Never-seen-before shots of Chernobyl nuclear disaster that cost two of the four photographers their lives


These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.



The black and white shots, taken in the weeks following the 1986 Ukraine tragedy, revealed the truth behind the tragedy Soviet authorities were trying to hush up. But despite helping the outside world to understand what happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.

Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure.

Scroll down for video...



Tragedy: These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

Haunting: The black and white shots, taken shortly after the 1986 accident, reveal the truth behind the tragedy that Soviet authorities were trying to hush up

Exposed: But despite helping the outside world to understand what had happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost

The only snapper to have seemingly survived any ill effects is Volodymyr Repik. Anatoly Rasskazov, as staff photographer for the plant, was allowed in on the day of the explosion.



On April 26, at 12noon, just hours after the blast, he made a video of the destroyed reactor and submitted it to a special commission working in a bunker close to the plant.

Rasskazov's photos were submitted to the commission by 11pm on the same day - and were immediately seized by the Soviet secret police.

Only two of his pictures were published in 1987, without mentioning the author's name.



Rasskazov died in 2010, aged 66, after suffering for years from cancer and blood diseases that he blamed on the radiation. Igor Kostin, now 76, was working for the Novosti Press Agency when he was sent to cover the April 26 accident.

Cursed: Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure

Spared: The only snapped to have seemingly survived any ill effects is Volodymr Repik

Exclusive: Anatoly Rasskazov, as staff photographer for the plant, was allowed in on the day of the explosion

Snapper: Igor Kostin

Gaining unauthorised access to the plant, by hitching a lift on a military lead-covered helicopter flight, he has admitted to 'foolishly' opening the window to take pictures.



But, even though he wore a lead protective suit and placed his equipment in lead boxes, he came back home with nothing to show for his determination to document the crisis.

The radiation was so high that all his shots turned out black - and so he returned, nine days after the blast, to fire off frames as soldiers frantically shovelled debris over the ruined roof.



Kostin's work in the days after the blast and in subsequent years on Chernobyl won him a World Press Photo Prize.



But it also exposed him to heavy levels of radiation.



He has undergone several thyroid operations, with thyroid cancer one of the most widespread consequences of the blast.



Valery Zufarov died in 1993, aged 52, of Chernobyl-related diseases.



His first pictures were made from a helicopter 25 meters above the plant. Volodymyr Repik, now 66, last year said that, if he had his time again, he would not have gone to Chernobyl because the risk of death was so high.



Pripyat, close to the power plant, has been left a ghost town since the explosion at the plant caused radiation to leak from a nuclear reactor.



The 50,000 residents were evacuated in a major government operation starting the day after the catastrophe, on April 27.



The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.



Thirty-one reactor staff and emergency workers were killed in the nuclear disaster, although a report in 2006 estimated the spread of radiation would eventually lead to between 30,000 and 60,000 cancer deaths.







