Chernobyl - NOW WITH PICS!!

MrBump

I manage an IT team in Kiev, and I've been out there on business a number of times.  So far I've resisted the urge (and the offers) to go.

Ukrainians are a funny bunch (I've found) with regard to the topic of Chernobyl.  As a fortysometing myself, it's quite present in my mind - but the guys I work with tend to be a fair bit younger than me.  They're typically very pragmatic and dismissive of the huge radioactive blot on their borders.

They won't be when the monsters come.

stickyfiddle

MrBump said:

I manage an IT team in Kiev, and I've been out there on business a number of times.  So far I've resisted the urge (and the offers) to go.

Ukrainians are a funny bunch (I've found) with regard to the topic of Chernobyl.  As a fortysometing myself, it's quite present in my mind - but the guys I work with tend to be a fair bit younger than me.  They're typically very pragmatic and dismissive of the huge radioactive blot on their borders.

They won't be when the monsters come.

You should definitely go, and it really is safe as long as you have a good guide and don't wander off. It's a great time at the moment - before the radar is pulled down and before the new safe confinement covers the whole thing for 100 years.

ICBM

Chalky said:

Funny how Chernobyl is now a holiday destination and the citizens of Hiroshima built a lovely park to take the children to on Sunday afternoons, located at ground zero.

Chernobyl was far dirtier from a contamination point of view - the radiation release was about 400 times as great, and it was a much longer-lived mixture of isotopes. I would guess the levels at Hiroshima are down to natural background by now.

Sambostar

All the radiative dust from Chernobyl has probably been breathed in and eaten by Northern Europeans by now anyway.

Axe_meister

I lived in Munich when Chernobyl went puff. Was a scary time. We were not aloud out into the school play ground until it had been dug up and replaced. Every supermarket got rid of nuts for a year (apparently then suck up radiation), it took about two years before the hype died down, then came along mad cow and we were eating emu and ostrich for about a year instead of beef.

stickyfiddle

MrsF has picked up my laptop instead of hers this morning and buggered off to Dubai for work, so no more photos till the weekend. Sorry chaps!

As for contamination, I suspect the Ukrainian people are less concerned than you might expect because most of the contamination that wasn't in the immediate 30km exclusion zone went north into what is now Belarus, then blew with the wind across europe. Except France, who told their citizens not to worry, and that all the wind in France was blowing anti-clockwise, and not coming in from anywhere else, which I'm sure was *definitely* not a complete fabrication...

usedtobe

Matching laptops, eh..?

stickyfiddle

usedtobe said:

Matching laptops, eh..?

Apple family...

holnrew

I hope your browser history is safe.

GuyBoden

Why not try a holiday at Maralinga, British Nuclear bombs were tested at Maralinga in the south-west Australian outback, many Aboriginal people and Service personnel suffered from the radiation effects.



Archive Footage. Bomb at 5:20min:

ICBM

I seem to remember some of the British bomb tests in Australia were extremely dirty too - they were exploded at ground level rather than underground or dropped from aircraft.

suspiciousminds

ICBM;712173" said:

I seem to remember some of the British bomb tests in Australia were extremely dirty too - they were exploded at ground level rather than underground or dropped from aircraft.

Whats the difference exploding at ground level?

stickyfiddle

suspiciousminds said:

ICBM;712173" said:

I seem to remember some of the British bomb tests in Australia were extremely dirty too - they were exploded at ground level rather than underground or dropped from aircraft.

Whats the difference exploding at ground level?

Ground level spreads radioactive dust and shit over a much wider area then underground.

stickyfiddle

First pics are done...

First we went to the Duga 3 radar array which is the most spectacularly big abandoned thing I've ever seen. And has awesome gates.

Then we hit the road to Chernobyl. Pretty much all the roads are very long, completely straight and completely deserted.

This is how close we got to the plant. That's a dose of 3.18 microsieverts per hour for me (on the left). Really bugger all considering I'm 250m from the site of the biggest nuclear disaster in history.

stickyfiddle

Then came Pripyat.

Which has a ferris wheel...

But is so much more than a funfair and a room full of gas masks. This was floor 13 of the tallest building, and really quite a beautiful view, in a strange way.

stickyfiddle

Loads more pics on flickr if anyone's interested: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stickyfiddle/sets/72157656299853581

not_the_dj

Stunning (and creepy).

d8m

Why bother with pics?

Surely google street view of Merthyr Tydfil gives a detailed impression

stickyfiddle

d8m said:

Why bother with pics?

Surely google street view of Merthyr Tydfil gives a detailed impression

Nah, there's less trees in Merthyr

mike_l

Cool pics sticky.

Going somewhere off the beaten track, really cool.

Seeing the site of the worst nuclear accident ever, just, beyond wow. There's not many places I'd really want to see, but that looks really fascinating.