Why Nuclear is bad: Chernobyl in pictures. Warning: some images are graphic

[Sportsdude]

More BBC Photos:

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 [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] [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] [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="vny!://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] [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] [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="vny!://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="vny!://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] [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] [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="vny!://news.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif" width=1 border=0][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV][/DIV]

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[Sportsdude]

More BBC:

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 [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] [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] [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] [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] [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] [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] [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] [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] [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] [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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[Gopher]

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.    

[Chicklet]

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.

[Sportsdude]

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.

[Chicklet]

And we will all just sit by and watch it happen because we are being told that it isn't actually happening at all.