This year marks the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which occurred on April 26, 1986. The accident is regarded as the largest of its kind in the history of nuclear energy, both in terms of the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences, and in terms of economic damage. During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died; the long-term effects of exposure, identified over the next 15 years, caused the death of 60 to 80 people. 134 people suffered from radiation sickness of varying severity. More than 115 thousand people from the 30-kilometer zone were evacuated. Significant resources were mobilized to eliminate the consequences, more than 600 thousand people participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident.
As a result of the accident, about 5 million hectares of land were withdrawn from agricultural circulation, a 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created around the nuclear power plant, hundreds of small settlements were destroyed and buried (buried with heavy equipment).
After assessing the scale of radioactive contamination, it became clear that the evacuation of the city of Pripyat would be required, which was carried out on April 27. In the first days after the accident, the population of the 10-kilometer zone was evacuated. In the following days, the population of other settlements of the 30-kilometer zone was evacuated. It was forbidden to take things with them, children's favorite toys, and the like, many were evacuated in home clothes. In order not to fan the panic, it was reported that the evacuees would return home in three days. Pets were not allowed to be taken with them.
Today the city of Pripyat has become a ghost town.
Ferris wheel in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine. This city is located just a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Construction of a new sarcophagus over the exploded fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
City of Pripyat.
This was the Energetik Palace of Culture in the city of Pripyat in 1986, and this is how it became 30 years later.
View of the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from the city of Pripyat.
Built a new sarcophagus over the fourth block.
An employee of the plant for the processing of liquid radioactive waste at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukraine.
Containers at the plant for processing liquid radioactive waste at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
A worker stands near an interim spent fuel storage facility under construction. Ukraine.
People light candles at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died in the aftermath of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukraine.
Abandoned radar system "Duga", which is located inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Ukraine.
A wolf in the forest, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in April 2012.
A house in the abandoned village of Zalesye, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukraine.
A worker from the State Ecological Reserve testing radiation levels on a farm, in Vorotets, Belarus, on April 21, 2011, near the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Ivan Semenyuk, 80, and his wife Marya Kondratovna, near their home, located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, in the village of Parushev, Ukraine.
Ruined house, in the abandoned village of Vezhishche, in the exclusion zone, 30 km around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Carousel in Pripyat.
The interior of the Palace of Culture "Energetik".
Textbooks are scattered on the floor of a music school in the village of Zalisya, located inside the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, September 29, 2015.
The skeleton of a dog inside a 16-storey building in the city of Pripyat.
Moose in a state reserve, inside the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, near the village of Babchin, about 370 km (231 miles) southeast of Minsk, Belarus, March 22, 2011.
Game attractions in Pripyat.
Abandoned cafe. Pripyat.
Remains of a swimming pool. Pripyat.
Instrument panels in the control room of reactor two of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They are almost identical to those that stood in the control room of the fourth reactor, at the time of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. September 29, 2015.
The dosimeter shows about one microroentgen / hour, which is considered the norm, behind the fence of the remains of the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Lynx near Chernobyl, Ukraine, in December 2012.
In the photo: the old sarcophagus of the fourth block (left) and the new sarcophagus, which should replace the old one (right). Pripyat, March 23, 2016.
Installation of a new sarcophagus.
A woman visits her abandoned house during the Radunitsa holiday, during which it is customary to visit the graves of deceased relatives, in the abandoned village of Orevichi, near the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, southeast of Minsk on April 21, 2015. Every year, residents who fled their villages after the Chernobyl accident return to visit the graves of their relatives, as well as to meet former friends and neighbors.
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 House of Culture, 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. This wheel is associated with another "Chernobyl myth" and a journalistic stamp, 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 the dogs that are in in large numbers are found 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.
The sad lesson for humanity - Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident, which affected almost the entire world - is not over yet. A large power plant, located near the Ukrainian town of Pripyat, still attracts the attention of the whole world. But April 26, 1986 is thirty years from today!
What do we see
Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident are two different places. When the fourth power unit exploded, the evacuation of the entire population immediately began, and all the nearest villages and cities, just filled with life, simple joys and sorrows, were deserted forever. It is not known when life will return to these places. Now there are broken windows of empty buildings with everyday items thrown to the mercy of fate.
All roads and sidewalks were overgrown with wild plants, and even the walls of the houses sprout the seeds that fell on them. This is what the apocalypse will look like. But Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident is fundamentally different. Once in Pripyat it was spacious, life was in full swing, schools and kindergartens rang with children's voices, and then they had to run away in a panic, saving the children. And only abandoned children's things and toys remind us that happiness once lived here.
Compared
Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident is a curious subject of study for future generations, so that in the future such a destructive force of man-made disasters will not be repeated. Two years earlier, an even more terrible disaster occurred in India, in Bhopal. These two catastrophes differ from each other in that the Indian one could have been prevented. Life in these territories is also impossible. Tragedies like this shouldn't happen, but they happen almost all the time. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not bring more devastating catastrophe that occurred after the tsunami in the Japanese city of Fukushima in 2011, it was at least the seventh level of the international scale of radiation accidents.
In 2010, an oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, USA), and this man-made disaster had an even more negative impact on the environmental situation in the world. Fewer people died, but many millions of barrels of oil spilled into the bay, the stain reached seventy-five thousand square kilometers, where all life perished. People living on the coast about two thousand kilometers long fell ill in many. Even on the course of the Gulf Stream, this catastrophe did not respond well. It's a shame that April 26, 1986 turned out to be far from the last black day on the calendar of mankind. Unfortunately, people are increasingly in need of financial benefits, for which the nature of the unique planet Earth suffers.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant
When the explosion thundered, poisonous radioactive substances poured into the air, and some areas had a pollution background a thousand times higher than the standard. Chernobyl (the consequences of the accident can be seen not only in photographs, of which there are a great many on the Internet) today can be seen with your own eyes. It is already possible to visit Pripyat with excursions, which in last years are gaining more and more popularity.
See houses that have not been lived in for thirty years, fields that used to bloom and bear fruit, the Pripyat River, where catfish of unprecedented sizes live, since fishing is not allowed. Even wild animals - wolves and foxes, who settled in the forests after the disaster, are not afraid of people. Probably the safest place to live for them in our time is Chernobyl after the accident. Animals take food from the hands of man, even those that under normal conditions are distinguished by distrustful or ferocious disposition.
Story
A picturesque and exceptionally nice corner of central Ukraine with lush fields and pastures, where a peaceful and calm life was in full swing, at one moment turned into a deadly desert. Here, people blessed the black earth that richly gave birth to fruits and vegetables, rejoiced at the harvests, worked hard - in villages and small towns where enterprises existed, and Chernobyl itself gave work to most of the local residents. 30 years after the accident changed literally everything in the history of this region.
In the photo, lively, even festively minded people, couples with children, with baby carriages, all are exceptionally beautifully and elegantly dressed, on their faces there are smiles full of happy peace. In another photo - the same city, the same street, the same park. But this is a city that has become a ghost. Gloom and desolation, the apocalypse in reality. They no longer sell ice cream and rides do not work. Perhaps these changes are permanent. How long is it impossible to live in Chernobyl after the accident? Even the opinions of scientists differ. But some people already live in the exclusion zone, and permanently.
Causes of the accident
The definition of all causes is still a debatable issue. Professionals are divided into two camps, where the views on the cause of the destruction of the installation are the most opposite. Two opinions are considered, in which the entire Chernobyl is explored in the deepest way. The causes of the accident are seen, firstly, from the side of the designers, and secondly, from the side of the operating personnel.
Naturally, both of them accuse each other of insufficient professionalism. In the thirty years that have passed since the disaster, discussions do not stop, and the root causes of such a large-scale accident are still vague. And over the years, versions become more and more sophisticated.
The construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began in 1967, in winter. The lands were chosen for less productivity, but with excellent water supply, transport and with the possibility of creating a protective sanitary zone. In the summer of 1969, reactors were already delivered to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The developers were the institutes "Teploproekt" and "Hydroproject". In the winter of 1970, the construction of a satellite city, the capital of the peaceful atom, Pripyat, begins. In April 1972, the birthday of the new city came, named after the most beautiful river on the banks of which it is located. In 1977, the first power unit was set up and put into operation. Everything collapsed in 1986.
Consequences
The liquidators in Chernobyl are still working, and this activity will never completely end. You do not need to believe the tales of two-headed bunnies that jump along the former sidewalks of Pripyat, as well as information about the thousands of victims of the accident. There are no mutant people in abandoned buildings attacking lone sightseers.
Radiation sickness kills, but cannot in any way cause supernatural abilities - five meters in height or telekinesis. The trees got tall, yes. Because they have a lot of space and sun, no one touches them, and thirty years have already passed. However, the consequences of the disaster are not only severe, they are mostly irreversible.
Nuclear industry
She suffered a crushing blow. In addition to the fact that many weak points of the nuclear energy industry became known, the world community could not find out the specifics. From here the most incredible rumors arose, protest movements arose.
Designing has stopped and the construction of new nuclear power plants has been mothballed until the moment when scientists can clearly explain how the Chernobyl disaster happened and why. This affected not only the USSR, but the whole of Western Europe and America. For sixteen years, not a single nuclear power plant in the world has been built.
Legislation
After the accident, it became impossible to hide the real scale of the disasters and their consequences, since the relevant laws were adopted. Deliberate concealment of the threat and consequences of man-made disasters now provide for criminal liability.
Data and information of an emergency nature - demographic, sanitary-epidemiological, meteorological, environmental - can no longer be a state secret, and also cannot be classified. Only open access can ensure the safety of the population and industrial and other facilities.
Ecology
As a result of the accident, a huge amount of cesium-137, strontium-90, iodine-131, plutonium radioisotopes was released into the atmosphere, and the release continued for several days. All open areas of the city - streets, walls and roofs, roadways - were infected. Therefore, the thirty-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was evacuated and has not been populated to this day. All areas where crops were grown became unusable.
Many dozens of collective farms and state farms, farms far beyond the thirty-kilometer zone are closed, since radioactive substances can migrate through food chains, then accumulating in human body. The entire agro-industrial complex suffered significant losses. Currently, radionuclides in the soil do not have such a concentration, however most of abandoned lands are not yet used. Water bodies that were located directly near the nuclear power plant also turned out to be polluted. However, this type of radionuclides has a short decay period, so the waters and soils there have long been close to normal.
Afterword
Scientists all over the world admit that Chernobyl was a gigantic experiment for them, no matter how blasphemous it may sound. It is simply impossible to set up such an experiment on purpose. For example, in a molten reactor, a crystal was found from a substance that does not exist on earth. It was named Chernobylit.
But the main thing is not this. Now all over the world, the safety systems of nuclear power plants have become many times more complex. Now a new sarcophagus is being built over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. One and a half billion dollars was collected by the world community for its construction.
April 26 is the Day of Remembrance for those killed in radiation accidents and catastrophes. This year marks 33 years since the Chernobyl disaster - the largest in the history of nuclear energy in the world. A whole generation has already grown up that did not experience this terrible tragedy, but on this day we traditionally remember Chernobyl. After all, only by remembering the mistakes of the past can we hope not to repeat them in the future.
In 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl reactor No. 4, and several hundred workers and firefighters tried to put out the fire, which had been burning for 10 days. The world was enveloped in a cloud of radiation. Then about 50 employees of the station were killed and hundreds of rescuers were injured. It is still difficult to determine the scale of the disaster and its impact on people's health - only from 4 to 200 thousand people died from cancer that developed as a result of the received dose of radiation. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries.
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1. This 1986 aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, shows the destruction from the explosion and fire of Reactor 4 on April 26, 1986. As a result of the explosion and the fire that followed it, a huge amount of radioactive substances was released into the atmosphere. Ten years after the world's largest nuclear disaster, the power plant continued to operate due to an acute shortage of electricity in Ukraine. The final stop of the power plant occurred only in 2000. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik) 
2. On October 11, 1991, while reducing the speed of turbine generator No. 4 of the second power unit for its subsequent shutdown and putting the separator-superheater SPP-44 into repair, an accident and a fire occurred. This photograph, taken during a press visit to the station on October 13, 1991, shows part of the collapsed roof of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, destroyed by fire. (AP Photo/Efrm Lucasky) 
3. Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, after the largest nuclear disaster in human history. The picture was taken three days after the explosion at the nuclear power plant in 1986. Before chimney the destroyed 4th reactor is located. (AP Photo) 
4. Photo from the February issue of the magazine " Soviet life": the main hall of the 1st power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 29, 1986 in Chernobyl (Ukraine). Soviet Union admitted that there was an accident at the power plant, but did not provide additional information. (AP Photo) 
5. A Swedish farmer removes straw contaminated through precipitation several months after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in June 1986. (STF/AFP/Getty Images) 
6. Soviet medical worker examines an unknown child who was evacuated from the nuclear disaster zone to the Kopelovo state farm near Kiev on May 11, 1986. The picture was taken during a trip organized by the Soviet authorities to show how they deal with the accident. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko) 
7. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev (center) and his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during a conversation with the management of the nuclear power plant on February 23, 1989. This was the first visit by a Soviet leader to the station since the April 1986 accident. (AFP PHOTO/TASS) 
8. Kievans stand in line for forms before checking for radiation contamination after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Kyiv on May 9, 1986. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko) 
9. A boy reads an ad on a closed playground gate in Wiesbaden on May 5, 1986, which says: "This playground is temporarily closed." A week after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion on 26 April 1986, the Wiesbaden municipal council closed all playgrounds after detecting levels of radioactivity between 124 and 280 becquerels. (AP Photo/Frank Rumpenhorst) 
10. One of the engineers who worked at the Chernobyl NPP undergoes a medical examination at the Lesnaya Polyana sanatorium on May 15, 1986, a few weeks after the explosion. (STF/AFP/Getty Images) 
11. Advocacy activists environment railroad cars are marked with dried serum contaminated with radiation. Photo taken in Bremen, northern Germany on February 6, 1987. The serum, which was brought to Bremen for further transport to Egypt, was produced after the Chernobyl accident and was contaminated with radioactive fallout. (AP Photo/Peter Meyer) 
12. An abattoir worker puts suitability stamps on cow carcasses in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, on May 12, 1986. According to the decision of the Minister of Social Affairs of the federal state of Hesse, after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, all meat began to be subjected to radiation control. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf/stf) 
13. Archival photo dated April 14, 1998. Workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant pass by the control panel of the destroyed 4th power unit of the station. On April 26, 2006, Ukraine marked the 20th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which affected the fate of millions of people, required astronomical costs from international funds and became an ominous symbol of the dangers of nuclear energy. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV) 
14. In the picture, which was taken on April 14, 1998, you can see the control panel of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV) 
15. Workers who took part in the construction of a cement sarcophagus that closes the Chernobyl reactor, in a memorable photo in 1986 next to an unfinished construction site. According to the Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, thousands of people who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster died from the consequences of radiation contamination, which they suffered during work. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik) 
16. High-voltage towers near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant June 20, 2000 in Chernobyl. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) 
17. The duty operator of a nuclear reactor records control readings at the site of the only operating reactor No. 3, on Tuesday, June 20, 2000. Andrey Shauman pointed angrily at a switch hidden under a sealed metal cover on the control panel of the reactor at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant whose name has become synonymous with nuclear catastrophe. “This is the same switch that can be used to turn off the reactor. For $2,000, I'll let anyone push that button when the time comes," Shauman, acting chief engineer, said at the time. When that time came on December 15, 2000, environmental activists, governments and simple people around the world breathed a sigh of relief. However, for the 5,800 Chernobyl workers, it was a day of mourning. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
18. 17-year-old Oksana Gaibon (right) and 15-year-old Alla Kozimerka, victims of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, are being treated with infrared rays at the Tarara Children's Hospital in the Cuban capital. Oksana and Alla, like hundreds of other Russian and Ukrainian teenagers who received a dose of radiation, were treated for free in Cuba as part of a humanitarian project. (ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP)
19. Photo dated April 18, 2006. A child during treatment at the Center for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, which was built in Minsk after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, representatives of the Red Cross reported that they were faced with a lack of funds to further help the victims of the Chernobyl accident. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images) 
20. View of the city of Pripyat and the fourth reactor of Chernobyl on December 15, 2000 on the day of the complete shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Photo by Yuri Kozyrev/Newsmakers) 
21. Ferris wheel and carousel in the deserted amusement park of the ghost town of Pripyat, next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant May 26, 2003. The population of Pripyat, which in 1986 was 45,000 people, was completely evacuated within the first three days after the explosion of the 4th reactor No. 4. The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred at 1:23 am on April 26, 1986. The resulting radioactive cloud damaged much of Europe. According to various estimates, from 15 to 30 thousand people subsequently died as a result of exposure to radiation. Over 2.5 million people in Ukraine suffer from diseases acquired as a result of exposure, and about 80,000 of them receive benefits. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
22. Pictured on May 26, 2003: an abandoned amusement park in the city of Pripyat, which is located next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
23. Pictured May 26, 2003: gas masks on the floor of a classroom in a school in the ghost town of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
24. In the photo dated May 26, 2003: a TV case in a hotel room in the city of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
25. View of the ghost town of Pripyat next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
26. Pictured January 25, 2006: an abandoned classroom in a school in the deserted city of Pripyat near Chernobyl, Ukraine. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries. According to scientists, the complete decomposition of the most dangerous radioactive elements will take about 900 years. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
27. Textbooks and notebooks on the floor of a school in the ghost town of Pripyat January 25, 2006. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
28. Toys and a gas mask in the dust in the former primary school abandoned city of Pripyat on January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
29. In the photo on January 25, 2006: an abandoned sports hall of one of the schools in the deserted city of Pripyat. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
30. What is left of the school gym in the abandoned city of Pripyat. January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
31. A resident of the Belarusian village of Novoselki, located just outside the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in a picture dated April 7, 2006. (AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV) 33. On April 6, 2006, an employee of the Belarusian radiation-ecological reserve measures the level of radiation in the Belarusian village of Vorotets, which is located within a 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images) 
34. Residents of the village of Ilintsy in the closed area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about 100 km from Kyiv, pass by the rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, who are rehearsing before a concert on April 5, 2006. Rescuers organized an amateur concert dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster for more than three hundred people (mostly elderly people) who returned to live illegally in villages located in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) 37. Construction team wearing masks and special protective suits on April 12, 2006 during work to strengthen the sarcophagus covering the destroyed 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO / GENIA SAVILOV) 
38. On April 12, 2006, workers sweep away radioactive dust in front of a sarcophagus covering the damaged 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Because of high level radiation crews work for only a few minutes. (GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images)
