Introduction

Traveling North from Kiev, towards so called Chernobyl "dead zone".

The people there all left and nature is blooming. There are beautiful woods and lakes.

In places where roads have not been traveled by trucks or army vehicles, they are in the same condition they were 20 years ago - except for an occasional blade of grass that discovered a crack to spring through. Time does not ruin roads, so they may stay this way until they can be opened to normal traffic again........ a few centuries from now.

Roentgens

To begin our journey, we must learn a little something about radiation. It is really very simple, and the device we use for measuring radiation levels is called a Geiger counter.  If you test in Kiev, radiation will measure about 12-16 micro roentgen per hour. In a typical city of Russia and America, it will read 10-12 micro roentgen per hour.  In the center of many European cities are 20 micro R per hour, the radioactivity of the stone.

1,000 micro roentgens equal one milli roentgen and 1,000 milli roentgens equal 1 roentgen. So one 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 1250 roentgens to kill a chicken and over 125,000 roentgen that to kill a cockroach.

This sort of radiation level can not be found in Chernobyl today. 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.......

The map above shows the radiation levels in different parts of the dead zone. The map will soon be replaced with a more comprehensive one that identifies more features.

It 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.

You never had problems with the dosimeter guys, who man the checkpoints. They are experts, and if they find radiation on your vehicle, they give it a chemical shower. 

600 years

On the Friday evening of April 25, 1986, the reactor crew at Chernobyl-4, prepared to run a test the next day to see how long the turbines would keep spinning and producing power if the electrical power supply went off line. This was a dangerous test, but it had been done before. As a part of the preparation, they disabled some critical control systems - including the automatic shutdown safety mechanisms.

Shortly after 1:00 AM on April 26, the flow of coolant water dropped and the power began to increase.

At 1:23 AM, the operator moved to shut down the reactor in its low power mode and a domino effect of previous errors caused an sharp power surge, triggering a tremendous steam explosion which blew the 1000 ton cap on the nuclear containment vessel to smithereens.

Some of the 211 control rods melted and then a second explosion, whose cause is still the subject of disagreement among experts, threw out fragments of the burning radioactive fuel core and allowed air to rush in - igniting several tons of graphite moderating blocks.

Once graphite starts to burn, its almost impossible to extinguish. It took 9 days and 5000 tons of sand, boron, dolomite, clay and lead dropped from helicopters to put it out. The radiation was so intense that many of those brave pilots died.

It was this graphite fire that released most of the radiation into the atmosphere and troubling spikes in atmospheric radiation were measured as far away as Sweden - thousands of miles away.

The causes of the accident are described as a fateful combination of human error and imperfect technology.

In keeping with a long tradition of Soviet justice, they imprisoned all the people who worked on that shift - regardless of their guilt. The man who tried to stop the chain reaction in a last desperate attempt to avoid the meltdown was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He died 3 weeks later.

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. If the Ukrainian government can somehow find the money and political will power to finance the necessary scientific research, perhaps a way will be discovered to neutralize or clean up the contamination sooner. Otherwise, our distant ancestors will have to wait until the radiation diminishes to a tolerable level. If we use the lowest scientific estimate, that will be 300 years from now......some scientists say it may be as long as 900 years.

I think it will be 300, but people often accuse me of being an optimist.

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In the Ukrainian language  Chernobyl is the name of a grass, wormwood (absinth). This word scares the holy be Jesus out of people here. Maybe part of the reason for that among religious people is because the Bible mentions Wormwood in the book of the revelations - which foretells the end of the world....

The Communist government that was in power then kept silent about this accident. In Kiev, they forced people to take part in their preciously stupid labor day parade and it was then that ordinary people began hearing the news of the accident from foreign radio stations and relatives of those who died. The real panic began 7-10 days after accident. Those who were exposed to the exceedingly high levels of nuclear radiation in the first 10 days when it was still a state secret, including unsuspecting visitors to the area, either died or have serious health problems.  

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Heading north

Time to go for a ride. This is our road. 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 - and a forecast of things to come.

Someone brought the egg from Germany. It represents LIFE breaking through the hard shell of the unknown. Is this symbolism encouraging or not?  Either way, it makes people think.  Our journey from here is a gradually darkening picture of deserted towns, empty villages and dead farms..

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This is what left of a fertile village with a population of 4.500. It lies 50 km South of ground zero - the reactor

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Now we are 50 kilometers West of the reactor.

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This old man lives in the Chernobyl area. He is one of 3.500 people that either refused to leave or returned to their villages after the meltdown in 1986.   They eat food from their own gardens, drink the milk of their cows and claim that they are healthy.....but the old man is one of only 400 that have survived this long. He may soon join his 3,100 neighbors that rest eternally in the earth of their beloved homes. It appears that the people with the most courage were the first to die here.

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Belarus

We are now crossing the border into Belarus - which is a separate country. The wind of that day brought 70% of the Chernobyl radiation here. As we travel deeper into Belarus territory, we begin to grasp the immensity of the total area that was poisoned, and will still be poison in the year 2525. Most of the houses here are made of wood - and it absorbs radiation like a sponge.

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This is a Belarus Cemetery. In many villages, hasty scratches on wooden crosses are the only chronicle that remains of the rich lives that dwelled here. 

We couldn't find this village on the map, but the town cemetery tells the tale that from the early 1800's, until 1986, all of the people who lived in this village were Smirnovs.

It must be sectarian village, where brothers married sisters and all have the same last name.

Put this village on the map and name it Smirnovka. It is a famous vodka.  There is a connection to the people who lived in this place and the people who make Smirnoff Vodka?

I can only guess, because there is nobody here to answer the question.

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Entering Chernobyl area.

There are no commercial gas/petrol stations in the area, so the tank must be full, check the fuel reserve and tire repair kit. We don't want to be marooned in the middle of nuclear desert.

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Checkpoint

This is a credential control point, one of two dozen checkpoints that lead into dead zone. Special permission is required to enter the zone of exclusion.

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This is where they give careless or unlucky visitors a chemical shower.

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As we pass through the check point, we feel that we have entered an unreal world. In the dead zone, the silence of the villages, roads, and woods seem to say something to me....something that we strain to hear....something that attracts and repels me both at the same time. It is eerie - like stepping into that Salvador Dali painting with the dripping clocks.

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Losses

These are radioactive storage techniques as far as the eye can see. They are a type of army truck. Most of these vehicles were full of troops on that day.

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How many people died of radiation? No one knows - not even approximately. The official casualty reports range from 300 to 300,000 and many unofficial sources put the toll over 400,000.

The final toll will not be known in our lifetime, and maybe not our children's either.

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It is easier to calculate material loses. It was a crippling economic catastrophe for the region - from which it may never recover.

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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.

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The Liquidators are those people who were recruited or forced to assist in the cleanup or the "liquidation" of the consequences of the accident.

As a totalitarian government the Soviet Union forced many young soldiers to assist in the cleanup of the Chernobyl accident, apparently without sufficient protective clothing and insufficient explanation of the danger involved.

Over 650,000 liquidators helped in the cleanup of the Chernobyl disaster in the first year. Many of those who worked as liquidators became ill and according to some estimates about 8,000 to 10,000 have died from the radioactive dose they received at the Chernobyl Power Plant. This group apparently includes those who built the containment building over the destroyed reactor No. 4 which is called the SARCOPHAGUS.

Cleanup workers (Liquidators) going to the Chernobyl Plant.

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This hellish inferno became a sort of paradise for wild animals - at least on the surface. They thrive with no humans to prey upon them, but nobody fully understands how the nuclear poisons have altered their genetic makeup, the extent of their migration or their interactions with the adjacent "safe" areas. Grotesque mutations have been reported, but zoologists deny that.

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These are Prejevalsky Horses. Someone brought a couple of them from Asia a few years ago, they liked it here and now there are 3 herds running in Chernobyl area. They are a sturdy breed and are always on the move. They have a prehistoric look about them. When they sweep by at full gallop, it feels like you might see a herd of ancient Eohippus next.

Populations of wolves and wild boars grow rapidly. They occupying the abandoned houses and sheds. They are curiously non-aggressive here. Maybe that has something to do with the food supply which plentiful for all species except man, but contaminated. It's not unusual to see a wolf, a fox, a wild boar or a wild deer casually crossing the road.

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Zoologists also brought two American Bisons to the area, but the idea to breed them didn't work out. The male bison ran away. We don't know if he ran away from radiation or from his bride, but he was last seen in Belarus, heading west. He may have decided to return to America.

This is the town of Chernobyl - The entire population was evacuated in 1986 - but not until long after the danger enveloped them. It was a base for the Atomic Power Plant workers. Geiger counter readings here now are 20-80 micro roentgens. This is the safest area in the dead zone.

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It is 18 km from the town of Chernobyl to the atomic power plant, and 22 km to the Ghost Town.

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This is the village election house.

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It was quite boring to participate in an election with one candidate from one party, so the turnout was very low. That is, until the local officials hit upon the idea of offering free drinks in return for a vote. This inspired the electorate to become very interested in politics.

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The door on the right is free drink room and door on left is the election room.  The authorities came up with idea of making the day after the elections a holiday so the voters had time to sober up before returning to work. The old man who told me this story could not recall.

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Atomic Plant

Usually, on this leg of the journey, a beeping Geiger counter inspires a shift into high gear and streak through the area with great haste. The patch of trees in front is called red - or 'magic" wood. In 1986, this wood glowed red with radiation. They cut them down and buried them under 1 meter of earth.

The readings on the asphalt paving is 500 -3000 micro roentgens, depending upon where you stand. That is 50 to 300 times the radiation of a normal environment. If you step 10 meters forward, Geiger counter will run off the scale. If you to walk a few hundred meters towards the reactor, the radiation is 3 roentgens per hour - which is 300,000 times normal. If you were to keep walking all the way to the reactor, You would glow in the dark tonight. Maybe this is why they call it magic wood. It is sort of magical when one walks in clothed and walks out like a knight in a shining armor.

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This is the territory of the atomic power plant. The Geiger counter reading here is also 500-3000 micro roentgen per hour.

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The plant was closed down for good in 2000.

They must build a new sarcophagus soon, because the original one was hastily constructed and is disintegrating.

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This is the final checkpoint. Protective radiation suits are required beyond this point......we are not that curious.

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Ghost Town

With a 4 kilometer leap, we are at the gates of the Ghost Town. It was founded in 1970 and located 4 kms North of the reactor. 48,000 people lived here and loved their town. In 1986, it was a modern, green and cozy place to live.

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Silence

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 1000 hryvnas for a 2 hour excursion and after some 15 minutes, they wanted to flee to the outside world. The silence here is deafening.

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Quiet town.

This is the residence of the town guard.

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At first glance, Ghost Town seems like a normal town. There is a taxi stop, a grocery store, someone's wash hangs from the balcony and the windows are open.

But then I see a slogan on a building that says - "The Party of Lenin Will Lead Us To The Triumph Of Communism"......and I realize that those windows were opened to the spring air of April of 1986.

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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 redwood forest and another is the Ghost Town cemetery. The relatives of the people who are buried there can not 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.

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Bike Shop

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No motorcycle shop could survive a catastrophe like this.

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This is a sales sticker for a Chezet, 26hp, 343cc, motorcycle. Price = 1050 rubles. Chezet! It was the ultimate dream machine for all young bikers in the Soviet Union.  Dreaming of what a 26 hp bike could do, because the old crippled dinosaur had only 15 ponies but how the HELL could you ever afford a Chezet in this lifetime?  The average monthly wage was only 180 rubbles then.

When the town siren went off on Sunday morning, mass panic ensued. With the police evacuating along with everyone else, banks and even jewelry stores went relatively unnoticed, but this shop was emptied out in a matter of an hour. The police began shooting looters in May, when radioactive TV sets began to appear in the pawn shops of Kiev.

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Hotel

This is a room with trees growing through a stone floor.

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This is the banquet room. It was used for weddings, celebrating birthdays and office parties. There are more signs of life here than anywhere else in Ghost Town.

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Houses

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.

Taking such a walk with no special radiation detecting device is like walking through a mine field wearing snowshoes.

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All doors are open to reduce the risk. Through the door is a distant echo of what life was like here.

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New Beginning

Children had to part with their favorite toys. People had to leave everything, from photos of their grandparents to cars. Their clothes, cash and passports have 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.

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And their flag was still there.

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All of this happy horse**** as for the May 1st Labor Day parade.

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The post office is decorated for the Labor Day parade.

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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.

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The Ghost Cafe

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This was the town in the early 1980's.

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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! Perhaps future archeologists will compare this town to Pompeii. The Soviet era is forever preserved here, in the radiation that will last for many centuries.

Every step toward the little bumper cars adds 100 micro roentgen to my Geiger counter reading.

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In the Russian language a Ferris wheel is a devils wheel. Well, this look pretty much like one.

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On the carousel we read 103 micro R/hr. This place symbolizes what really happened here.  

We are climbing up to the roof of this building. 

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.

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Elevator doors are open forever.

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Someone didn't receive their mail. A couple of papers and the April edition of "Fish and Hunt" magazine. Maybe they were out of town. Either way, they never returned.

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The feelings expressed on this wall is Vovik+Tanya=love. One wonders if they survived. And if they did, where they are now. Maybe they will come across this site and see this picture and remember a happier day.

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This man never got his paper. The news in it suddenly became unimportant. The calendar shows that Saturday, April 26. was a special day. Judging by things he left at the door, he liked to fish. The Sundays and Year on this calendar were in red ink and has now faded.

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He probably left for a fishing trip and never came back. I wonder how he felt. It's like you life has been cut into two pieces. In one is your slippers still under you bed, photos of a first love that are left on the piano...in the other is you yourself, you memories and a fishing rod.

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Up on the Roof

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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.

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They call it a town where time stands still.

Maybe it is because the clocks here don't measure time,  they measure radiation levels.

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There is no phone service. Cellular phones don't work either.

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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.

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This is what is left of the swimming pool "Azure"

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Beethoven's moonlight sonata lies trampled in a gutter.

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Kindergarten

The last photos are of the town kindergarten.

There are hundreds of little gas masks, a teachers diary and a last note saying that their walk on Saturday has been canceled due to some unforeseen contingency.

The remaining photos don't need any comments - they tell the Ghost Town's story in a way that no words can.

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