April 26, 2026 marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. In 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released radioactive particles into the air, which spread across Europe as dust and smoke, contaminating land, water and living beings and exposing millions to radiation-linked illnesses such as cancer. The area around the plant became an exclusion zone, and the site is now covered by a protective structure called the New Safe Confinement. Damage near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during the Russia–Ukraine war has revived nuclear safety concerns.