In pictures: The abandoned Soviet town that was beside Chernobyl, now lost in time....

[ChickenGuy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-22246328

^ There it is, 27 years on.

A photographer went inside the exclusion zone to Pripyat (Pryp'yat') near the Ukraine/Belarus border, the town that housed the Chernobyl workers and which was within 1 mile of the reactor.

For five years Ric Wright photographed abandoned and forgotten places around his home, but in 2010 he decided to look further afield and headed for the exclusion zone around the nuclear plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine where an explosion and subsequent reactor meltdown became the world's worst-ever nuclear accident.

Wright has visited a number of times and so far has spent nine days in the zone where he has concentrated on photographing the abandoned town of Pripyat, once home to the plant's workers and their families. The town's 49,000 inhabitants were told to leave 36 hours after the explosion on 26 April 1986.

Picture captions in quotes:

"The ferris wheel in central Pripyat is probably one of the most known items in images from the town," said Wright. The amusement park was due to open on 1 May 1986, five days after the disaster, but it has never been used.

This is a classroom at one of the 21 schools in town. Wright said: "Most of the classrooms have been raided but some remain with most of their desks and some items in place."

Pripyat's concert hall now lies abandoned. The photographic project has been published as an ebook that also contains a soundtrack, some of which includes a recital of the sheet music found in this music hall.

Here you can see the Cultural Palace on the right, various other shops and restaurants and the 17-storey buildings in which most people lived. Each one is topped with a Soviet symbol.

Many of the contaminated vehicles used in the clean-up operation remain in equipment graveyards in the exclusion zone. Here at Burakivka some of those vehicles continue to decay. Many of the trucks have had their engines and wiring removed.

In sharp (and supremely ironic) contrast to the desolation, the bright Soviet future....

Many Soviet artworks are still in Pripyat, from murals to paintings and peeling posters. The painting featured here is in the post office.

Full set of pics and annotations are on the link at the top, his own photography website with most of the pics are here:

http://www.urbanpixels.co.uk/site/

"Another way of looking at the desolation of Pripyat is how things could be in 27 years at other sites around the world, such as the area around Fukushima in Japan, as well as how the world would look after more than 25 years without human intervention, when nature reclaims cities," said Wright.

 

[chance1]

just went thru the pix ..... eerie

i saw a movie "chernobyl diaries" - premise about a group of americans who get a "tour" thru the area - illegally - and of course a horror story ensues about radiation impacted survivors

looks sorta similar to movie shots btw

wonder what the fate of the 49,000 inhabitants was - how many survived - how many dead - how many became sick

 

[palbert]

Eerily prophetic.

 

[rareboy]

It is.

If you haven't read 'The World Without Us', it is a great companion to this essay.

 

[Jack Springer]

Very interesting article.

Here's another one addressing the status of animal life. A good read including some great photos.

Animals are thriving .. makes you wonder why.

I could never understood why they didn't enlarge the quarantine area around Fukushima.

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._mutations_and_populations_of_plants_and.html

 

[ChickenGuy]

Very interesting article.

Here's another one addressing the status of animal life. A good read including some great photos.

Animals are thriving .. makes you wonder why.

I could never understood why they didn't enlarge the quarantine area around Fukushima.

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._mutations_and_populations_of_plants_and.html

Those pictures are a very telling and interesting 'addendum' or 'afterword' to the others in this thread.


Humankind in absence and decay....

Nature flourishing and thriving....

 

[Jack Springer]

^^

Most of the photos could have easily been taken throughout the world in wetland areas.

Human left the area because of their intelligence and knowledge of the incident ... something the animals don't possess.

I would like to see more info on how insects and animals have mutated.

 

[grasser92]

hum , interesting pics... I remember the story about those navy divers that dived into a tunnel of almost boiling water to reach a shut off valve. Never came back. if they hadn't have done it and the reactor core had melted through the base of its housing contacting with the water below this would have caused a thermo nuclear explosion and the eradiated water would have reached a river polluting and affecting a many more.

 

[Kulindahr]

I remember seeing the wildlife pics and the reactions of anti-nuclear types who expected to see nearly a desert there. One ecologist at the time commented "Maybe we need more Chernobyls", because of the rare species thriving there.

 

[cm98059]

This would tend to demonstrate that Nature is more resilient than we give it credit for. If we begin working on the global warming problem, now, maybe in 25 years, we can be on track for repairing the Ozone.

 

[Jack Springer]

^^

What global warming problem. There has been no increase in global temps in the past 10 to 15 years.

 

[kallipolis]

^^

What global warming problem. There has been no increase in global temps in the past 10 to 15 years.

This article might better inform you:

http://www.dw.de/polar-ice-sheets-melting-faster-than-ever/a-16432199

I quote a few words from this article:

The polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000.

 

[Jack Springer]

^^

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

 

[kallipolis]

^^

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

Did The coal industry (Koch brothers?) fund that Wall Street Journal article?

 

[Jack Springer]

Yeah, I think big tobacco, big insurance, big soda pop, big oil, and the RNC gave millions to get that article published.

 

[kallipolis]

Yeah, I think big tobacco, big insurance, big soda pop, big oil, and the RNC gave millions to get that article published.

Koch Bros have a vested interest but of course the "do not panic" WSJ headline does not invalidate the science informing us that:

The polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000.

 

[chrisrobin]

^^

What global warming problem. There has been no increase in global temps in the past 10 to 15 years.

It's global climate change, Jack. Big difference (if you choose to agree.)

 

[chrisrobin]

The original pics of Chernobyl are the Republicon wet dream. Build more reactors! Fuck solar and wind power! Meanwhile the "true believers" have something to look forward to. If they liked Fukushima and Chernobyl, they'll love a new American meltdown!

Three-mile Island will seem like a stroll in the park by comparison.

 

[Jack Springer]

It's global climate change, Jack. Big difference (if you choose to agree.)

Sorry, I keep forgetting the phrase has changed.

Global cooling in the 1970's

Global warming in the 1990's, early 2000's

Today it's now Climate Change.

.. and all we have to do to stop it is raise taxes on developed countries and give that money to undeveloped countries so they can buy oil because their pollution doesn't hurt the environment.

- - - Updated - - -

Koch Bros have a vested interest but of course the "do not panic" WSJ headline does not invalidate the science informing us that:

The polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000.

How does that sell more toilet paper and paper towels?

 

[Kulindahr]

^^

What global warming problem. There has been no increase in global temps in the past 10 to 15 years.

Not true. There may have been no definitive rises in atmospheric heat, but that's only a small part of the system.