Chilling pictures of the nuclear ghost town located in the Chernobyl ‘exclusion zone’
In April 1986, a terrible accident took place at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The event took place during a systems test at reactor number 4; there was a sudden and unexpected power surge, and an emergency shutdown procedure rapidly led to a much larger spike in power output, which caused a reactor vessel rupture. A series of steam explosions exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. A plume of highly radioactive fallout spread over the western Soviet Union and Europe. Thirty-one people died during the accident.
Within a year 135,000 people were evacuated, and the city of Pripyat, which had had a population of about 50,000, was rendered almost entirely empty. Wikipedia gives its current population as less than 200. Photographer Guy Corbishley documented the eerie wasteland created by the accident and evacuation. He is responsible for all of the pictures on this page.
The USSR military established the Exclusion Zone very soon after the accident. It stretches 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) in all directions from the power plant. It is 100% free of human life except for roughly 300 stubborn individuals who have refused to leave.
Fascinatingly, the local wildlife is apparently thriving in the exclusion zone, which has prompted scientists to rethink their understanding of the effects of nuclear radiation. The absence of human competition or disruption has allowed other species to assert themselves again.
The Exclusion Zone has purportedly become more popular as a region for “extreme” tourism.
via The Guardian