Chernobyl & Pripyat – 2012

Many years ago, I learned about one of the worst disasters the world had ever seen. At that age I was naive, I didn’t really understand what happened or the consequences of such a disaster. I vaguely remember watching a program on the TV about an entire city which had been left deserted, they showed footage of empty streets, abandoned buildings and forgotten belongings. Everything looked normal to me so how could this be? The threat was that of immense force, radiation. Silent, tasteless, odourless and invisible, it’s hard to comprehend that something you can’t tell is there, can be so lethal.

On April 25, 1986, reactor four was going to be shut down for some routine maintenance. During the shutdown, technicians were also going to run a test. The test was to determine whether, in case of a power outage, the turbines could produce enough energy to keep the cooling system running until the backup generators came online.
The shutdown and test began at 1 a.m. on April 25th. To get accurate results from the test, the operators turned off several of the safety systems, which turned out to be a disastrous decision. In the middle of the test, the shutdown had to be delayed nine hours because of a high demand for power in Kiev. The shutdown and test continued again at 11:10 p.m. on the night of April 25th.

Just after 1 a.m. on April 26th, 1986, the reactor’s power dropped suddenly, causing a potentially dangerous situation. The operators tried to compensate for the low power but the reactor went out of control. If the safety systems had remained on, they would have fixed the problem; however, they were not. The reactor exploded at 1:23 a.m.

The world discovered the accident two days later, on April 28th, when operators of the Swedish Forsmark nuclear power plant in Stockholm registered unusually high radiation levels near their plant. When other plants around Europe began to register similar high radiation readings, they contacted the Soviet Union to find out what had happened. The Soviets denied any knowledge about a nuclear disaster until 9 p.m. on April 28th, when they announced to the world that one of the reactors had been “damaged.”

While trying to keep the nuclear disaster a secret, the Soviets were also trying to clean it up. At first they poured water on the many fires, then they tried to put them out with sand and lead and then nitrogen. It took nearly two weeks to put the fires out. Citizens in the nearby towns were told to stay indoors. Pripyat was evacuated on April 27th, the day after the disaster had begun; the town of Chernobyl wasn’t evacuated until May 2, six days after the explosion.
Physical clean-up of the area continued. Contaminated topsoil was placed into sealed barrels and radiated water contained. Soviet engineers also encased the remains of the fourth reactor in a large, concrete sarcophagus to prevent additional radiation leakage. The sarcophagus, constructed quickly and in dangerous conditions, had already begun to crumble by 1997. An international consortium has begun plans to create a containment unit that will be placed over the current sarcophagus. It is expected to be completed this year.

Little did I know when I first saw that TV footage, some 20 years later, I’d be walking those very streets in person. If you’ve read my Bio then you’ll know how I got into exploring urban places, the abandoned, derelict and forgotten capsules of time. Chernobyl and Pripyat came back onto my radar, I’d done a lot of reading over the years, generally fascinated by the enormity of the disaster. I’d heard that radiation had reduced to a level where it was relatively safe to do short trips. It’s not the sort of place you can pop down to Thomas Cook and book a package holiday with airport transfers, a free bar and a cringeworthy cabaret so when I got the opportunity to get on a trip, I grabbed it with both hands!

Day 1

I’m not one for fannying around, if I want to do something, then I’ll do it. No talk, no bravado, just get it done. I paid my fees, booked my flight, exchanged some currency and before I knew it, I was off, next stop Kiev Borispol airport. I arrived, met the other 27 people I’d be spending my time with for the best part of the oncoming week and made our way (via a vodka stop) to our accommodation in Slavutych, a city built rapidly in 1986 to accommodate the evacuees of Pripyat. It was already late by the time we arrived so tried to get some sleep before being up at the crack of dawn for our first day in the zone!

One of the first glimpses I got of reactor 4. We were under strict orders from the authorities not to put anything on the ground here. Radiation was noticeably higher in this area for obvious reasons!

After our brief visit to the reactor we got on a rather dubious looking coach fit for nothing more than the scrap heap by UK standards. After a short drive through some military check points we arrive in the middle of Pripyat.

A corridor with doorways to adjoining classrooms once filled with the laughs of schoolchildren now lies empty, silent and dilapidated in one of the many schools of Pripyat.

Hundreds of gas masks litter the floor in the school, mistakenly assumed they were used in the disaster but these masks were simply stored at the school and have been strewn across the floor by looters.

A typical soviet style poster still hanging on one of the schools’ walls.

Desks, textbooks, literature and other paraphernalia can still be found. A humbling reminder of what life used to be like here.

Cyrillic alphabet cards still hang on a classroom wall amongst peeling paint.

The school attendance register sits on the teachers’ front desk amongst other books as if it were left just yesterday.

Swimming pool “Azure”, an iconic Pripyat location

Male changing rooms at “Azure”

Female changing rooms at “Azure”

One of three indoor swimming pools in Pripyat, Azure was the largest and most well known due to being featured in video games. The building also housed a gymnasium and sports hall.

Pripyat Post Office – A typical soviet style mural painted on the wall in the reception of the post office.

Some interesting graffiti on this external staircase. Some quite unique graffiti can be found in and around Pripyat and I’ll be trying to locate more on my trip this year.

Dodgem’s lie motionless in the amusement park. These were never used as the park was due to open a couple of days after the day of the disaster.

A view of the dodgem’s from the operators booth.

The iconic ferris wheel also featured in video games. The ferris wheel is probably the best known part of Pripyat.

Pripyat sign on the way into town

The firefighters monument. A tribute to those who gave their lives to basically help save the world. Without the efforts of these true heroes, the disaster would have been much more widespread and catastrophic.

Reactor 4 from the river which was used to cool the reactor

Yanov train station

Day 2

My second day to roam the deserted streets and buildings of Pripyat started very early. The day started with a traditional Ukrainian style breakfast, something quite different to what we’re used to back here in the UK but it filled a gap and then I made my way to the train station in Slavutych where I was staying.

I had to catch the workers train and got some odd glances from the locals and quickly learnt that if there was a random item on a seat of the train such as a key, magazine or leaflet then that seat was reserved. I sat and stared out the window, all sorts of thoughts running through my mind about the disaster and after effects. I travelled for 40 minutes and saw nothing but bleak wasteland, the line crossed through Belarus and then back into the Ukraine, not that you’d know from the unchanging scenery. Belarus lies to the North of Ukraine and suffered the majority of damage from the explosion. On arrival at the station in Chernobyl, I let the workers empty from the station and then made my way into the zone via several checkpoints.

It was nice to stop off at the monument by the reactor again to catch the early morning rays of sunshine before heading for Pripyat

A cooling tower that was under construction and never completed was part of the expansion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Trains would run to and from the Power Plant bringing materials and supplies

The first building we looked around was the hospital, still full of medicines, equipment and surgical instruments, this waiting room now lays baron and open to the elements

A bed in a small private room which was carpeted unlike the main wards

Some examples of medicines left lying around

Many wards such as this, sit empty and decaying

A treatment room with views across the abandoned town

Shelves full of books still situated around the building, I wish I could translate to find out what they’re about.

One of the many buildings around the town of Pripyat

A view from the roof of Hotel Polezi looking down onto the Palace of Culture

The next building I explored was the Palace Of Culture near the centre of Pripyat. This sports hall had views of the famous ferris wheel in the amusement park

There are plenty of murals dotted around the town, this being one of my favourites in the Palace of Culture, unfortunately most of one side has peeled off the wall now

The iconic ferris wheel from the amusement park that never opened. It was due to open it’s gates to the public just days after the disaster happened

Finally a shot of one of the holding cells at the police station

Day 3

My final day in Pripyat, the time has gone so quickly, too quickly. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this huge town has to offer. I’ve already decided that I’ll book onto another trip if there is one. So much more to see and do but so little time. Navigating through the overgrown roads and footpaths and battling through dense undergrowth to reach buildings just seems to eat away at your time. Today was an “education” themed day, visiting various schools and kindergartens.

First stop today was a kindergarten, the dorms are still full of cots and the floors littered with discarded toys and learning aids give a real “lost in time” feel. Seeing drawings and posters on the walls makes you really imagine what it was like when it was full of kids.

The stairways were beautifully decorated for the children

Next stop was a soil sample lab. We believe this also used to be a kindergarten but was converted after the accident to monitor radiation levels in different parts of the town. There’s shelves full of different bottles and bags of soil all with varying radiation readings from normal background levels up to some really contaminated ones.

We visited a couple of schools, I don’t recall which ones they were. Both were very large with lots to see. One was a middle school and one a senior school with chemistry and physics classrooms with lots of artefacts left to see.