The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 30 Years Later

oliverm (25)in #photography • 7 years ago (edited)

Last summer I got the chance to spend a weekend in Kiev, Ukraine, for the first time. With three full days at my disposal and the Chernobyl exclusion zone only an hour car drive away, there was no way I was going to give this unique opportunity a pass.

Located in northern Ukraine at the border with Belarus, Prypiat, the city most affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, was once home to a population of 49,400 (mostly Chernobyl workers and their families). Prypiat used to have 75 primary schools, a hospital, 10 gyms, 25 stores, 27 cafés and restaurants, a cinema and an art school among other things. Being located within a 30km radius of Chernobyl, it was declared part of the exclusion zone after the nuclear plant explosion in 1986. All inhabitants were evacuated within a day and forced to leave everything but the bare essentials behind. With most of their belongings still in place, the city was turned into a ghost town overnight.

Today, Prypiat can only be visited with official guides. Most of the buildings are deemed unsafe to enter, having been abandoned for the past three decades. While many of the of the structures, especially metallic and wooden ones, show a significant amount of radiation when approached with a Geiger counter, it is concentrated in certain materials and fairly low on the beaten path. Visitors are still allowed to walk around, through strict protocol of not sitting down on the ground or touching anything is imposed.

Rundown buildings, empty hospital beds, broken toys and shattered glass are all that’s left of a city’s sudden departure over 30 years ago.

But what struck me the most is the pace at which nature has made its way back into this very urban and concrete covered area. A plethora of wild animals from birds, foxes and even wolves have claimed this abandoned land, seemingly suffering little if any negative effects from radiation.