Chernobyl before and after the explosion. The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: photos and memories of the liquidators
The Chernobyl tragedy is a sad lesson for all mankind, which has affected almost the entire world. The huge power plant, which is located near the small Ukrainian city of Pripyat, attracted attention due to the fact that in the spring of 1986 a loud explosion sounded here. The next day, the evacuation of the local population began, and after a short time the city of Pripyat and the surrounding towns and villages were deserted forever. Chernobyl before and after the accident is a curious but terrible sight that seems to scream that this tragedy should not have happened.
The largest man-made disaster in the history of the “peaceful atom” occurred on April 26, 1986, forever burying the opportunity to live in that area. Chernobyl before and after we can now see only in the photo. You can see modern Chernobyl with your own eyes if you go to, which are becoming more and more popular in our time.
When the explosion occurred, many poisonous reactive substances were thrown into the air, and in some places the level of contamination was thousands of times higher than the standard background radiation. Then it became clear that after all this a new world had come, a world that would be worse, dirtier, and, of course, no longer subject to human life. Chernobyl today is a land where it is no longer possible to sow, plow, swim, fish; these are houses that had to be abandoned because they were uninhabitable.
Maybe someday it will be possible to live in Pripyat again, but definitely not in our time. Now all we can see is empty buildings with broken windows, abandoned children's toys, forgotten household items. People then ran away in a panic, abandoned everything that was dear to their hearts, forgot about their homes, about their home. Chernobyl before and after is an absolute contrast between the past USSR and the frozen future of Ukraine.
History of Chernobyl before and after the accident
As we have described in previous articles, the history of Chernobyl is quite rich and eventful. If we compare Chernobyl before and after the accident, then once this region was a nice, picturesque corner where people were engaged in agricultural activities and worked in factories. No one even thought that one day a moment would come that would literally turn the fate of thousands of people upside down. After the accident, Chernobyl turned from a place that was once teeming with life into a desert territory inaccessible to humans for the next 25,000 years.
For those who want to learn more about the Chernobyl area before and after, but who do not have the opportunity to go on an excursion to see everything with their own eyes, it will be interesting to see the consequences of Chernobyl, photos of which are posted in this article and in sufficient quantities on the Internet. It will be possible to compare those photos in order to assess how much a small city has changed, which for some was the whole world.
For example, the photo of the street in the first photo shows a lively crowd. Here is a company of young people on the square near the Palace of Culture, couples with strollers. All smart and beautiful, because it can be a holiday or just a day off. And on the second same photo - desolation, gloom. There are no people, the lanterns are broken, almost all the vegetation has died. Civilization left one of the most prestigious cities of Ukraine forever. Now it is a ghost town, where you can only mentally imagine a past life.
To feel all the horror that happened here, just look at the photo of the amusement park known to many. In one photo you will see a magnificent Ferris wheel, cars to ride on them and ram each other, and in the second photo it all appears in a rusty state, and you understand that no one will have fun there, eat ice cream, laugh.
It is possible to compare Chernobyl before and after indefinitely, but one thing is clear for sure: Chernobyl changed forever after the accident. It will never be the same again.
The consequences of Chernobyl even now make us talk about Pripyat with reverent horror, because some things are beyond our control. The consequences after Chernobyl are clearly visible in the photo of eyewitnesses.
When the familiar world collapsed. Chernobyl after the explosion.
When the explosion occurred on April 26, 1986, events began to develop at breakneck speed. The given rhythm was especially difficult for ordinary residents of a small town, where they were used to a civilized, but at the same time measured and stable life. Already an hour after the fatal explosion thundered, the radiation situation in it turned out to be obvious.
However, proper measures to ensure the safety of residents were not taken immediately. No measures could be taken due to the fact that people simply had no idea what to do, how to act in this non-standard situation. According to the instructions and orders that have existed for thirty years, this problem had to be solved by the authorities, who did not react to what happened in time.
Most of all, it is outrageous that by the time the Government Commission arrived at the scene, the residents could already have been evacuated, and even on foot, but this was not done, perhaps because they did not think that the tragedy was so serious and dangerous. Also, most likely, no one dared to take on such responsibility.
For example, as a comparison, when a similar accident (although immeasurably smaller) occurred in Sweden, people were first evacuated there, and only then they began to find out at which station the radiation had been released.
But in Chernobyl everything was different. Chernobyl before and after the accident represents two different worlds that will never draw a parallel between themselves, will never become like what they were. We feel the consequences after the accident even in our time, since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant dealt a very severe blow to the environment, the economy and the fate of people.
Pripyat on the morning after the accident
On the morning of April 26 in Chernobyl, all the roads were flooded with water and something white, similar to mortar. Everything was white, all the roadsides, it seemed that a strange Apocalypse had begun. A huge number of policemen appeared in the city. But, no matter how strange and paradoxical it may sound, they did nothing, just settled in the city and practically went about their business.
People did not yet understand the impending danger. Residents were walking, small children were playing, it was a beautiful day, there was a strong heat, people hurried to the beach, to rest, to go fishing. People rested on the river, near the cooling pond, which was an artificial reservoir near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. That is, at that time there was no impending danger, or rather, the danger was very obvious, but the local population could not yet realize this. Chernobyl after the explosion looked almost the same as before the explosion, if only because no one expected trouble. In other words, the trouble came unexpectedly and was not yet obvious.
Involuntarily, a question is asked about the irresponsibility that was allowed by the authorities during the first day after Chernobyl. After all, then they didn’t say anything about the evacuation, they allowed the children to walk freely along the streets of Pripyat.
Schoolchildren of that time did not suspect anything and ran during breaks. Surely even then it was impossible to save them, to forbid them to be on the streets of an already infected city. It is unlikely that anyone would condemn the authorities for such a desire for reinsurance. The consequences of the explosion in Chernobyl turned out to be much more complicated and worse than it could have been expected then.
Pripyat after Chernobyl. Start of evacuation
After Chernobyl, the evacuation in Pripyat began on the evening of April 27, or rather, it was not exactly an evacuation, but the first talk about it. In previous articles, we talked about how the evacuation happened quickly. This is true, because everything that could be done in that situation has already been done. The bottom line is that everything could be done much faster.
At one in the morning from April 26 to 27, an order was received to prepare the documents necessary for departure within two hours. Also on April 27, a directive was published that read: “Evacuation is announced in connection with. You need to have all the necessary documents, essentials and, if possible, a supply of food for three days with you. The start of the evacuation is scheduled for two o'clock in the afternoon."
The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster already then put powerful pressure on people, forcing them to leave their usual places. Just imagine a long line of people and thousands of buses that took the local population out of the radiation zone. Old people, children, adults, newborn babies, teenagers. All these people with the essentials left the past life, not yet fully understanding that they would never return to their former life.
Columns of buses drove towards the village of Polesskoye in the Ivanovsky district, which was adjacent to Chernobyl. And they never returned. This is how Pripyat turned from a flourishing capital of nuclear energy into a ghost town that will never be inhabited again.
The evacuation of people from Pripyat was carried out clearly and as quickly as possible. Almost everyone who evacuated showed restraint, people already consciously understood that their own safety and future depended on them.
Some people decided to leave the city themselves, along the road that led through the “Red Forest” located near Chernobyl. Witnesses claimed that then men and women with children were moving along the road, which literally glowed from radiation. Be that as it may, the mechanism for making important decisions regarding the salvation of people, the preservation of their health, did not stand the test and exposed them to unnecessary risk.
Timeline of events from start to finish
The consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as mentioned above, we see now. But how did it all start? How did construction begin, how did everything look initially? Let's look at some of the chronological events that led to the tragedy that has become infamous throughout the world. We may not be able to tell you all the dates in detail, however, we will reveal the most important points.
1967 January
The board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR recommended a place to place one of the nuclear power plants with a reactor in the village of Kopachi, Kyiv region. This site was chosen after a study was conducted at sixteen locations including Kyiv, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions. Located on lands with low productivity on the right bank of the Pripyat River, 12 kilometers from the city of Chernobyl, this territory met all the requirements regarding water supply, transport and a sanitary protection zone.
February 1967
1969 June
RBMK-100 reactors were used at nuclear power plants. This happened on the basis of the Ural developments of the Teploenergoproekt Institute with further design by the Hydroproject Institute.
February 1970
It is believed that at that time the construction of the city of Pripyat, the future capital of the atomic world, began. It is characterized by the fact that the first peg was hammered in, the first clod of earth was taken out with a special bucket. The first dormitory, the building of the construction department, the first dining room were also laid, and the construction of the Lesnoy settlement was also started.
1970 May
We set about marking the pit for the first power unit for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Already in June 1971, the first multi-storey building was commissioned, soon water, electricity and gas will be supplied there. In July of the same year, the construction of the Chernobyl substation was completed.
1972 April
The birthday of the city of Pripyat is celebrated. On the same day, thanks to the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, a name was given, which was chosen in honor of the beautiful river, near which the city is located - Pripyat. A little later, namely on April 24, 1972, by the decision of the executive committee of the Kyiv Regional Council of Deputies, Pripyat, Chernobyl region, was assigned to an urban-type settlement.
1972 August
At eleven o'clock in the morning, the first cubic meter of concrete was solemnly placed in the base of the deaerator shelf of the main building of the first stage of the station. At the same time, a stainless steel capsule was laid, where they put a letter to future generations. The consequences of the Chernobyl accident can tell more eloquently about what happened, and if our descendants find this letter, they will be very surprised at the discrepancy between the events that took place then and that are happening now.
1976 October
They began to fill the cooling pond, and in the same year, in order to carry out adjustments, as well as to ensure the repair of the power equipment of the turbine hall at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the organization of the production site of the enterprise called "Lvovenergoremont" was carried out.
1977 May
A team of assemblers, builders, adjusters started start-up and adjustment works at the first power unit.
Further, after all this, the active development of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began, which gradually led to a disaster, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has consequences until this time, since even for three decades, the environmental problem has not subsided.
One way or another, we still remember the fact that a global tragedy once occurred in Pripyat. For example, already in the twenty-first century, in the 2000s, various actions were carried out in order to save the city of Pripyat. There were also events dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy. In addition, every year in modern schools, demonstrations are held, at which children are taught how to quickly and methodically evacuate from the city, if suddenly, the disaster repeats.
Chernobyl before and after the accident, 2010
In 2010, the consequences of the Chernobyl accident began to be eliminated as part of a new stage to ensure the radiation safety of the population. For this, the following actions were taken at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:
- support in a safe condition stopped power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant;
- ensuring safety in terms of nuclear and radiation plan;
- termination of operation of power units at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant;
- preparation for a complete shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant;
- ensuring the security of the Shelter object;
- implementation of plans for the implementation of measures at the Shelter facility under construction.
The consequences of the accident at Chernobyl have been eliminated and continue to be eliminated for many years, but even now it is impossible to say how soon this will be done completely: the consequences of the Chernobyl accident were too serious.
Chernobyl before and after through the eyes of random people
If you want to learn even more about the Chernobyl accident and go to study third-party sites, do not rush to believe everything that is written there, because traditionally, in order to attract more attention, it is customary to exaggerate a little on the Web. Therefore, if you, for example, come across information that will convince you that the number of victims in the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant reaches a thousandth figure, that they say two-headed bunnies run along the roads, Pripyat, and mutant people attacking lonely people lurk in abandoned buildings people who somehow wandered there - do not believe it.
In fact, in life, everything is much less prosaic. , no matter how the films try to convince us, there is no such thing as none of the people who were exposed to radiation sickness, did not grow up to five meters, did not receive supernatural powers, did not become super-heroes, as we used to think. Moreover, mutation is also impossible for plants and animals, except that the trees became very tall, which were very close to the accident site.
If you are interested in a direct picture of all the consequences, you need to go to Pripyat to see everything with your own eyes, or ask search engines with questions. You can simply enter into Google or Yandex “the consequences of Chernobyl, photos, people”, and then you can definitely decide whether the people in the photo have become mutants or not. Although, of course, it is not so difficult to add a second head or tail to someone using Photoshop.
Chernobyl before and after. Data
If mutations in Chernobyl are mostly fiction, then, unfortunately, radiation sickness has done its dirty deed. Many people were exposed to radiation sickness, which claimed their lives, and continues to do so even now. The consequences of the Chernobyl accident continue to strike at the entire world ecology and human health, not to mention the fact that those firefighters who came to put out the fire died almost all: out of twenty people, only six remained unharmed. Therefore, there were enough problems even without mutation. No horror films, documentaries, books or articles can do justice to the horror that happened back then in 1986.
Of course, some of the photos depicting Chernobyl before and after the accident are genuine. They clearly show the life of Chernobyl before and after, show that sometimes it can happen that a flourishing and successful city in a matter of seconds can turn into a ghost that will never hear the steps of its inhabitants on its roads.
To date, the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the largest in the world of those that have ever occurred in the field of nuclear energy. It is probably enough just to find out that it is considered even larger than the infamous tragedy in when atomic bombs were dropped on peaceful cities. And although there were disproportionately more victims at that moment, the consequences were still eliminated to a greater extent, but the consequences of Chernobyl cannot be eliminated so easily. People already live in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but in Pripyat it will be possible to live only in 20 thousand years.
Looking at Chernobyl before and after the tragedy, one is surprised that such things can happen at all, but still they are. Only a few seconds changed the lives of thousands of people irrevocably. The worst thing is that this can happen at any moment: there are too many nuclear power plants in the country, neighboring states and the world, and no one knows when any of them will fail fatally.
The well-known international journalist Gerd Ludwig has been filming the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster for many years. In 1986, a series of errors at a nuclear power plant led to an explosion that forced about a quarter of a million people to leave their homes forever to escape radiation and fallout.
Ludwig, on assignment from National Geographic Magazine, traveled to the site and surrounding regions several times in 1993, 2005 and 2011 and documented how people and places were irreversibly changed as a result of the tragedy.
In 2011, his trip was partially funded by Kickstarter. Ludwig has now released an iPad app with over 150 photos, videos and interactive panoramas. Below is a small selection of the photographer's work over the years of the ongoing tragedy.
1. On April 26, 1986, the operators of this engine room of reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, during a scheduled repair, made a series of fatal mistakes that led to the destruction of the reactor and to the most serious accident in the history of world nuclear energy. Today, the turbine hall of the fourth power unit is still abandoned, there is still a very high level of radiation here.
2. Workers in respirators and plastic protective suits stopped for a short rest. They are drilling holes to install additional piles inside the sarcophagus. This is a dangerous job: the radiation levels here are so high that they have to constantly monitor the readings of Geiger counters and dosimeters, and the allowed hours of work here are limited to 15 minutes a day.
3. For many years, desperate attempts were made to strengthen the roof of the Shelter and prevent it from collapsing. Inside the sarcophagus, dimly lit tunnels lead to gloomy chambers littered with wires, broken pieces of metal, and other debris. Due to the collapse of the walls, everything around is covered with radioactive dust. The work to stabilize the sarcophagus has been completed, and today the radioactive insides of the reactor are waiting to be dismantled.
4. Previously, in order to get to the area below the molten core of the reactor, workers were forced to climb dangerous stairs, although the extremely high level of radiation allows them to stay in this area for only a few minutes. In order to speed up the descent, a gentle corridor was built, the so-called inclined staircase.
5. Workers who build a new Shelter, costing about $2.2. billion, receive dangerous doses of radiation, being close to the sarcophagus. The new structure in the form of an arch weighing 29,000 tons, 105 meters high and 257 meters wide will cover the existing sarcophagus and allow the dismantling of the outdated shelter. To create the most solid foundation for the new structure, 396 huge metal pipes will be driven into the ground to a depth of 25 m.
6. From the rooftop of the Polesye Hotel in the center of Pripyat, you can see the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Previously, 50,000 people lived in Pripyat, now it is a ghost town, gradually overgrown with weeds.
7. Pripyat is located less than three kilometers from the reactor. The city was built in the 1970s. for nuclear scientists and employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Once the population of Pripyat was almost 50,000 people, life was in full swing here. The authorities did not immediately inform the population about the accident, the evacuation began only 36 hours after the explosion.
Abandoned school in Pripyat. Ukraine, 2005. Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
8. When the authorities of the Soviet Union eventually announced the evacuation, many simply did not have time to pack up. The Soviet Union officially announced the disaster only three days after the explosion, when a radioactive cloud reached Sweden and Swedish scientists in the laboratory found radioactive contamination on their shoes.
9. Nineteen years after the disaster, empty schools and kindergartens in Pripyat - once the largest exclusion zone city of 50,000 - remain a silent reminder of the tragic events. Part of the abandoned school building has since collapsed.
10. On the day of the disaster, unsuspecting children played quietly in a kindergarten in Pripyat, a satellite city of the nuclear power plant. The next day they were evacuated. They had to leave everything, even their favorite dolls and toys.
11. Wind walks in an abandoned city. On April 26, 1986, the amusement park was preparing for the May Day holidays. At this time, less than three kilometers away, the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.
12. When the reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded on April 26, 1986, this amusement park in Pripyat with a race track and a Ferris wheel was preparing for the May 1 celebration. Since then, 25 years have passed, and the dilapidated park has become a symbol of an abandoned city. Now it is one of the attractions for tourists who have flooded Pripyat recently.
13. In 2011, the government of Ukraine officially allowed tourist trips to the exclusion zone. In the photo: tourists wander through the corridors littered with garbage and empty classrooms of one of the schools in Pripyat. The dining room floor is littered with hundreds of discarded gas masks. One of the tourists brought his own - not for protection from radiation, but for the sake of a funny photo.
14. The nuclear disaster led to radioactive contamination of tens of thousands of square kilometers. 150,000 people within a radius of 30 km were forced to flee their homes in a hurry. Now almost all wooden huts in the villages that have fallen into the exclusion zone are abandoned, and nature is gradually taking over these remnants of civilization.
15. Haritina Decha, 92, is one of several hundred elderly people who have returned to their villages in the exclusion zone. It is important for her to die on her own land, even if it is abandoned and forgotten by everyone.
16. In the sink are tomatoes from their garden of an elderly couple Ivan Martynenko (he is 77) and Gapa Semenenko (she is 82). They are both deaf. After the evacuation, among several hundred elderly people, they returned to their home. These people live mainly on what they can grow on polluted soil.
17. Oleg Shapiro (54) and Dima Bogdanovich (13) are being treated for thyroid cancer at a Minsk hospital. Here such operations are performed daily.
Oleg is a liquidator of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, he received a very large dose of radiation. This is his third operation.
Dima's mother is sure that her son got cancer due to radioactive fallout, but his doctors take a more cautious point of view. Officials are often instructed to play down the dangers of radiation.
18. Sixteen-year-old Dima Pyko is being treated for lymphoma at the Children's Cancer Center (Center of Oncology and Hematology) near Minsk in the village. Forest. The center was built with serious financial support from Austria after the number of children's oncology diseases sharply increased in those regions of Belarus where a lot of radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl disaster
19. Five-year-old Igor was born with serious mental and physical defects. His parents abandoned him, and now he, along with another 150 disabled children, lives in a specialized orphanage.
This is just one of such institutions in southern Belarus, which is supported by the international charitable organization "Children of Chernobyl". It was created by Hedi Rocher in 1991 to help children victims of the worst nuclear disaster in the world.
20. Veronica Chechet is only five years old. She suffers from leukemia and is being treated at the Radiation Medicine Center in Kyiv. Her mother, Elena Medvedeva (29 years old), was born four years before the Chernobyl disaster near Chernigov - after the explosion, a lot of radioactive fallout fell on the city. According to doctors, the diseases of many patients are directly related to the release of radiation as a result of the accident.
21. A mentally retarded boy smells a tulip in one of the orphanages in Belarus.
It is believed that in regions where radioactive fallout has fallen, more children are born with various malformations and mental disabilities. This belief is shared by many - but not all - in the scientific community. International charitable organizations established after the disaster continue to help families in need of support and orphanages where children affected by radioactive fallout live.
22. Every year on the anniversary of the accident - April 26 - a nightly memorial service is held at the Monument to the firefighters in memory of all those who died as a result of this disaster. Two people died directly during the explosion, another 28 firefighters and nuclear power plant employees - shortly after the disaster, having received a lethal dose of radiation. Since then, many thousands more have died from cancer and social upheaval due to mass evacuations.
Translation from English by Olga Antonova
In August 2017, one of my favorite photographers named Sean Gallup visited the Chernobyl zone, who brought many unique photographs from the ChEZ, including those taken from a quadrocopter. I myself was in Chernobyl this summer and filmed the Chernobyl zone from a drone, which I talked about in a photo essay about, but in general I shot in other places than Sean.
And in this post you will read about one interesting project related to the dogs of Chernobyl - which, according to scientists, about 900 individuals live there. Go under the cut, it's interesting there)
02. The central part of the city of Pripyat, in the foreground you can see a two-story department store building, which also (on the right) housed a restaurant. Perhaps the most famous residential buildings of Pripyat are visible in the background - two sixteen-story buildings, one with the coat of arms of the Ukrainian SSR, the second with the coat of arms of the USSR. I talked about what is happening now inside one of these sixteen-story buildings.
03. The roof of a sixteen-story building. Pay attention to the relatively good condition of the roofing.
04. Another photograph of the central part of Pripyat, it clearly shows how the city is overgrown - the buildings are practically invisible due to the forest (with tiers and ecosystem) that has already fully formed on the territory of the city. On the balconies of Pripyat apartments, swallows are very fond of nesting, and I once found one nest directly.
05. The roof of the "Energetik" cultural center, which at one time was a very futuristic building - huge windows with aluminum frames, a bright foyer trimmed with tuff that was fashionable at that time, full-wall socialist realist frescoes. The frames from all the windows have long been removed and taken away "for non-ferrous metal", the building is gradually falling into disrepair.
06. Photo "Energetika", taken from the lobby of the hotel "Polesie", which is also located on the central square of the city. Photographers love this foyer because of the huge wall-to-ceiling panoramic windows.
07. Ferris wheel in the amusement park in Pripyat. Another "Chernobyl myth" and a journalistic cliché is associated with this wheel, which I did not mention in the post about - supposedly this wheel was never turned on, since its launch was scheduled for May 1, 1986, and on April 27 the whole city was evacuated. This is not entirely true - on May 1, the official opening of the entire amusement park was planned, but the wheel was built a relatively long time ago and repeatedly made "test runs", rolling everyone - this can also be seen in pre-accident photographs from Pripyat.
08. And these are the famous cooling towers of the Third stage, which are located right on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The "third stage" refers to two unfinished power units of the station, which were supposed to be put into operation in the late 1980s, after which the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was supposed to become the largest nuclear power plant in the USSR.
09. Close-up of the unfinished cooling tower of Unit 5. Why was such a design necessary? First you need to say a few words about the design of a nuclear power plant - the reactor can be imagined as a huge boiler that heats water and produces steam that rotates generator turbines. After passing through the turbine hall with steam generators, the water needs to be cooled somehow - while there were only 4 power units at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an artificial reservoir - the so-called cooling pond - successfully coped with this. For the Fifth and Sixth power units, the pond would no longer be enough, and therefore cooling towers were planned.
The cooling tower is something like a hollow concrete pipe in the shape of a truncated cone with sloping sides. Hot water enters under this "pipe", after which it begins to evaporate. Condensation forms on the walls of the cooling tower, which falls down in the form of drops - before the drops reach the surface of the water, they have time to cool - that's why the cooling towers are built so high.
10. A very good photograph with the cooling towers and the new Fourth Block sarcophagus in the background. Pay attention to what a huge territory the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occupies - power transmission towers in a haze near the horizon line also belong to the station.
11. Photographed Sean and dogs, which are found in large numbers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Pripyat and the surrounding area. They say that these dogs are direct descendants of domestic animals left by the inhabitants of Pripyat in April 1986.
12. Chernobyl dogs right next to the Fourth power unit:
14. The uncle aims at the dog from the pneumatic tube. Do not be alarmed, this is not a dog hunter at all - this is a scientist and a participant in the "Dogs of Chernobyl" program, he shoots a dog with a special sedative.
15. This is what a syringe with a tranquilizer looks like, which is shot at a dog. What is it for? Firstly, in this way, the participants of the "Chernbyl Dogs" program help sick and wounded animals - they are examined by a verinar and, if necessary, perform various operations.
16. Secondly, scientists are studying the effects of radiation on dogs and on living tissues. Sleeping dogs are placed under devices that very accurately record the radiation contamination of tissues, as well as produce a spectral analysis of this contamination - thanks to this, it is possible to determine which radioactive elements are involved in the contamination of certain tissues.
17. Does radiation affect the life of dogs? Yes and no. On the one hand, cesium and strontium do accumulate in the body of a dog, but over a short period of its life (no more than 7-10 years in the wild) they simply do not have time to do anything.
18. So, in general, dogs in Chernobyl live pretty well)
Well, the traditional question - would you go on an excursion to the Chernobyl zone? If not, why not?
Tell me it's interesting.
Pripyat is a small town of power engineers in the Kyiv region, near which there was a large nuclear power plant, which got its name from the district center of the same name located not far from it. So many people remember Chernobyl before the accident. And after the accident, this name is already associated with only one of the worst man-made disasters of its time. The word itself seems to bear the imprint of human tragedy and mystery at the same time. It scares and attracts. For many years to come, Chernobyl will remain the object of increased attention of the whole world.
A bit of history
The small town of Chernobyl has been known since 1193. The mention of it is found in the annalistic list of large and small Russian cities of the XIV century. From the middle of the next century, it was already under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Not far from it, a hard-to-reach fortress was built, surrounded by a deep moat, which can still be seen today. In the 16th century, this town became a county center that made itself felt in Europe, engulfed in wars after the outbreak of the 1789 revolution in France thanks to “Rosalia from Chernobyl”, as Rozalia Khodkevich (later Lubomirskaya) was called. She was one of the active participants in those distant historical events, sharing the sad fate of supporters of the Bourbon royal family and Marie Antoinette.
In 1793 the city became part of the Russian Empire. It was populated by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. For quite a long period, Chernobyl was the center of Hasidism, a religious trend in Judaism.
Such a little-known town in general was Chernobyl before the accident. And after the accident, the attention of the whole world suddenly turns to him, and his very name is increasingly used in a nominally sinister meaning, generally associated with the words "trouble" and "catastrophe".
Before the accident
In the 70s of the last century, a kind of boom in the development of nuclear energy was observed around the world. In those years, many nuclear power plants were laid down in many countries, one of which was built near the confluence of the Pripyat River with the Dnieper. The launch of the first power unit at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant took place in 1975. By the spring of 1986, four power units were already operating at the station.
In the immediate vicinity were small towns with shift workers and attendants - Chernobyl and Pripyat. The latter was designed on the principle of satellite cities of nuclear power plants. To ensure the employment of family members of power engineers, it provided for the construction of a number of industrial enterprises. A lot of attention was also paid to the infrastructure of the city, since the average age of the population of the Polissya atomograd was 26 years.
Pripyat in those days was one of the most prestigious Ukrainian cities. Its convenient transport interchanges, spacious wide streets, the distribution of residential areas and amusement parks attracted residents from the surrounding villages and cities, including Chernobyl.
Until now, many people do not quite understand that the modest regional center of Chernobyl in the years preceding the accident had little connection with the nuclear power plant. The rapidly developing young city of Pripyat, located three kilometers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, was a peculiar capital of power engineers. The accident in Chernobyl is associated with it, but it got its name from the name of the district center of the same name, located southeast of the station at a distance of 18 kilometers. Pripyat was founded in 1970 only thanks to the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Chernobyl itself was a small town with a population not exceeding 13 thousand people. Today, about 5 thousand people live in the entire exclusion zone, of which about 4 thousand live in the Chernobyl regional center.
Accident
The events of the year divided the history of the city into two periods: Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident.
At power unit No. 4, during the design test of one of the turbogenerators, an explosion occurred that completely destroyed the reactor. There were more than 30 fires, the liquidation of which at first was started only with the help of helicopters due to the severe radiation situation. In the first post-accident hours, it was possible to stop the neighboring third power unit, turn off the equipment of the fourth power unit, and check the condition of the emergency reactor.
As a result of the disaster, about 400 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the environment. It was a new type of disaster that went down in history under a word that acquired an ominous meaning - "Chernobyl". The accident in 1986 at the most powerful nuclear power plant in the USSR put humanity in the face of an intangible, invisible enemy - radioactive contamination.
Causes of the accident
The accident at Chernobyl was one of the biggest disasters in the history of nuclear energy. Many people died and were injured in the first three months. The following years after the disaster also made themselves felt by the long-term effects of radiation. The cloud formed from the burning reactor carried a considerable amount of radioactive materials to nearby territories in the Soviet Union and large parts of Europe.
The socio-political significance of the Chernobyl accident for the USSR could not but affect the course of the investigation of its causes. The interpretation of the facts and circumstances of the accident has been repeatedly modified. To date, no consensus has been reached.
Among the causes of the accident are errors in the design of the nuclear power plant, a number of design flaws in the RBMK-1000 reactor, unprofessional actions of the shift personnel, due to which an uncontrolled chain reaction ending in a thermal explosion occurred in the reactor.
Among the reasons were also called the lack of a training and methodological center for effective training, equipment failures that remained without investigation in the period from 1980 to 1986. Among the various hypotheses was a narrowly directed earthquake with a magnitude of up to 4 points.
From the side of officials and medicine there was only a big lie, the responsibility for the accident was shifted only to the operators and their mistakes, they refused to see the causes of radiation exposure in the diseases of the victims. There were constant attempts to minimize the scale of the disaster.
alienation land
The zone in Chernobyl is the land of exclusion. This was due to significant areas that are in close proximity to the nuclear power plant. This area was divided into three zones under control: the nuclear plant itself, the so-called special zone, ten-kilometer and thirty-kilometer zones.
At their borders, strict dosimetric control of vehicles is carried out, decontamination points are deployed.
Law enforcement agencies work in Chernobyl to protect the territory of the zones and control illegal entry of unauthorized persons into their territory. The main enterprises, utilities and other structures that carry out work to maintain the expropriated land in an environmentally safe state are based here.
Second Life
A little-known town with unremarkable gray two-story buildings and clean green streets - such was Chernobyl before the accident, and after the accident it instantly becomes known to the whole world, a town forever frozen in the time of the Soviet Union.
It attracts post-apocalyptic lovers from all over the world. Chernobyl and Pripyat, once confidently walking into a bright future, are now in the exclusion zone and are included in the visiting program as part of official excursions. This land gained particular popularity in 2007 after the release of the computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
According to Forbes magazine in 2009, the Chernobyl zone was included in the list of 12 tourist destinations recognized as the most exotic.
In places, the level of radiation in the zone exceeds the permissible minimum by 30 times, but this does not stop those who want to see with their own eyes the most grandiose monument to a man-made disaster. Chernobyl has been visited by 40,000 tourists over the past ten years. Every year, a considerable number of stalkers are detained, illegally entering the place of the local "apocalypse", a place where a person will never be able to live. However, the tourist flow creates its own supply and demand, which seems to allow the city to find a second life.
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