Chernobyl and Pripyat - Ukraine - January 2014
After reading Wevsky's excellent report from his very recent trip it prompted me to pop a few pics up here from my trip. When I went there was about a foot of snow and it hit -40 degrees C at one point! Makes me cold just thinking about it! Looks like we had different places that we went to so there should be a good amount of variation between the two reports. If you have any questions, please ask away and I'll do my best to answer them! The full set of photos are on my flickr here -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsimages/sets/72157640420593386/
History
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe.
The Chernobyl disaster is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and resulting deaths, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. 31 people died during the accident itself, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.
Also, the nearby city of Pripyat, named for the nearby Pripyat River, Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970, the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union, for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of 49,360 before being evacuated a few days after the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The photos
A memorial for the people who fought the original fire. They did not understand the severity of the radioactive dust, and they did not survive. There is an inscription that reads 'To those who saved the world'.
Inside one of the kindergartens a forgotton toy doll rots.
A childs lost show remains inside
The coat hooks still have the childrens personalised pictures above to identify each hook
Bunk beds in the Kindergarten
The sarcophagus under construction that will be rolled over the reacter to replace the crumbling sheath in place already.
Reactor number 4. The radiation levels in comparison to other locations were through the roof here (I made a funny)
Building of culture in Pripyat
The infamous ferris wheel!
I liked how the light fell on this.
School corridor
There are a multitude of books left everwhere!
It's not a report for Pripyat unless the famous Call of Duty pool is included. It's a bit of a poo shot, but I didn't have my wide angle at that point
Buildings around Duga-3
Loads of gas masks everywhere!
It is explicitly forbidden to take photos of the soldiers guarding the exclusion zone, but we asked really nicely, and they were happy to pose for us!
Inside one of the cooling towers for the plant
Ladder inside the cooling tower
Remains of a beautiful stained glass window in Cafe Pripyat
Sunset inside the building of culture
Inside the building of culture
On top of the tallest apartment building. You can see the reactor and sarcophagus a couple of miles away!
What a typical apartment looks like now. The residents were briefly allowed back for a day to collect anything they may want to keep as they were told they would not be allowed to return to live there ever again.