I feel like I got lost in another world.
Lena, a motorcycle-chick from Kiev, rides through the ghost-town of Chernobyl, and takes pictures every step of the way.
Really – I cannot recommend it enough. I was blown away.
She goes into abandoned houses, abandoned schools – she sees the objects people left behind – obviously fleeing in a panic. Family photos, children’s dolls …
There are wild horses living in the deserted town now. Lena gets an amazing photo of the herd of them galloping by.
Since Chernobyl occurred in 1985, before the fall of Communism, she notes all of the old Communist propaganda on the walls – a room filled with flags, in preparation for the Labor Day in May … a true ghost-town, relics of a past now disappeared.
One thing that blew me away:
On the approach to Chernobyl, to let you know you are close – there is a huge sculpture of an egg. In the middle of the road. Apparently, someone from Germany sent it to the town, or maybe placed it there on their own.
The egg – to symbolize the possibility of new life, new beginnings – in this polluted terrifying environment.
Her photos are phenomenal. Go. Go now and click through.
(via LoboWalk)
So my first question is, did she have a lead lined suit on, ’cause that place is technically still pretty radioactive?
Back in my paralegal days, when I worked for a law firm that specialized in litigating for energy companies that had nuclear reactors, a lot of the nuclear engineers who worked for our firm said they would never go to the U.S.S.R., let alone fly over it, because of the poor state of the nuclear facilities. Needless to say, Chernobyl was not a surprise to them.
The images are compelling, still I don’t know that I would take the risk. Call me chicken!
Leave it to the Germans to send an egg!
She’s obviously a bit on the edge. Walking around with that radioactive counter!
Upsetting.
I know – that damn egg blew me away.
And the pictures of the little Soviet kindergarten … obviously abandoned in a hurry. So strange to see.
Stunning, absolutely stunning.
As for the radiation, notice how she doesn’t go near the power plant. I’m sure you could stay in most areas of the zone for days without a serious risk of harm, it’s when you spend years there that you have problems.
Absolutely stunning
Via Sheila, Exploring the ghost town of Chernobyl. I’ve seen plenty of movies and read a few books where the protagonists explore the cities of a dead civilization, and in my younger days I’ve taken the chance to explore a…
These are haunting images. They seem to contain a profound, but elusive, revelation–views of one possible outcome of the human experiment. It’s not really a look at hell–this is a place even the devil seems to have forgotten. These photos are so stark, bleak, and powerful, it is difficult to imagine what it would be like to actually be there. As for Lena, I understand her fascination with the place, but she must be crazy. I worked for three months cleaning up a plutonium lab. We were required to wear heavy protective suits and an “X-ray Badge” which recorded how much radiation exposure occurred each day. While we were assured of our safety, I quickly tired of the worry. Compared to Chernobyl, that was a day at the park. Thank you, Sheila, for finding and sharing this.
I saw this the other day linked from Slashdot. The photos are very moving but I’m pretty worried about the girl glowing in the dark. There’s a reason there’s no other people around – it’s really not healthy.
It’s perfectly safe to travel to Chernobyl for a day trip now and then so long as you stay out of certain areas. She obviously took all the proper precautions.
That was a rather criminal incident, Chernobyl.
One of the first symptoms of radiation poisoning is a sore throat. In 1989 I got as close to Chernobyl as you were allowed to be at the time and stayed there until I started to feel a scratch in my throat. I still wonder if it was psychosomatic, but I understand her fascination. It’s a monument to what happens when you have no mechanisms for letting someone know that the quality of their work matters to other people, or that it will determine their success in life.
Dean, I don’t believe that the accident was criminal. Well, not in a direct way. The criminal was all of Soviet Engineering that took such a cavalier attitude to safety. The criminals who started that system died long before the accident, but are directly responsible for it. I collected lots of examples from other industries during my time there, but from what I could see, nuclear engineering was not treated any differently in that system from any other engineering discipline, or any other workplace, for that matter. No special rewards for good work, no regular punishment system for screw-ups.
Punishment usually came in the form of purges after a spectacular mishap. For example, the entire Soviet Air Defense Artillery command was decimated after we trashed Iraq’s ADA defenses in Gulf War I. The Lithuanians I was living with at the time saw that as a not so subtle signal that Moscow’s assertion that the Iraqis had old, inferior Soviet equipment was patently false. By then it was too late to correct the incompetence, as it was with Chernobyl.
My wife, who is Ukrainian, was eleven years old and living in Kiev at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. Much of what she remembers are things that I can barely get my American mind to wrap around. She says that the first news she heard of the meltdown was from a family friend in the know who called her family and implored them to stay in doors and to keep the windows shut.
Only after the train stations were filled with thousands trying to flee the city did the government officially admit what had happened. My wifes parents decided it best to send her to relatives in Eastern Ukraine so her father decided to remove her from her school. Just prior, her father, after many years of tying and persistence, had finally been admitted into the Communist Party; a good career move and something difficult for those of higher education as the Party was more open to those of the working class, her father was an aeronautical engineer.
When he went to the school the supervisor refused to let him take his daughter. When he insisted the supervisor threatened to inform the Communist Party leader at his work. He told the supervisor to, go ahead and took his daughter.
My wifes parents took her to the train station and, as they waited, officials ran dosimeters over people as they boarded or disembarked trains to and from various locations. She remembers one woman who was about 7 months pregnant who sent the dosimeter into crazy mode; the woman broke down in tears. My wife was lucky, the only elevated radiation levels that concerned her directly was the bottom of her luggage and her shoes.
After a few months in Eastern Ukraine she then spent several months in Moscow with relatives. Finally she was given the all clear and came home.
During the crises, as a precaution, most people would wash the bottoms of their shoes when they came home. This is something that many, to this day, still do.
Daniel – Wow.
Hard to imagine, definitely. This is such a trivial reference, but when I was a kid – 12 years old or something – I saw The China Syndrome – while I was babysitting. I never would have been allowed to see it if my parents had been around. And I was tormented by nightmares for weeks afterwards, about a nuclear meltdown, about being trapped in a polluted zone – all of that stuff. It is terrifying.
Red – Thank you for posting this incredible journey. Although, I do agree with CW’s comment about worry for the girl who “glows in the dark”. These pictures are going to stay with me a long time. All the best, Terry
Links
I’ve been away from the computer for a few days and the luxury of surfing and checking out other people’s links nearly by-passed me. Nearly. I spotted these links in the last couple of days and want to share them. ‘Cos I can. From Sheila comes this ama…
Dear Sheila:
I can’t help but think how much this whole thing reminds me of the last scenes of “On The Beach”, with the trash blowing in the streets and the banner in the public square that says, “There Is Still Time, Brother!”
The broken English only adds to the humanity and the raw understanding of the piece. Proof that good journalism doesn’t require a degree — only a heart; an eye; and a lot of courage!
Best,
-Will
Holy shit! I made everyone at work come check out the crazy photos. How creepy. So sad.
Very creepy. I know.
After three mile island in Pa. I would drive 100 miles out of my way to avoid going near there. I have all the admiration in the world for the courage of this very brave young lady. I wish I could meet her, and thank her.
The egg thing was quite a fatuous bit of german “gutmensch” nonsense. These photos are astonishing – thanks for clueing me in.
Sheila, FYI I got this note back from all AOL and Compuserve addresses I forwarded this article to;
“The URL contained in your email to AOL members has generated a high volume of complaints. Per our Unsolicited BuCODE=DL0”
Dermot-
Well, it’s their own damn fault for being on AOL. AOL sucks!
Quite a site. Really interesting. But no, everyone, she’s not crazy. Why would you make statements about whether it’s healthy or not when you don’t know? That isn’t a lot of radiation for a visit of a few hours. It’s enough that you shouldn’t live there. The people who DO live there, now they’re amazing. This lady is smart, she has a good radiation detector, knows how to use it, and SHE does know what is and isn’t safe. She tells you all of that on the first page well enough that you can see it for yourself! Those who looked and freaked should look again. I think the most amazing thing is how healthy everything looks, in spite of radiation levels that are high enough that you could not legally work on those roads full time. Also how quickly the area seems to be recovering. Still, I wouldn’t invest in any real estate, it looks like it will be a lifetime or three. There’s another tidbit of interesting information: the undamaged Chernobyl reactor operated until the end of 2000, and people still work there to dismantle it. Daniel- thanks for the interesting first-person account!