It is 22 years since the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant in Ukraine exploded. A blast in the reactor released tonnes of radioactive material into the atmosphere causing, what was later described, as history's biggest man-made disaster.

It was one fateful mistake that lead to history’s biggest manmade disaster. On April 26, 1986, workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, some 100 kilometers from Kiev, incorrectly performed a technical experiment.

The reactor which carried almost 200 tonnes of radioactive fuel exploded.
 
“After the explosion, all the radioactive materials were emitted from the reactor up to six kilometers above ground. Then came the north-eastern wind which carried it towards Poland, Belarus, Sweden. And this concerned the whole of Europe,” Boris Gorbachev, Chernobyl liquidator, said.

The immediate death toll was just 28 people. But more than 50.000, who lived in a nearby city of Pripyat were exposed to strong dozes of radiation in the 36 hours they were forced to wait for the evacuation.

The long-term effect on their health and consequences of radioactive contamination still remain unclear. It is believed that tens of thousands of cancer cases across the former USSR and Europe came as a result of the Chernobyl blast.

Not only did the disaster impact on human health, but also the political system. The soviet authorities had been concealing the tragedy from their own people and the rest of the world. That, as many still believe, was the final straw that broke the Soviet Union’s back.

A metal shelter over the reactor, called the sarcophagus, was built less than a year after the fallout to prevent radiation from spreading.

But more than two decades on, a 30 kilometer area around the plant remains a dead-zone. In some places, radiation levels are still very high.

Renewed hope to deal with the danger came with a plan to build a new containment structure for the plant, the so-called arch, which will cover the whole building.

The French company Novarco invested one billion Euros into the project, which is destined to remove the radioactive threat for at least 100 years and, possibly, allow the plant to be completely dismantled.

But despite the efforts to contain nuclear contamination, it seems clear that this land will never be inhabited again. While the fallout period of radioactive cesium and trans-uranium particles is 30 to 50 years, traces of plutonium will take up to 24.000 years to disperse.

Opposition in Belarus protest on tragedy’s anniversary

Several thousand opposition supporters have marched through the Belarusian capital, Minsk to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy.

They were protesting against the government's policy of sending university graduates to areas thought to still be contaminated by the 1986 explosion.

The demonstrators were also demanding the government drop its plans to build a nuclear power station.

The president of Belarus backs the construction arguing it will counterbalance the country's dependence on oil and gas.