The Chernobyl disaster: 30 years on (27 images)

Children's beds, toys and gas masks are placed in an empty day care in the Ukrainian ghost city of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl nuclear station, on April 19, 2006. Pripyat was evacuated within few hours after the April 26,1986 explosion in the Reactor No.4 which send radioactive cloud across the former Soviet Union. Next week Ukraine will mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. File Photo by Sergey Starostenko/UPI

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, following the April 26, 1986 explosion. UPI/INS

An aerial view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant before the April 26, 1986 disaster in Unit 4 which blanketed Europe in a radioactive cloud. File Photo by INS/UPI

Young Ukrainian patients suffering from cancer pray in a children' s hospital in Kiev, on April 7, 2006. At the end of April, Ukraine will mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded, spreading a radioactive cloud across the former Soviet Union. Thousands of people died from the effects of the radiation and millions more in the region and across Europe have suffered health problems. File Photo by Sergey Starostenko/UPI