On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at Chernobyl exploded, triggering the worst nuclear disaster in history. Forty years later, the exclusion zone remains too radioactive for human life, and the catastrophe’s impact continues to ripple across Europe and beyond. From the hundreds of thousands of so-called “liquidators” who risked their lives cleaning up the site, to the children evacuated from contaminated areas, to the anti-nuclear movements that reshaped energy policy — Chernobyl changed the world forever.