Elderly Couple: Staryye Shepelichi

Final Thoughts

A journey to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a fascinating, yet somber experience. The area is not a nuclear wasteland, but a beautiful landscape largely untouched by humans for the last 20 years. Many visitors feel themselves changed after a visit here. I am writing this article six months after my excursion, and still find it difficult to describe my feelings. I do feel as if the Zone has truly changed me, though I find it impossible to explain how. Perhaps these lyrics from American artists Huns & Dr. Beeker can describe it for me:

Gone the homes, the gardens and the playgrounds

Gone the souls who made their livings here

They say this place will always be a ghost town

It will be for at least six hundred years

From: "Ghost Town (For the Victims of Chernobyl)"

© 2006 Hunsbusher/Erickson

Mark Resnicoff is a database programmer and amateur photographer. All photographs were taken with a Nikon D200 camera and Nikon 18-200 VR Zoom Lens. A Nikon SB-800 flash unit was used for interior photos when necessary.

To view bigger images in this series please click here.

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Chernobyl Article

January 15, 2007, 07:50:37 AM by Dallas

Chernobyl: 20 Years Later by Mark Resnicoff.

Please post your comments and questions to the author here.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

1: January 15, 2007, 09:02:42 AM by madhatter

Wow. Thanks for this very interesting article. To see such pictures was breath-taking.

Cheers,
Arvid

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Re: Chernobyl Article

2: January 15, 2007, 11:50:51 AM by afx

THANKS!

afx

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Re: Chernobyl Article

3: January 15, 2007, 12:21:32 PM by MarkR

If anyone has any questions about my trip or about the Chernobyl Plant/Exclusion Zone in general, please feel free to post them here and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Thanks for reading the article.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

4: January 15, 2007, 12:52:32 PM by Dallas

Actually, I have a question, Mark.

Looking at some of the Pripyat photos one can't help but wonder what has caused such dereliction that appears there? Is it the radiation, vandalism or just 20 years of zero-maintenance that would cause such a thing? I'm specifically looking at the pics of the canteen and schools where it looks as if a bomb went off.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

5: January 15, 2007, 01:59:13 PM by MarkR

Quote from: Dallas on January 15, 2007, 12:52:32 PM

Actually, I have a question, Mark.

Looking at some of the Pripyat photos one can't help but wonder what has caused such dereliction that appears there? Is it the radiation, vandalism or just 20 years of zero-maintenance that would cause such a thing? I'm specifically looking at the pics of the canteen and schools where it looks as if a bomb went off.

Issues such as the peeling paint is the result of 20 years of zero-maintenance/neglect.  It is not shown in the pictures, but the floors in many buildings are in major disrepair.  In the school hallway near the gas masks, my foot almost went clear through a hole in the floor (the weakened floor is covered by a plastic-type material, so I could not see the condition of the floor as I walked on it).

In other photos like in the schools, you can see furniture, books, paper, etc. strewn around a room.  That is the result of vandalism, both from looters and some tourists/visitors moving objects around.

The vandalism still occurs to this day.  In late December, several editors from the website Pripyat.com were in Pripyat and ran across some men who were attempting to steal radiators out of the city.  It is believed they were going to use them for scrap metal.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

6: January 15, 2007, 05:26:54 PM by Equis25

Mark,

This is a fascinating article.  Since I am not familiar with the topography of the area and read that debris was buried for a while, was there any  effect on the watertable  and on the population areas downstream?

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Re: Chernobyl Article

7: January 15, 2007, 06:03:58 PM by MarkR

Quote from: Equis25 on January 15, 2007, 05:26:54 PM

Mark,

This is a fascinating article.  Since I am not familiar with the topography of the area and read that debris was buried for a while, was there any  effect on the watertable  and on the population areas downstream?

Beyond the villages, there was also a small forest near the plant (called the "red forest") that was so contaminated, they ended up burying the entire forest (a new forest has since grown in its place).

After they had buried all those villages, it was determined that the debris was too close to the watertable and could possibly cause new problems.  The biggest concern was about the main river in the area, the Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dniepr River.  The Dniepr flows through the Ukrainian capital Kiev (Kyiv) with a population around 3,000,000.  That is why they stopped burying the villages.

As far as I know, the Dniepr was never contaminated from the accident or later from contamination seeping through from the Chernobyl area watertables.  The Pripyat River is contaminated, but somehow the contamination does not seem to reach Kiev.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

8: January 15, 2007, 06:17:24 PM by Seymore

W O W ! ! !

You brought back some real memories for me. I still remember being glued to the TV for what seemed like a week watching much of that unfold. Thanks for the update Mark. Very thought provoking and quite humbling to remind us that "human error" can be consequential.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

9: January 15, 2007, 06:58:56 PM by cyberean

powerful imagery, still.
thanks for sharing your experience , Mark.

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Re: Chernobyl Article

10: January 16, 2007, 12:35:30 PM by olivier

Thanks a lot Mark, it helped me put images on a fantastic radio show I listened to a few months ago, on this subject. Your analysis is very close to what I remember from that show, especially about some aged people that chose to remain there despite the obvious danger. Congratulations on the pictures too.
Olivier

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