25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster

[V_R]

On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility in what is now Ukraine exploded. The largest civil nuclear disaster in history led to mass evacuations, and long-term health, agricultural, and economic distress. The nearby city of Pripyat has been abandoned, and a 19-mile radius "exclusion zone" established where radiation contamination makes continued habitation dangerous.

Collected here are archival pictures of the catastrophe, as well as more recent images of the area. In addition, two photographers who've made extensive studies of the aftermath have been gracious enough to share their work with us here. Diana Markosian documented the lives of pensioners Lida and Mikhail Masanovitz, who continue to live in the abandoned ghost town of Redkovka, Ukraine. Her work is found here in photographs 13 through 16. Michael Forster Rothbart has produced one of the most extensive records available of life near Chernobyl. His work is found here in photographs 23 through 29. Links to the websites of both photographers can be found below. -- Lane Turner (34 photos total)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/chernobyl_disaster_25th_annive.html


Also more pics here from a guy that has been, I found them very interesting.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=54562

His site is here with more pics..

http://carbonangel.co.uk/site/

 

[floppybootstomp]

Some fascinating images there.

Raises lots of questions, doubts and fears about nuclear power.

I often wonder whether communism was directly responsible for Chernobyl. By that I mean the state dictated all, lack of health and safety, cheapskate engineering.

Three mile Island in the States was a close call and Fukushima was, I feel, an oversight by Japanese Engineers for not taking into account the forces of nature. Will areas surrounding Fukushima now have raised incidences of cancer in the future?

Nuclear power is cheap - though hell knows we still pay through the nose for our electricity - but the waste it produces and the risk of more Chernobyls make me wonder whether it's worth it.

Most forms of producing energy have disagreeable elements, even if it's only people objecting to the ugliness of giant windmills on wind farms, except, perhaps, for solar and hydro. Not sufficeinet, unfortunately, to provide all the power we human beanz demand.

They say that 'green' methods of producing energy can only provide about 15% of the energy we require. And even those green methods have drawbacks. Imagine if we could harness wave power, huge areas of coastline would have unsightly constructions on the beaches.

I don't have the answer and I'm not sure which ways to produce power are the most acceptable.

I think the most disturbing picture from those links was the one of the two young girls ill in hospital as a result of radiation.

Very sad.

 

[nivrip]

The future has to be nuclear. There is no other option.

Fossil fuels will not last forever. Wind, solar and wave power will not provide enough.

Of course there are dangers to nuclear but over 60 years that we've had nuclear power how many deaths have there been from it? Perhaps a few hundred and some other illnesses caused by radioactivity too but how many deaths have there been in the mining industry over the years that it has existed? Many hundreds of thousands is the answer.Accidents, injuries, bronchitis and pneumoconiosis. People forget that. Same with the oil industry. And both coal and oil are finite resources.

And, the world population is increasing at a startling rate. We cannot survive without nuclear power. In general it is safe but there will always be accidents. We must ensure that safety is treated very, very seriously.