From the BBC.
[img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/1.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt]Pripyat was built as a town for workers at the Chernobyl power station, where the world's worst nuclear accident occurred 20 years ago. The town was abandoned 36 hours after the explosion.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/2.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Pripyat's 49,000 inhabitants were evacuated in a hurry. They were told they would be back within days, and should take only necessary documents. Before long, many homes were looted.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/3.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Pripyat was considered a model town. The apartment blocks were punctuated with fir trees and rose beds. It was a town of young people and growing families.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/4.jpg" width=600 border=0]
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[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Graffiti artists said to be from Germany and Belarus have gone round the town drawing silhouettes of the missing population.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/5.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Older children went to school the morning after the explosion. Most of them knew there had been an accident at the plant, but had no idea that radiation levels were dangerous.[/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV]
[img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/6.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt]After 20 years without maintenance, most buildings are damp, and paint is peeling. The poster advertises a Soviet club for young children, the Octobrists.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/7.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Inside a nursery school, a class photo album lies open at the first page. A teacher has written: "May our children – our happiness, our joy - live on a sunny planet!"
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/8.jpg" width=600 border=0]
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[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Nursery school children had naps every day in these beds. But unlike older pupils, they had no classes on Saturday, the morning after the disaster.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/9.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]On some beds lie gas masks, found somewhere in the school, and scattered around by photographers to "improve" their pictures.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/10.jpg" width=600 border=0]
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[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]The fair ground is one of the more contaminated parts of the town. It had been due to open on 1 May 1986, five days after the disaster, and was never used.[/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV]
[img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/11.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt]Nature has been reclaiming the abandoned town. Wild boars roam the streets at night. Birch trees have been shooting up at random, even inside some apartment blocks.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_lost_city/img/12.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]The power station, which rendered the town uninhabitable for centuries, looms on the horizon, two-and-half kilometres away. Photos by Phil Coomes [/DIV][/DIV]
More pictures from Igor Kostin one of the first people to photograph the disaster. Now suffers from the exposure to radiation.
(http://www.fotostudenten.de/pictures/aktuell/kostin3.jpg)
(http://www.fotostudenten.de/pictures/aktuell/kostin2.jpg)
(http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/img/629/13686.jpg)
[P style="MARGIN-TOP: 4px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; lineh-eight: 1" align=justify][FONT size=1][FONT size=2]Workers removing radioactive debris from the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in this May 1986 file photograph[/FONT]. [/FONT]
(http://img.timeinc.net/time/reports/planet/images/viewpoint3.jpg)
[FONT color=#990000]A soldier guards the exclusion zone[/FONT]
[img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/chernobyl/images/radiation.jpg" align=bottom border=0]
[FONT color=#990000]Despite warnings the area is loosely patrolled[/FONT]
[FONT color=#990000][/FONT]
[FONT color=#990000][img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/chernobyl/images/farm.jpg" align=bottom border=0][/FONT]
[FONT color=#990000]Despite high radiation levels, residents still consume locally grown produce[/FONT]
[FONT color=#990000][/FONT]
[img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/chernobyl/images/baby.jpg" align=bottom border=0]
[FONT color=#990000]Miscarriages have increased since the accident[/FONT]
[FONT color=#990000][/FONT]
[img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/chernobyl/images/chernoinspection.jpg" align=bottom border=0]
[FONT color=#990000] Inside the ruined reactor, radiation levels are still high[/FONT]
[A onclick=open_close() href=""](http://www.pripyat.com//sm/site/photogallery/uploads/304/1703_3.jpg)[/A]
Can't post any more its making me sick.
Yes, enough's enough - but all the same it was right for you to draw these pictures to our attention.
Meanwhile north Wales farmers are still checking their sheep for radiation from the Chernobyl fallout - those found to have it are marked with an 'x' and so don't get eaten -merely killed.Which all goes to prove - what?
That Nuclear is not the answer to our energy needs.
I am of the opinion that we ought to change the term 'energy need' to 'energy greed'.
Very true, considering the u.s. is the greediest of them all.
[DIV id=headline] [H2]Nuclear power top option for Ontario[/H2]
[DIV id=author] [P class=byline]STEVE ERWIN
[P class=source]Canadian Press
[UL class=columnistInfo][/UL]
[DIV id=article style="FONT-SIZE: 100%"] [!-- dateline --]Toronto[!-- /dateline --] — Nuclear power may be the best option to fulfil Ontario's future electricity needs, despite its obvious downsides — including Chornobyl-type accidents and radioactive waste, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.
Natural gas is too expensive, wind power is unreliable, coal plants pollute the air and Ontario's hydroelectric potential has largely been maxed out — leaving nuclear power expansions "on the table" for the province, Mr. McGuinty said.
"There is nothing that is neat and tidy by way of a solution to our energy challenges," Mr. McGuinty said when asked about the risks associated with nuclear power, including the devastating Chornobyl accident in 1986 that led to thousands of deaths.
[DIV class="bigbox ad" id=boxR] [SCRIPT type=text/XXXXscript ads="1"]aPs="boxR";[/SCRIPT] [SCRIPT type=text/XXXXscript]var boxRAC = fnTdo('a'+'ai',300,250,ai,'j',nc);[/SCRIPT]
"But I think we should look at our particular history in this country," Mr. McGuinty added, noting that there have been no major nuclear accidents in Ontario.
Mr. McGuinty later said it's "irresponsible" to compare Chornobyl with Canada's Candu nuclear technology anyway.
"We've had [nuclear] technology in place here for some 30 years. There has been nothing like, nothing even approaching like, what happened unfortunately in Chornobyl," he said inside the Ontario legislature.
Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear meltdown. The catastrophe killed thousands of people, mostly in Russia, but also in Ukraine and Belarus.
Energy Minister Donna Cansfield is about to issue a formal response to recommendations in December that called for $40-billion to construct or replace up to 12,400 megawatts of nuclear power in Ontario — requiring 12 or more new nuclear reactor units in the province.
The Premier denied New Democrat accusations that the Liberals are waiting until after the Chornobyl anniversary to respond.
Critics say there have been close calls at Ontario's nuclear stations, including two incidents at the Pickering station — a coolant leak in 1983, and brief problems with computers that operate a reactor in 1991. In both cases, safety systems kicked in as they should to prevent potentially devastating accidents.
But industry expert Tom Adams called those occurrences "near misses" that should have deterred governments from ever considering nuclear again.
"To use an air traffic control analogy...when a Cessna sweeps in front of a 747 and they miss each other by a few hundred metres, the air traffic controllers don't say, 'Oh well, that was nothing.' They say, 'We're never going to let that happen again.'"
China and India have embarked on nuclear energy programs in recent years. But Adams noted that the western world is largely shying away from nuclear plants with the notable exception of Finland, which is constructing a nuclear station to reduce that country's reliance on Russian gas.
This week, a Greenpeace report predicted that 270,000 cancers will have been caused by Chornobyl fallout, 93,000 of them fatal.
"Nuclear power is just as dangerous for Canada in 2006 as it was for Ukraine in 1986," said Greenpeace Canada's Dave Martin. "A catastrophic accident has a low probability, but devastating consequences."
Mr. Martin said safety risks are rising as Ontario's existing nuclear plants age.
Mr. McGuinty acknowledged nuclear energy isn't without its problems.
"The downside is, of course, that it does produce nuclear waste. The upside is, we can contain it. The downside, again, is, we've got to contain it for a thousand years."
But Mr. McGuinty has long argued that nuclear has the ability to generate clean, affordable and reliable baseload electricity compared to its alternatives.
The Conservatives say the Liberals are ignoring coal, an abundant commodity that produces cheap electricity. The government has promised to close Ontario's four remaining coal plants by the end of 2009 due to air pollution concerns.
Nuclear stations can take a decade or more to build and past projects have gone billions of dollars over budget. The original cost to construct Ontario's Darlington nuclear station, located 70 kilometres east of Toronto, tripled to some $14-billion during the 1980s.
Sources have said the Liberals are discussing the potential of a major expansion at Darlington.
[/DIV]
Here's a site made by someone who sometimes visits the area:
[A href="http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html"]http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html[/A]
Great site. I have a nuclear reactor by my house and if it were to blow it harm about 3 million people.
[P align=center][img height=162 src="http://www.ameren.com/imagesContent/ADC_AU_CallawayGuide-1.gif" width=245 border=0]
[P align=center]
[P align=center]That's the one by my house.
Solar.
Solar.
Solar.
Solar.
Solar.
Solar.
Solar.
Do it now, before we're all dead. Nuclear is one thing, but global warming and dimming are going to kill us all if we do not STOP using the damn fossil fuels and move to natural and non-destructive forms of energy that do not involve digging things out of the bowels of the earth that nature put well below for good reason.
Some days I feel that the biggest technological tragedy of the past 50 years is that we do not now have exclusively solar cars in this world. I refuse to believe that it was not and is not possible. The Wright Bros. took a bicycle with wings up in the air and ten years later the contraptions were being mass produced for war. If the money poured into the space programme had been shared with solar energy research in commensurate amounts....
Meh... I'm getting way too serious for my purpose here.
Sportsdude wrote:
Very true, considering the u.s. is the greediest of them all. I think it was Gandhi who said that the world contains enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed. Fortunately this state of affairs persists (just) - however pants to consume ever more and more, how much longer can this last? Does anyone know if a date has been projected.
More BBC Photos:
[img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/1.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt]Twenty years after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, many of the contaminated vehicles used in the clean-up operation remain in graveyards in the vast exclusion zone around the reactor.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/2.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]For 20 years, rows of vehicles have sat awaiting a final solution, the largest graveyard being at Rassokha, 25km south-west of the power plant.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/3.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Some carry faded reminders of the Soviet empire's military might...
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/4.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]... others are being pushed aside as nature reclaims the land. Contamination levels vary, so souvenir hunters would be wise to keep away.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/5.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]The fire engines that went to the power station on the night of the explosion have long since been buried in huge trenches. But others can still be found rotting into the ground.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/6.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Many of the trucks have had their engines and wiring removed, despite the fact that they are contaminated. Most vehicles' bonnets stand open.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/7.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=center border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff] [DIV class=bodytxt]Buses sit in rows alongside the military hardware. In the early years, vehicles were confined either to the inner zone, within 10km of the plant, or the outer zone between the 10km and 30km checkpoints.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/8.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]In the harbour at the town of Chernobyl, ships lie rusting in the once busy port, encased in ice. The scene has a post-apocalyptic feel.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/9.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]At Burakivka the most contaminated equipment sits in clay-lined trenches such as this one, number five. Only three out of 30 remain empty.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_silent_graveyards_/img/10.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]The relics serve as a silent reminder of the world's worst nuclear accident.
Photos by Phil Coomes[/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/TD] [TD bgColor=#ffffff rowSpan=2][img height=1 hspace=2 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif" width=1 border=0][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV]
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More BBC:
[img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/1.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt]The world's worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in April 1986, led to the creation of a 30km exclusion zone around the plant. Entry to the zone is now strictly controlled through checkpoints like this one.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/2.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Evacuations began 36 hours after the explosion, but many villagers waited days for buses to safety. Today, driving along the zone's potholed roads, you glimpse abandoned villages through the trees.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/3.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Most of the gardens are now overrun with birch trees that in the summer will completely hide the villages from view. Nature is thriving...
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/4.jpg" width=600 border=0]
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[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]... but in winter the exquisite beauty of the carvings around the window frames on many houses can be seen.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/5.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]These wooden homes are ideally suited to their fate, which is to disappear eventually into the forest, from which the logs originally came.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/6.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Some villagers have returned and salvaged treasured possessions. Most homes are just a shell, but there are still occasional traces of the lives once lived there.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/7.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]An old record lies discarded in the porch of a house in the village of Lubianka, in a western area of the Ukrainian section of the zone.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/8.jpg" width=600 border=0]
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[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]Some buildings are still in use. This unusual construction is the guard house at Burakivka, one of the main graveyards for radioactive waste.
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/9.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]There are also reminders of the Soviet regime, which came to an end five years after the accident. Military statues...
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[DIV class=bodytxt][img height=400 src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_chernobyl0s_ghost_villages/img/10.jpg" width=600 border=0]
[DIV class=bodytxt] [DIV class=bodytxt]... and politcal posters celebrating the USSR's 12th five-year plan, which began in 1986. The plan is long forgotten but the legacy of the accident will be with us for centuries. Photos by Phil Coomes[/DIV][/DIV]
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Sportsdude wrote:
Great site. I have a nuclear reactor by my house and if it were to blow it harm about 3 million people.
I don't really like to introduce a strand of humour into this thread. But, Sportsdude, you can draw consolation from the fact that as you're in such close proximity there is a great probability that if it blows you're more likely to go out with a sudden big bang than with a long, lingering, painful whimper.
There was a doc on the CBC last night about the effects of Chernobyl today and what they predict for the future. It's looks terribly grim I'm afraid. They are only now starting to see the long term effects. The children of Chernobyl are now at the point in their lives where they are starting to have children of their own and the results are terrifying. So many babies are just left at the hospitals because of the deformations and mental disabilities they are born with. It's apparently only going to get worse. The doc was based on the area in and around Belarus where the toxic cloud dumped the majority of its nuclear waste. The world needs to be more aware of the real impact the Chernobyl disaster has had on that part of the world. Perhaps the anniversary will bring forth the truth about what has and is happening there right now.
Today is the anniversary. And if we were russian and lived in ukraine at the time I would have been a Chernobyl baby since I was born 3 months after this happend. Doctors say they the birth defects, high levels of radiation in babies will end with the death of my generation.
And we will all just sit by and watch it happen because we are being told that it isn't actually happening at all.