No need to explain this site it speaks for itself.Visited with Andy x.We met our contact in the centre of Kiev and after a two hour taxi drive we were at the 30km exclusion zone.





After a brief chat with military security who checked our passes we were off no shorts no t shirts 40 degrees......our guide had written a book on the disaster ive enclosed a few pages and txt .The txt is in Russian which has been translated to pigeon English so ive left it as it reads, some history and the photos thanks for looking OLDSKOOL...





Medical staff of Chernobyl fulfilled their duties under extreme conditions. In an hour of time after the accident they began to deliver those who suffered from burns and radiation , doctors and nurses game them emergency first aid. They accompanied irradiated fireman and plant staff members on the way to Kiev clinics and to the airport . Many of the medical staff have got big doses of irradiation. Medical staff was also among first thirty victims of the accident. Even today the main nucleous of the exclusion zone special hospital personal
Is composed of those Chernobyl and pripyat specialists ,

Txt taken from the book CHORNOBYLINTERINFORM



Pripyat is still alive. Former city residents are trying to believe in it. A lot have lived through experiences are connected with this native place. It is difficult even to assume that it had completed forever its sad farewell song to the life, which was turbulent here only 20 years ago like water in mineral spring .Even dolls in the kindergartens are waiting for children’s hands.

Txt taken from the book CHORNOBYLINTERINFORM



The pine trees which became red due to the impact of radiation. Dry roots do not grasp the soil but the soil holds them. This dying tree resembles very much the Polishuks (residents of polissya region ) the life balance has been broken . Its sons and daughters are passing into non existence. It is already 20 years that the road of the trials is bringing them back to the native roots. In the meanwhile this is the only right after 1986 which have the former owners . Dying at their own homes these people are as if denying by their small individual death the death of the kin and the people which is unnatural .That is why more and more new crosses appear, which are decorated with embroidered towels showing the eternal symbols of life..

Txt taken from the book CHORNOBYLINTERINFORM

History

It is estimated that all of the xenon gas, about half of the iodine and caesium, and at least 5% of the remaining radioactive material in the Chernobyl 4 reactor core (which had 192 tonnes of fuel) was released in the accident. Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe.

The casualties included firefighters who attended the initial fires on the roof of the turbine building. All these were put out in a few hours, but radiation doses on the first day were estimated to range up to 20,000 millisieverts (mSv), causing 28 deaths – six of which were firemen – by the end of July 1986.

The next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining three reactors could be restarted, and the damaged reactor shielded more permanently. About 200,000 people ('liquidators') from all over the Soviet Union were involved in the recovery and clean-up during 1986 and 1987. They received high doses of radiation, averaging around 100 millisieverts. Some 20,000 of them received about 250 mSv and a few received 500 mSv. Later, the number of liquidators swelled to over 600,000 but most of these received only low radiation doses. The highest doses were received by about 1000 emergency workers and on-site personnel during the first day of the accident.

Initial radiation exposure in contaminated areas was due to short-lived iodine-131; later caesium-137 was the main hazard. (Both are fission products dispersed from the reactor core, with half lives of eight days and 30 years, respectively. 1.8 Ebq of I-131 and 0.085 Ebq of Cs-137 were released.) About five million people lived in areas contaminated (above 37 kBq/m2 Cs-137) and about 400,000 lived in more contaminated areas of strict control by authorities (above 555 kBq/m2 Cs-137).

On 2-3 May, some 45,000 residents were evacuated from within a 10 km radius of the plant, notably from the plant operators' town of Pripyat. On 4 May, all those living within a 30 kilometre radius – a further 116,000 people from the more contaminated area – were evacuated and later relocated. About 1000 of these have since returned unofficially to live within the contaminated zone. Most of those evacuated received radiation doses of less than 50 mSv, although a few received 100 mSv or more.

Reliable information about the accident and resulting contamination was not available to affected people for about two years following the accident. This led to distrust and confusion about health effects.

In the years following the accident, a further 210,000 people were resettled into less contaminated areas, and the initial 30 km radius exclusion zone (2800 km2) was modified and extended to cover 4300 square kilometres. This resettlement was due to application of a criterion of 350 mSv projected lifetime radiation dose, though in fact radiation in most of the affected area (apart from half a square kilometre) fell rapidly so that average doses were less than 50% above normal background of 2.5 mSv/yr.



Reactor 4 embedded in concrete and steel due to be recovered in 2013



Pripyat today overgrown and decaying ..

Amusement park...this report contains HDR images







Kindergarten 1











Monument outside the kindergarten in memory of those that died in the disaster

thanks for looking OLDSKOOL part two to follow.........


if you have been or plan on going have a look at this short film

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl