%的放射性物质落在白俄罗斯的土地。此事故间接导致了苏联的瓦解。苏联瓦解后独立的国家包括俄罗斯、白俄罗斯及乌克兰等每年仍然投入经费与人力致力于灾难的善后以及居民健康保健。因事故而直接或间接死亡的人数难以估算，且事故后的长期影响到目前为止仍是个未知数。据专家估计，完全消除这场浩劫对自然环境的影响至少需要800年，而持续的核辐射危险将持续10万年。在经济 上，苏联损失了约90亿卢布：善后处理费用40多亿卢布，农业和电力生产损失40多亿卢布。除核电站本身的损失外，仅清理一项就得花几十亿美元，如果全部加起来，可能达数百亿美元。
2011年1月1日消息，乌克兰政府将切尔诺贝利核电站废墟周围地区变成一个旅游景点。
The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986, at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during a system test, releasing extremely dangerous amounts of radioactive chemicals (including caesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90 and other radionuclides) into the air, which over time contaminated millions of square miles polluting many European nations with about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus. The town closest to the No. 4 reactor was Pripyat, a city founded in 1970 with 49,000 habitants, only about three kilometers from the plant, was forced to evacuate.
It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, both in terms of cost and casualties, rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It is estimated that thousands of deaths were directly caused by the meltdown, while still more people suffered from illnesses brought about by radiation exposure.
Nuclear clean-up is scheduled for completion in 2065. The initial emergency response on containment together with later decontamination of the environment, cost an estimated 18 billion Soviet rubles, bankrupted the USSR and was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Over three decades later, this ghost town of Pripyat is a freeze-frame of the Soviet Union life in 1980s. Communist propaganda still hangs on walls, children's toys and other items remain as they were, personal belongings litter the streets and abandoned buildings. All clocks are frozen at 11:55, the moment the electricity was cut. Buildings are rotting, paint is peeling and looters have taken away anything that might have been of value. Trees and grass are eerily reclaiming the land. Someday soon, the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone will no doubt be completely overgrown. Go there now, before the buildings will be in ruins and paths/roads overgrown by vegetation and not accessible.
I took a day tour with SoloEast Travel as foreigners need a permit from the Ukrainian government to visit the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Due to COVID-19, Ukraine recently closed its borders to international tourism. As a result, I was one of the only 5 tourists in the country who visited the Chernobyl today. The final stop at Duga 3, so called "Russian Woodpecker", a top secret former Soviet military over the horizon radar and its base called "Chernobyl 2", where the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” were filmed.