Extracts in italics.
On 26 April 1986, near the city of Pripyat in Ukraine (under Soviet Union at that time), a nuclear reactor of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant exploded, releasing intense radiation to the surrounding regions. It is the worst ever nuclear meltdown disaster in history, creating a radioactive risk few hundred times more serious than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The radioactive cloud also affected wide parts of Europe and Russia. After which many suffered from severe health problems and the total death toll was estimated to be as high as 400,000. Residents were forced to abandon the nearby city, hence resulting in a ghost town.
Roentgen is a unit used to measure radiation levels. 1 roentgen has 1,000,000 microroentgens. A typical city measures about 10 microroentgens.
So 1 roentgen is 100,000 times the average radiation of a typical city. A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach.
This sort of radiation level cannot be found in Chernobyl now. In the first days after explosion, some places around the reactor were emitting 3,000-30,000 roentgens per hour. The firemen who were sent to put out the reactor fire were fried on the spot by gamma radiation. The remains of the reactor were entombed within an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus, so it is now relatively safe to travel to the area - as long as we do not step off of the roadway...
It [the above map] shows various levels of radiation on asphalt - usually on the middle of road - because at edge of the road it is twice as high. If you step 1 meter off the road it is 4 or 5 times higher. Radiation sits on the soil, on the grass, in apples and mushrooms. It is not retained by asphalt, which makes rides through this area possible.
The picture shows the road heading towards Chernobyl, until civilization ends.
There won't be many cars on those roads. This place has ill fame and people try not to settle here. The farther we go, the cheaper the land, the less the people and the better the roads... quite the reverse of everywhere else in the world.
Radiation will stay in the Chernobyl area for the next 48.000 years, but humans may begin repopulating the area in about 600 years - give or take three centuries. The experts predict that, by then, the most dangerous elements will have disappeared - or been sufficiently diluted into the rest of the world's air, soil and water.
This shows one of the checkpoints leading to the Exclusion Zone (or Zone of Alienation). Special permission is required to enter.
Beyond the checkpoint, a really eerie sight.
These are the military vehicles abandoned after the explosion.
The fire engines never returned in their garages, and the firemen never returned to their homes.
These fire engines are some of the most radioactive objects in all of Chernobyl. The firemen were the first on the scene, and they thought it was an ordinary fire. No one told them, what they were really dealing with.
The city looks more like a wildlife reserve in an urban environment…
After the explosion, the pine trees in the nearby woods glowed red upon absorbing high levels of radiation. After which it is called the ‘Red Forest’. The trees were later bulldozed and buried.
The site of the nuclear plant.
48,000 people lived here and loved their town. In 1986, it was a modern, green and cozy place to live.
This town might be an attractive place for tourists. Some tourists companies have been trying to arrange tours in this town, but the first group of tourists found the silence unnerving and downright SPOOKY. And it is. They charged 1200 hryvnas for a 2 hour excursion and after some 15 minutes, they wanted to flee to the outside world. The silence here is deafening.
There are many places that not structurally safe, or have collected pockets of intense radiation. There are places where no one dares to go, not even scientists with protective gear. One such place is the Red Wood forest and another is the Ghost Town Cemetery. The relatives of the people who are buried there cannot visit, because in addition to people, much of the radioactive graphite nuclear core is buried there. It is one of the most toxic places on earth.
It is safe to be in the open air in Ghost Town. It is inside the houses where the real danger lies. One must be especially careful in houses with open windows facing the Atomic Power Plant.
Children had to part with their favourite toys. People had to leave everything, from photos of their grandparents to cars. Their clothes, cash and passports has all been changed by state authorities. Incredibly, people had homes, motorcycles, garages, cars, country houses, they had money, friends and relatives. People had their lives. Each had their own niche. And then in a matter of hours, their entire world fell to pieces.
After a few hours trip in an army vehicle, they stood under a shower, washing away radiation. Then they stepped in a new life, naked with no home, no friends, no money, no past and with a very doubtful future.
These portraits are preparation for the May 1st Labour Day Parade.
May 1st never came in this town. On April 27th, the whole population was evacuated and this street has not seen a parade since....and probably never will again.
They call it a town where time stands still.
Maybe it is because the clocks here don't measure time - they measure radiation levels.
This was the town in the early 1980's.
Used to be filled with lush greenery but...
This is how it looks now. The park is the most radioactive section of town because it is directly in front of the reactor. On the day of the disaster, the North wind brought the first clouds here and it is said that people ran for their lives as they searched for their children in the atomic smoke...... I don't know if it's true.
This is the highest building in town. On the day of disaster, many people gathered on this roof to see the beautiful shining cloud above the Atomic Power Plant.
Beautiful but deadly.
From here, the shining cloud above the reactor must have been a staggering sight. Standing on the roof of the highest building in this empty town brings a feeling of being completely alone in the world - like this whole town is.
The day after the accident, this place on the bridge provided a good view of the gaping crack in the nuclear containment vessel that was ruptured by the explosion. Many curious people came here to have a look and were bathed in a flood of deadly x-rays emanating directly from the glowing nuclear core.
It’s scary to think that something you can’t even see, smell or feel can be so dangerous. Many were unaware of this, resulting in a tragic end.
This is what is left of the swimming pool "Azure"
This is the town kindergarten.
There are hundreds of little gas masks, a teacher’s diary and a last note saying that their walk on Saturday has been canceled due to some unforeseen contingency.
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