Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the reactor explosion at Chernobyl. Here are some of the best articles. The coverage, overall, is surprisingly good, not just the standard “Radiation – Be very afraid!”
Washington Post: How the Soviet Union stayed silent during the Chernobyl disaster. It took days for the outside world to become aware that something terrible had happened. Today, with open-source Twitter and the availability of overhead photos, it probably would be hours.
Guardian: Interviews with some of the people most affected.
BBC: Video, photos, interviews.
ANS Nuclear Cafe: A more technical look at the accident. Top photo is from here, taken the day after the accident.
International Atomic Energy Agency resource page.
Wilson Center: The KGB’s report on explosion and fire at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Added Later
The Atlantic: Still cleaning up. A photo essay.
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission – with links to more.
CIA briefing video. The surmise about how the accident took place is incorrect; but this video was made for President Reagan early in the accident.
Alex Wellerstein: The battles of Chernobyl.
Physics Today: What can Chernobyl teach us? (from the comment below).
Nuclear Diner 
See also http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/69/4/10.1063/PT.3.3133
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