Chernobyl facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chernobyl Чорнобиль
City of district significance
Chornobyl's Old City Hall building
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Kyiv Oblast
Raion	Chornobyl Raion (1923–1988) Ivankiv Raion (since 1988)
Founded	1193
City status	1941
Population  (2016)
• Total	704 inhabitants
Postal code	07270
Area code(s)	+380 4493

Chornobyl area. Taken from the Russian Mir spacecraft in 1997

Chernobyl or Chornobyl (Ukrainian: Чорнобиль) is a city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus.

It was a major communications node and important center of trade and commerce, especially in the 19th century. The city is 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) south by south-east of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, which became known for the Chornobyl disaster. The plant exploded on 26 April 1986; clouds of radioactive particles were released, and the severely damaged containment vessel started leaking radioactive matter. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas. Despite the fact that radiation is still being emitted from the nuclear disaster site, the 800-year-old city of Chornobyl survives. As of 2004, government workers still police the zone. They try to clean up radioactive material. Hundreds of people — mostly the elderly — have decided to live with the dangers and have returned to their homes in the zone's towns and villages. Their population was highest in 1987, when there were more than 1200 people. In 2003, there were about 300. There are currently 704 people living in Chornobyl, the houses that have people inside have a sign on the outside saying, Owner of this house lives here.

Images for kids

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  Chernobyl welcome sign

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  Orthodox Church of St. Elijah

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  A 1525 European Sarmatia map after Ptolemy's Geography. Azagarium is marked on the west bank of the Boristhenes river (Dnieper), below the "Sarmatia Europe" inscription, east (right) of the lake captioned "Amodora palus". "Paludes Meotides" (Maeotian Swamp) is the Sea of Azov, "Ponti Euxini pars" marks the Black Sea, and the Carpathians are drawn in the bottom left (southwest) corner as "Carpatus mons".

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  Wormwood Star Memorial Complex

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  Monument to Those Who Saved the World