Category: Chernobyl Diaries

Chernobyl exclusion zone has transformed into an animal refuge in the absence of humans

Pavel

In the 30 years since the devastating nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the entire area has undergone a radical change and a slow, continual process of rebirth. If the reactor is stably closed inside the concrete sarcophagus that prevent the radiation from spreading outside, across the Exclusion Zone, which stretches 30 kilometers in all directions around the power plant, nature has begun to reclaim what humans destroyed. The accident had a major impact on the human population. Estimates of the number of human fatalities vary a lot, and also the initial…

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Chernobyl Disaster in 33 rare photographs taken at the time

Pavel

On 26 April 1986, a series of explosions destroyed reactor no. 4 of Chernobyl, and several hundred workers, firemen and army men faced a fire that burned for 10 days and spread toxic radiation throughout Europe. We talked about Chernobyl disaster in various articles, also documenting the current state of the area of alienation of the zone (to find out more visit our dedicated section), but less known among those who risked life there were also the many photographers who immortalized moments that will remain unique in the history. Following…

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The incredible infrared photographs of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Pavel

N. As we known, the exclusion zone includes the 30 kilometers radius from the center of the explosion that, in 1986, caused the most serious nuclear accident in history, a place from which human beings must keep “away” but in which the animals are back to proliferate undisturbed. The photographer has documented the exclusion zone in a new and creative way, showing it with almost surreal colors. He said that during the exploration he felt an environment that was anything but melancholy, but that looked more like a little paradise…

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The Miracle of the Church of the Prophet Elijah in Chernobyl

Pavel

Over the entire years since the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, the levels of radiation in the area of the only church of the exclusion zone, the St. Elijah Church, was well below the other levels across the zone. “Even during the most difficult days of 1986, the area around the St. Elijah Church was clean from radiation, not to mention that the church itself was also clean” said the president of the Ukrainian Chernobyl Union Yury Andreyev in a Kiev-Moscow video conference. Andreyev said too that many liquidators of the…

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Monument for the firefighters of the Chernobyl disaster.

Pavel

After a random walk and different articles about Chernobyl and the exclusion zone, I want speak to conclude (at this moment) my “Chernobyl Diaries”, about the efforts and the bravery of the firefighters (or liquidators as they were known here) in the fighting and management of the blaze that initially destroyed Reactor 4 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Shortly after the accident, firefighters arrived to try to extinguish the fires. First on the scene was a Chernobyl Power Station firefighter brigade under the command of Lieutenant Volodymyr Pravik, who…

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Chernobyl nuclear power plant: 32 years later

Pavel

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster began in the early hours of Saturday 26 April 1986 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. An explosion released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe, until the Norway. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other is the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan, and I hope to write something about this…

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Postcards from Pripyat, the town nearest to the No.4 reactor of Chernobyl.

Pavel

Pripyat is the town nearest to the No. 4 reactor, had 49,000 inhabitants, and was founded to house workers from Chernobyl. The name came from the river where sits the town, that was founded on 4th February 1970 on a terrain of endless woodland and marshes in Northern Ukraine. Construction of the power plant began in the same year – first as construction site, and then as one of the biggest nuclear electric power stations in Europe. Pripyat soon became a key town in Ukraine thanks to its location and…

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Pripyat: schools and kindergartens

Pavel

In Pripyat there were 15 primary schools in Pripyat for 5,000 children, plus 5 secondary schools and one professional school. Toys and exercise books still remain everywhere across the floor as a stark memories of children that once here attended. One of the “beautiful” sights of a visit to Pripyat are the schools and kindergartens, with everywhere toys, exercise books, and all the usual things about education facilities. However, it wasn’t the view of the objects, that they are exactly what you’d expect to find, but the frames of thousands…

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A Visit to Pripyat Hospital

Pavel

{Seven in the morning. At seven, they told me he was in the hospital. I rushed over, but there was a police cordon round the hospital, they weren’t letting anyone in. Only the ambulances were let through. The police were warning us not to go near the ambulances. The Geiger counters were going berserk! I wasn’t the only one. All the wives rushed over, everyone whose husband had been at the power plant that night. I ran to look for my friend. She was a doctor at the hospital. I…

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The radioactive amusement park abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster.

Pavel

Festive decorations are still here in the ghost town of Pripyat, ready for the opening, the 1st May 1986 that never came. It was to be opened for the first time on 1 May 1986, in time for the May Day celebrations. Several sources report that the park was opened for a short time on 27 April before the announcement to evacuate the city was made, and one site shows photos of the amusement park in operation. Theories says that the park was hurriedly opened in the aftermath of the…

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Duga-3, the top-secret military base lost in Chernobyl’s irradiated forest

Pavel

Soaring high over the pines and firs in a forest clearing is the Duga structure. It looks as if someone had taken a 20-mile stretch of electricity pylons and squashed them into a line the length of a football field. A swirling mass of wires, pylons and cylindrical cones form a geometric structure of steel roughly 500 meters high….

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