
These incredible pictures, taken by a construction worker, show the creation of the now infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the years before the world's worst nuclear disaster took place at the site.

Labourer Aleksandr Shubovskiy captured the rare images, which show his colleagues working on the site with very little safety gear between 1979 and 1980.

The Chernobyl Plant near Pripyat, in what was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR), was plunged into disaster on 26 April 1986 when a severely flawed reactor and human error led to a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test, destroying Unit 4 and releasing massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.

Photographer Aleksandr Shubovskiy poses at the top of one of the towers, which he helped to construct, documenting the work in his previously unseen photo project

Against all health and safety rules: A worker stands at dizzying height with a cigarette dangling from one of his hands but without any safety gear keeping preventing him from falling

One of the workers grabs a woman believed to be his girlfriend as the pair stand above a reactor

Two builders stand at the edge of the tower. At the rear the dark buildings of Power Units 2 and 1, can be seen, and further in the distance, a water body, which is a cooling pond

The same two builders stand at the top of a tower. A crane hook blocks the view of a juvenile Pripyat in the distance

Members of a combined crew. All are equipped with safety harnesses, chains and hooks for working at heights. One of the workers holds a walky-talky for communication with a crane operator

The men were building Ventilation Stacks VT-2 for the third and fourth Chernobyl NPP Units, and Shubovskiy took the pictures as their work was coming to an end.

Shubovskiy was part of a combined installation crew working for a company named Spetsenergomontazhi, and the amateur photographer arranged a photo shoot starring his colleagues, who were happy to pose for their pictures.

He processed the film and put it on top of a wardrobe, with the intention of printing the photographs when he had time.

Although the film stayed in his flat near Pripyat, Shubovskiy never got round to developing it, but travelled around, and hit the road for a different site in Yakutia in February 1986.

Two members of the combined crew stand at the base of one of the towers, left, while an unidentified worker looks quite the hipster in stylish glasses and on a Tula motor scooter, right

Lunch was hoisted up to the top of the tower with workers drinking soup from pannikins for starters, followed by a second course, pasties, and milk taken from a metal thermos

Just one of the photographs is in colour, showing one of the men enjoying a rest and a spot of lunch

In this image one of the construction workers is seen welding at height, with only the most basic safety equipment to protect him and secure him

A crew member operates a mobile boatswain's chair, used for works outside the main site. The device used to suspend a person from a rope to perform work aloft

The men eat lunch at a height of more than 500ft, or as high as a 40-storey building. Lunch was lifted by a crane directly onto the roof so that the workers did not have to march up and down the stairs to a canteen and back

Two months later, on April 26, 1986, a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred in the number four light water graphite moderated reactor at Chernobyl.

The accident, the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel, saw a steam explosion and fires releasing at least 5 per cent of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere.

Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.

The plant operators' town of Pripyat was evacuated of its 45,000 residents on April 27, and by May 14, some 116,000 people that had been living within an 18-mile radius had also relocated.

This remarkable photograph shows Power Unit 3, with a shed standing in the place where the notorious fourth reactor would later be constructed. To the right is an unfinished Turbine Hall, common for all four ChNPP Units

The Stack was constructed section by section. In total, more than 500ft were lifted by hand over a period of two months

High riggers pose at the top of the tower. At the rear, the photo captures a view of a hoisting drum located opposite to Power Unit 2, and fuel being discharged into a container car

A worker is pictured welding at height, his feet precariously balanced, with the nuclear site sprawling hundreds of feet beneath him

A welder is pictured cutting metal at the top of one of the towers - with no protective equipment to shield his face from any flying sparks

Lifting by a ladder to VT-2. Workers hoisted goods up more than 500ft using ropes and pulleys

A year later, when Shubovskiy managed to get into flat in the evacuated Pripyat, he discovered it had been looted, but he found an untouched package containing the films.

He brought them home and forgot about them for almost 40 years, meaning the historic printed photographs were not seen until this day.

The amazing images show the lack of health and safety for workers constructing the plant, with men at the top of the ventilation towers wearing no helmets or proper harnesses.

One picture shows a worker hanging from a beam, with no helmet on his head, and a cigarette dangling from his hand.

Other pictures show workers using ropes and pulleys to hoist materials hundreds of feet into the air, or welding metal with no protection to cover their faces.

Some images show the men at ease, casually posing together at the top of the tower, or enjoying a lunch break at a table in the sky.

Builders pose for the camera in front of a view of the sprawling nuclear site, which lies beneath them

Four riggers, colleagues of Shubovskiy, were happy to pose for pictures as he documented the construction of the towers

The men were building Ventilation Stacks VT-2 for the third and fourth Chernobyl NPP Units. The fourth unit was the site of the now infamous nuclear accident

Wearing a hard hat, Aleksandr Shubovskiy, the photographer behind the project, poses at the top of one of the towers

Ventilation Stack (VT-2) dwafs the two men sitting atop it. The photo captures the view of a workmen's shelter situated on the roof of Power Unit 3

The workers take a break for lunch, feasting on the rations that were lifted up to their base in the sky

The disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and much of the fallout was deposited close to Chernobyl, in parts of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.

In the years following the accident, a further 220,000 people were resettled into less contaminated areas, and the initial exclusion zone was modified and extended to cover 46,300 square feet.

Contamination is still a problem, and disputes continue as to how many will eventually die as a result of the world's worst nuclear accident.

Studies in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus based on national registers have shown that more than one million people were possibly affected by radiation.

By 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed in exposed children, which have been linked to the nuclear disaster, and an extra 9,000 cancer deaths are expected by the UN-led Chernobyl Forum.

One of the men ladles soup into a bowl from a large metal container. Construction of the towers was thirsty work

Aleksandr Shubovskiy took the pictures between 1979 and 1980, but never developed them, leaving the films on top of a wardrobe in his flat near the nuclear base

When Shubovskiy managed to get into flat in the evacuated Pripyat, he discovered it had been looted, but he found an untouched package containing the films of the construction workers

Members of a combined crew, all equipped with safety harnesses, chains and hooks for working at heights, pose at the top of one of the towers

Another picture shows the same workman disregarding health and safety as he equips himself with a cigarette - but no hard hat or other protective gear

The pictures were taken when the building of Ventilation Stack VT-2, which was used for both the third and fourth Chernobyl NPP Units, was coming to the end

After the accident, materials were carried on the wind, with traces of radioactive deposits were found in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere.

Rainfall also helped to spread the nuclear deposits, and Scandinavia was badly affected, while even in some areas of the UK there are farms that face post-Chernobyl controls.

Despite the lasting contamination of the area, scientists have been surprised by the way that wildlife in the area has recovered.

Wild horse, boar and wolf populations are thriving, birds have nested in the reactor building and lynx have returned to the area.

However, the animals themselves have become radioactive after feasting on contaminated plants in the area.

Aleksandr Shubovskiy was working within a combined installation crew for a company named Spetsenergomontazhi

Chernobyl NPP Units. The site in the former USSR has now become synonymous with nuclear disaster

The accident was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel

A steam explosion and fires in the fourth reactor released at least 5 per cent of the radioactive core into the atmosphere

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, and Shubovskiy was unable to return to his flat to retrieve the films until a year later