An aerial photo of the accident at Chernobyl, taken the day after the accident. The burning reactor core can be seen inside the ruined reactor hall.
For an aerial video of the reactor at this time, click here.
The true scale of the destruction is evident in this photo. Note the extensive debris field on the ground beside the reactor. The explosion did not destroy the entire core, and so the remaining fuel within the reactor core started to melt down a few hours after the explosion. The graphite remaining within the reactor was lit on fire, and it burned for several days. This combined with the melting fuel is where most of the initial contamination came from. You can see the burning fuel pile, which was literally red hot, inside the ruined building (the spots of white). Managing the flaming and melting reactor core was the first major crisis at Chernobyl after the explosion. It took almost three weeks to get the core under control and limit emissions of radioisotopes.
