Wild vines creep through the windows of a deserted house near the shuttered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After a Chernobyl reactor exploded 20 years ago, Soviet authorities created an exclusion zone with a radius of 19 miles (30 kilometers). More than 130,000 people in 76 towns and settlements were forced to leave their homes.

The exclusion zone still exists, and special permission is required to visit. But as many as 800 mostly elderly residents have illegally moved back to their villages there.

• Nuclear Power: It Could Save the Earth
• More Photos in the News
• Today's Top 15 Most Popular Stories
• Free E-Mail Newsletter: "Focus on Photography"