chernobyl-25-years-later

[Tragedy]

I cam across these pics online and was totally facinated by them so i wanted to share them.

first the history...

25 Years ago Chernobyl was headline news. On April 26th 1986 at 1:23 A.M. reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, near the town of Pripyat, ruptured a vessel during several extreme power spikes. Several explosions followed and these caused the graphite moderator components of the reactor to be exposed to air, setting them on fire. The fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. It drifted over large parts of the Soviet Union and Western Europe.

50 People died as a direct result of the disaster and it is thought up to 4000 people have died as a result of being exposed to the radioactive materials which entered the atmosphere. Over 350.000 were evacuated from contaminated areas around Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. In 2011, 25 years later, the area surrounding Chernobyl still looks like a ghost town.

Fan of TotallyCoolPix David Schindler went to Chernobyl and took these amazing photos which will take you right back into time to 1986.

i wanted to link the pics into this post.. but they disabled right clicking on the site i am looking at so here is the url some pretty neat photos most are rather gloomy just the sorta thing im into =] the picture of the gasmasks is very ominous to the history of it. gave me chills the school reminds me of silent hill for some reason..

http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/01/chernobyl-25-years-later/

[evo-lution ßÄЯ]

that is creepy!

what is weird is how many games are based off this or have it in it suck as COD 4: Modern Warfare. its creepy to see the real location the pool and farris wheel especially because of the game but its sad to see this kind of damage done to a town and to the world as a whole but im sure in a thousan score years it will be back to normal again

[Tragedy]

very gloomy pic set shit like this facinates me anything creepy where horrible events happend.

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

Yeah, what a tragic disaster.

[Ford 1st MRB]

Is it sad that I remember this happening?

I don't remember it vividly, but I was 7 and remember it being on the TV everyday and my parents talking about it. It is sad what happened but amazing that it didn't kill more than it actually did.

I'm also fascinated by this sort of thing, not disasters mind you, but how such tragedies can never really be overcome. Pictures of Pompeii excavations where they found people in their houses, frozen in time. Stuff like that is interesting to me. The Terracotta Soldiers of Emperor Qin are another one that to me is just mind blowing. 7,000 life-sized soldiers, all with different faces, weapons, and armor. 130 chariots with horses, 110 cavalry horses. All buried to protect the emperor in the after life.... Who does that? They have been digging there since 1975 or something and still have not uncovered everything in the "City of Death" as it has been named.

[Remedy]

My dad/brothers remember this. They said it was horrible and I guess 2 family members were over there when it happened. Also, isnt there a S.T.A.L.K.E.R game after this or something?

[Zahl 1st MRB]

Whats very interesting is that the halvation time for the substances released from Chernobyl will still be there in thousands of years. The thing about radioactive substances is that it does not land after being ejected into the air.. The only way for it to get to the ground is by rain, still up in our atmosphere we can track the aftermath of Chernobyl. Because of erodation in the ground substances has a shorter halvation time rather than airborne particles..

The extraordinary increase in the number of these illnesses can be associated with the exposure of the population to the aggressive radioactive particles released by the Chernobyl explosion. Four dangerous substances were released, which are not identified as such by our bodies:

- Plutonium is recognized as iron by the body and distributed by the blood system. It causes cancers and blood disorders. It has a half-life of 24.400 years and will be present in a 30 km radius around the Chernobyl site for many centuries to come

- Cesium 137 is mistaken for potassium and in absorbed by the muscles

- Iodine 131 is not recognized as a radioactive substance and is therefore absorbed by the thyroid gland. It causes thyroid cancer, particularly in children between 0 and 18 years old. An operation can save the children, but a scar known as the 'Belarussian Necklace' marks them as Chernobyl victims forever

- Strontium 90 is recognized by the body as calcium and causes leukaemia upon distribution throughout the bone structure

We all know "The forgotten children" from 1990 golf war... but the victims of chernobyl are millions.

There are many estimates concerning the number of victims that suffer from symptoms induced by radiation. Reliable data is still lacking. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that approximately 800.000 people have worked on fire extinguishing, restoring the reactor and cleaning up pollution in the first year after the accident. These people only remained in the area for short periods of time to prevent health problems. Ukrainian government figures show that more than 8.000 Ukrainians have died as a result of exposure to radiation during the first cleanup operation. It is stated that the eventual death toll resulting from the nuclear explosion ranges from 30 to 300.000 and many unofficial sources put the toll over 400.000.

The people that have lived in the Chernobyl area during the accident suffer from various health problems. Immediately following the accident, hundreds of people were diagnosed with radiation sickness. Particularly in Belarus, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of thyroid cancers (2.400%) and leukaemia (100%).

Children of Chernobyl victims suffer from birth defects (250% increase), causing cancer and heart diseases. Approximately 64% of all Ukrainian children under 15 suffering from cancer lived in the most contaminated areas. Genetic defects often result in mutations causing missing limbs (see picture).

Edited January 11, 2011 by Zahl 1st MRB

[Sarsons]

If your wanting those picture for a project or something there is a way to get them. (these instructions are for FireFox users) right click anywhere on the page that is not an image, go to view page info and click on media, you can then save the pictures from the list.

Apparently this particular site, if you right click the image and then hit escape instead of clicking on the ok button it will then bring up the right click menu

[Zahl 1st MRB]

If your wanting those picture for a project or something there is a way to get them. (these instructions are for FireFox users) right click anywhere on the page that is not an image, go to view page info and click on media, you can then save the pictures from the list.

Apparently this particular site, if you right click the image and then hit escape instead of clicking on the ok button it will then bring up the right click menu

I think there is a reason why you can't right click.....

[Park]

There was a mission on Cod4 on chernobly(so nerdy i said that) but it looks exactly alike

[Bennett]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is based in the Zone of Alienation and yea Chernobly and all that....then again im pretty sure there arent bloodsuckers and artifacts to be found....

[Viktor]

Kinda looks like some Fallout 3 scenery. This happened 6 days after I was born.