Children walk in front of a radiation reading in front of the train station in the town of Slavutych.

People walk in a tunnel under the train tracks that carries train that go between their home town of Slavutych to Chernobyl.

Slavutych rises out of the ashes of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 26, 1986. People living near the disaster area were largely moved to the new city, built from scratch for the sole purpose of housing the population displaced by the nuclear accident.

A crucifix at the entrance to Pripyat, a ghost town left deserted by the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station nearby. 30 years on, the city is still heavily contaminated, unfit for human life.

Workers dismantling the Chernobyl nuclear power plant rides the train that carries them from their home town of Slavutych to Chernobyl.

A worker dismantling the Chernobyl nuclear power plant rides the train that carries them from their home town of Slavutych to Chernobyl.

An overview of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant towering in front of Pripyat, a ghost town left deserted by the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station nearby. 30 years on, the city is still heavily contaminated, unfit for human life.

Bogdan, 7, is kissed by his brother Kirill, 2, at home in Nevhody Village in Ukraine.

The village is built to house those affected by the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station disaster happened on 26 April 1986.

The children suffer from multiple health problems linked to radiation exposure.

A kindergarten nursery room in Pripyat, a ghost town left deserted by the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station nearby. All the wooden legs of the beds have decomposed.

The "Russian Woodpecker", an advanced Soviet radio weapon, stands near the decommissioned Chernobyl power station reactor number 4.

Дуга-3 (Duga-3) was a Soviet over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system used as part of the Soviet ABM early-warning network. The system operated from July 1976 to December 1989. Two operational Duga radars were deployed, one near Chernobyl and Chernihiv in what was then called the Ukrainian SSR (present-day Ukraine), the other in eastern Siberia.

Julia, 6, is treated for her cross-eyes at the Zhitomyr hospital in Ukraine.

Her grandparents received radiation exposure during the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station disaster happened on 26 April 1986.

30 years on, the area is still too heavily contaminated for human activity.

Gas masks at a school in Pripyat, a ghost town left deserted by the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl power station nearby. 30 years on, the city is still heavily contaminated, unfit for human life.

Ukraine

Chernobyl 30 years after

On April 26, 1986, the world suffered its worst nuclear disaster ever, when one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. The Soviet government, under leader Mikhail Gorbachev, hushed the news for 36 hours, leading to the catastrophic radiation of large nearby populations.

Thirty years on today, the area is still sealed inside an exclusion zone, the towns and villages devoid of humans apart from the engineers busy with the continued clean-up effort. The displaced residents live scattered in towns and villages across Ukraine, with many second or third generation children displaying unusually high cases of diseases including cancer.