I went inside the radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone...

In 1986 Reactor Number 4 Exploded at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Residents were forced out of their homes, and given only hours to collect all they could carry.

They believed that they would be home again soon, but almost 3 decades later, the towns and villages of the Chernobyl exclusion zone are still deserted.

Devoid of all human life, radiation has turned this land into an urban wasteland.

These picture was taken when I went into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to see for myself the damage caused by this disaster, and find out what remains in this radioactive wasteland.

Pictures from inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

I visited Ukraine in December 2015, just as the cold was beginning to bite and the frost was starting to settle on the ground. Trees were bare of leaves and the air was thick with fog. At the entrance to Chernobyl, I was stopped by the security forces, my documents were checked- you need a permit to visit officially - and I was waved through into the radiation zone at my own risk.

Disaster struck Chernobyl in 1986, and residents were forced to abandon their homes in only a moment's notice. Many were told they could return soon, but none have ever been allowed back. Only a few intrepid, old ex-residents have returned illegally to their old homes- the resettlers, to live out their days in their old homes. I saw a memorial to all the towns and villages lost within the Exclusion Zone.

Schools, villages, apartments, hospitals, restaurants... Everything was abandoned, everyone was forced out. They left behind anything they could not carry, and to this day nothing is allowed out of the contamination zone for fear it could spread radiation further afield. Everything is left where it fell, and visiting I was told not to even lift up a stick, the ground itself is radioactive.

It is an eery situation, exploring the darkened remnants of abandoned schools and shopping centres. Pripyat, the main town, was a model Soviet town, built purposefully for the engineers and scientists of the Chernobyl power plant, with all the modern amenities of Soviet life they could want. All of this is now caught in a strange time warp, an insight into the final fateful years before communism collapsed across Eastern Europe.

The disaster happened just before huge celebrations were due to be held. The authorities had even prepared amusement rides, bumper cars and Ferris wheels to celebrate the delights of socialism. These were never even used. Now they stand rusting silently in the radioactive wind.

It's a frightening place, Chernobyl. It really is like a a scene from a horror movie. Except this horror, for the residents who suffered the disaster and the decades of homelessness and fear, many suffered from radiation illness too, was a very real horror.

All Photos and Words By Richard Collett