Some of the most impressive pics i ever saw - the remains of Chernobyl...
 

http://www.elenafilatova.com/

check out this site, that girl rocks. some might remember her as "Kid of Speed" from 5 or 6 years ago

not sure how anyone can consider nuclear power a reasonable source of energy after seeing those pics and videos.

she is also helping those that did not leave the deserted area by bringing them basic groceries like flour, salt etc. for free.

you can support her here:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/ki.../donation.html

(and maybe someone should donate a dedicated server, the site is kind of slow. and you better do not hotlink from there - lol)

Wasn't most of her "I am a wild girl riding into Pripyat by myself" story debunked? She was really just part of a tour that anyone can take...

there is a video around of a bunch of russians looting all the metal throughout the city, and a photographer following them around and taking pictures/video

very creepy!

Crazy pics. When's the last time you saw an Angelfire page?

no idea, haven't heard of that. i found the link in my old bookmarks and saw that she also did tours to other places. and whether she went alone or not - the pics are still impressive

Loading fine for me.

MaDalton... you'd be interested in this....

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/94aaa8dfa8.jpg
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610

Here is a newspaper article where a tour guide tells about the tour she was on, its on page 2

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/international/europe/15chernobyl.html?_r=1&ex=1139547600&en=027af1df26a 219fd&ei=5070

ya, i have seen it and those are cool photos. i specially like the pic of inside the school house. childrens jackets and crayons are laying around as if they just picked up and left in a hurry.

using chernobyl as an excuse to ban nuclear power is absurd btw.

How many russians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?



Why bother? they all glow in the dark.


Cool photos, BTW.

Yeah very moving pics, quantum-x has a few great ones floating around as well.

Incredible pics, but why did you paste the URL 5 times? :)

Great pics! Chernobyl has to be one of the spookiest places on earth... I was in the Ukraine last year and I'm really regretting not having visited it :(

I remember this from a few years back.very erie the ghost town pics.would be awesome to check out I guess.I wouldn't want any radiation though

I spent a fiar bit of time going over all of her pics, whatever the circumstances, tour, on her own......it does not take away from the fact they capture the total destruction so well. And it could happen again.....

I never saw Chernobyl, nor have I ever been to Russia/Ukraine. However I have been to Europe, and I had the chance to take a tour of Auschwitz. That place is fucking creepy. It has a vibe I cant even put words to. The look, the smell........ its horrid. Like it all happened yesterday.....

i posted it once, and the picture seemed to overpower it, didn't want you guys to miss the thread!!! :)

very cool - thanks :thumbsup

maybe i should go there and take the tour :upsidedow

The design for that reactor is not used in the West. I doubt it is used much anywhere these days.

Just like a movie script....awesome thread :thumbsup

no ferris wheel?
that thing is fucking creepy

After seeing these pictures you have my vote -- against obsolete and obviously dangerous RBMK class reactors, and for safe plants.

Not to take away from the seriousness of the incident, but the pictures just look like a trip down some backroads in Alabama. Did I miss something?

Yeah, pretty much.

An angelfire page, reminds me of geocities i used to have like 7 years ago

This was all faked :)

These however we not..
The tour itself, somewhat disappointing. However, when we got to Pripyat, we slipped off into the ruins unnoticed, and had a chance to rooftop the hotel, and dig into some truly cool sights, unseen by many for a long time.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-...-pripyat-1.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-...-pripyat-2.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-12/qx-pripyat-1.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-12/qx-pripyat-2.jpg

Check the remains of Chernobyl power station itself, in the background of the second photo...

quantum-x always delivers

hehe, i should have asked you first

It's not so much the photos she took were faked, it was the entire story behind it.
It's not a crime in itself, it's just disappointing - I remember being enthralled by her story.

In an interesting side note, was chatting to some friends there, and asked them how easy it would be to slip into the regulated zone, and spend a few nights in Pripyat.

Amusingly, they said the biggest risk would not be the radiation, but the bears. The wildlife continues unchecked, essentially.

It'd be ironic to go to Pripyat and get eaten by a bear.

Some good photos, but her story is all false. Try not to read any of the shit there, because she makes up stuff to make the photos look more 'amazing'.

this is the most fucked up shit in our history not to joke around. I was 16 when it happened. I stayed in Kiev, so fuck knows if it reached us or not but hey if you think about quitting smoking you better do, I did.

Okay really bizarre!

id like to see massive hydro plants versus nuclear power

ok, i don't care much whether she went there alone or not - i like the pics and her wrtiting style

and honestly: i would be more worried about the radiation. i'm sure you can find a place that is "bear safe", but you can't hide from the radiation. but it would be ironic for sure - lol

Like I say, her story was incredibly captivating - I was just disappointed to have the images I'd conjured in my head evaporated when the truth came out.

Radiation is a funny thing - it's not consistent at all. It has a tendency to linger in organic compounds, but will also render large steel items (cars, trucks, helicopters etc) incredibly dangerous as well.

Wandering around with a Geiger counter makes for interesting times. There are areas of Pripyat where the radiation levels are hardly above background, and quite a few where it's in safe tolerances.

Walk down the road, for example, to the red forest, radiation jumps from 2x background to 1 roetgen per hour, or 1000mrem. Acute radiation poisoning sets in w. a dose of 'just' 500.

The most eerie thing is the fact it's undetectable without tools.
Most dangers that present themselves to humans are tangible: heat, fire, gas, poison, etc. There's a physical stimulus that prompts you that something is wrong.

With radiation, there's nothing. Literally walking 2 steps forward in some places can place you in an area that's harmful. All the while, the breeze is blowing, the sky is blue, and there are animals running around.

That was probably the most 'impressive' thing about heading to Chernobyl. That, and the fact that Reactor 4 just looks like a normal building.

I've got a bunch more photos if anyone is interested...

Very interested here!

Was this the girl who had the yellow (I think) site years and years ago about her motorcycle trip through the Chernobyl area? She said she brought a Geiger counter with her and her dad was a nuclear scientist or something so she knew what she was doing. Or is this a new person?

That's the one. Sadly, the story was fiction.

That was a very informative post, quantum-x. You speak well on the issue. As far as your other photos, I would love the oppertunity to view them.

whoa, amazing site ill have to check it out in detail when i finish with my work...

VERY interested in the pictures!

and there are some videos on her page that show what you mean: they are from the day (or weekend) after the catastrophe and everything looks normal. people in the city, at the beach etc. - just the police is wearing gas masks, claiming it's a "training". they obviously sent people knowingly to their death.

Here we go. It's almost 6AM, so I'm pretty exhausted.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-1.jpg
Initial border control of the zone of alienation. By this stage, you've already passed the 'egg' that the girl photographed, by about 20 mins. I quite liked it.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-2.jpg
The normality of the place is striking. There were a bunch of friendly kitties running around. Must be paradise for the animals. Research shows the biodiversity in this place has jumped by 20%. Animals are thriving, because humans can't go there.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-3.jpg
Statue to the firefights that died. Scores of men died from radiation poisoning as they were sent in to fight the fires without anyone understanding the scope of the situation.

Then, of course, there was the helicopter that crashed into the reactor [little known fact..]
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-4.jpg
Road bridge, leading away from the reactor (behind). Memorial zone, plus restricted buildings - very KGB do-not-ask-esque.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-5.jpg
The reactor itself, plus another monument.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-6.jpg
Pano, reactor.
Note- in the distance from taking the photo above, to this one (5 meters max) - radiation levels jumped 8 times.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-...-pripyat-1.jpg
Pripyat entrance. Most famous building, hotel building. We gave the group the slip, took a mezzanine floor and then rooftopped the building. Was quite something. Oddly peaceful.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-...-pripyat-2.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-11.jpg
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-pripyat-2.jpg

Pripyat building.
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-7.jpg

The ever-so-famous ferris wheel.
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-8.jpg

And the dodgem cars. Trainspotters take note, this isn't me.
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-9.jpg

Building w/ a stash of soviet portraits.
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-10.jpg

From here, we dashed off again as far and fast as we could go. Ran through an abandoned supermarket (with trolleys) and ended up in this building - amazing mural tributing the CCCP Kosmos / space program
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-pripyat-1.jpg

Rolling out, after a very hearty meal. They put on a great 3 course feed. yet another ukraine oddity, before the radiation check, and the 2 hour trip back to kiev.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2008-08-16/qx-ch-12.jpg

Ugh, forum resized everything. You get the idea, or right-click and open the images in a new window. The panos are particularly interesting.

I was living in Germany in the 80s when chernobyl went down. It was a pretty big deal then. I thought most people forgot about it. I hope it never happens again anywhere.... bad stuff...

I was thinking the same thing. Doesn't look like a "dead zone" to me at this point. Just looks like an abandoned town or any little redneck town in the wintertime. I was expecting to see no plants growing and that kind of stuff. Like pics of Hiroshima after the atom bomb.

Thanks for the photos, quantum-x. eye-opening and very surreal. Thanks again.

Great Pics!

I guess there's a couple of points:
Yes, the scattered towns and villages could be pretty much any abandoned midwestern ghost town.

The thing is, the exclusion zone is pretty massive. A few decades have passed. There are no charred trees, no slag run offs (well, outside the powerstation..). It was a nuclear disaster, not a nuclear bomb :)

The most poignant element in the exclusion zone is the human element. It's odd to see vast tracts of land abandoned, for no 'apparent' reason.

There are still some shops, there's a small military presence, but that's it. The station itself looks like just another building among a bunch.

However, once you get the full gravity of the situation - from the human errors that caused the incident, you can almost imagine hearing the stamping of the control rods as thy danced inside the generator. If you stand on top of the hotel, and imagine seeing the blinding white flash (the only real externally visible sign of the meltdown) as the graphite rods vaporised, or read the history of just how many people lost their lives needlessly.. The first workers on the scene were unprotected, shoveling and handling the slag and debris - they all perished.

Unfortunately, the tour didn't cover any of that stuff. It really was a disappointment. If anyone ends up going, make sure you read up on the history first, look at a map of pripyat, lose the tour and make your own adventure.

As for mutations, there are apparently a lot, especially in the red forest. There are trees that no longer grow up, but out, branches travelling horizontally in an hapless quest for the sun. Giganticism was apparently one of the most common mutations. We saw carp in the river under that rail bridge that were literally as tall and as fat as me.

BTW, Hiroshima is a pretty bumping city. If you didn't know it had been struck with a nuclear bomb, there are no signs really indicating it was.

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