Chernobyl - Pripyat 2012, Part 2.
As promised, more photos from Chernobyl and Pripyat.
1. Chernobyl Post Office
This is a working Post Office in the town of Chernobyl, where day to day administration of the Exclusion Zone occurs.
2. CCCP - The Spirit of Soviet Industry
Seen on a building in the town of Chernobyl.
3. Prometheus
The statue of Prometheus at Chernobyl.
This statue used to be located in the town of Pripyat, however, after the accident at the nuclear power plant, Prometheus was relocated onto the site of the power plant.
Maybe they needed to be reminded more often that if you play with fire, you might get burned?
4. Bus Station
This is the former bus station in Pripyat. The map on the wall are some of the destinations formerly served by this bus station, most of which are towns that no longer exist. Well OK, they do exist, but people no longer live there, except in a few cases.
The authorities in the Exclusion Zone can be a bit schizophrenic about which buildings you can enter and which you cannot. The further you are from the disaster epicenter, the more likely they are to let you enter, even if the building has rotting wood floors. But the main attraction has always been the buildings in Pripyat. I've been of the notion for a while that as radioactivity in the area subsides, the danger of buildings falling apart increases. So I felt I'd better not wait too much longer or all buildings would be off-limits.
So imagine how surprised and disappointed I was when our official government guide said many of the places I really wanted to enter were off-limits. No entry allowed. And when I first got off the bus in the center of Pripyat, I really thought I understood why. There really was more decay and more wreckage then there were in photos I had seen. But maybe those photos were five or more years old. I had not been paying attention to dates. But yet, having read many stories of trips to this area, I had not come across any account of restricted access to buildings in Pripyat. (The power plant itself, even the three non-affected reactors are off-limits without special permission).
The bus station was one of those buildings where entry was permitted. But as the trip progressed, every one on our trip had made at least one unauthorized entry into a building. That really is a main attraction of the trip. While there is still some radioactivity lingering in the buildings, the real danger now is plaster falling off walls, crumbling brick facades, and a lot of rubble and broken glass. But if you look and step carefully, you'll generally be fine. If you are not careful, the rubble can do a lot more harm than the radioactivity can. But rushing in and out to avoid the watchful eye of the government guide doesn't help safety either.
I recently saw photos people took two weeks after we had visited, and it seemed there were a lot more photos taken inside buildings. Maybe it all depends how determined the government guide is to keep you out, and how determined members of your group are to get inside.
5. Stairway to Nowhere
Stairway to the second floor, seen on the outside of a former restaurant in Pripyat.
Having done a lot of reading about this place before visiting, one of the things almost everybody seemed to agree on is that you do not want to step on moss, because for one reason or another, radioactive fallout seems to have an affinity for moss. However, of all the things our official government guide told us, I don't remember her ever mentioning "don't walk on the moss."
She did have a habit of telling the group things on the van, but like many 21 year old women, she was rather soft-spoken and difficult to hear if you sat more than 2 rows away. And she was facing toward the front of the van while speaking.
Mention or no mention, I had read enough that I decided to use caution and step around or over moss whenever possible.
6. The Ferris Wheel at Pripyat
This is another one of those photos that have defined Pripyat throughout the years. The story has been told so often that this has taken on an almost mythical dimension. How this Ferris wheel was scheduled to open on May 1, 1986. How the Chernobyl reactor had blown up 5 days earlier. How the city of Pripyat was evacuated 36 hours after Chernobyl blew its top. And how this Ferris wheel had never seen a rider. This story has been told so often that it must be true.
Or is it?
Recently, some photos have surfaced that seem to undermine the truth of what everybody has taken for granted for so long. It seems that at some point, the rides had actually been used, most likely in the 36 hour period between the Chernobyl incident and the evacuation. Town authorities may have opened the Ferris wheel to local residents to keep their minds occupied and to take the focus off the incident at the reactor while they assessed the situation and attempted to develop a plan about what to do next.
7. Soviet Era Propaganda
Some random, faded propaganda from bygone years.
8. Firefighters Memorial, Chernobyl
Erected in the memory of those who fought the fires at the Chernobyl reactor, and those who lost their lives, that day and all the days after.
9. Down by the River
Seen near the Pripyat River Station on the Pripyat River. This might have formerly been a riverside restaurant.
10. Nothing Yellow About It
Seen at a "Chernobyl graveyard" in Pripyat, one of many vehicle graveyards around the Chernobyl/Pripyat area. This is not the main Chernobyl vehicle graveyard, which was declared off-limits in 2008. Apparently vehicles stored at that location were removed by authorities, spread far and wide, wrapped in plastic, and then buried because of persistant problems with people looting the radioactive remains and selling them on the black market.
Burial of radioactive remains is generally not considered a good solution because underground aquifers become subject to radioactive pollution decades earlier than would normally happen. That's why the remains were wrapped in plastic.
Oh, and yeah. I'm not color-blind. The truck obviously is yellow. In this case, I mean it did not run from a fight or a confrontation. The vehicles here obvious did not run from the fight with the Chernobyl disaster.
Yes, there will be more photos coming at a later date. I always look to do some processing magic on them first.
Part one of this series, here on DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10365477
My photo websites, with these and many more photos...
My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattsh/
My Website: http://roadslesstraveledphotography.com/
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