The ghost city

Chernobyl, Ucraina

The Chernobyl disaster was the most serious accident ever in a nuclear plant. It is one of two accidents classified as catastrophic, together with the incident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in March 2011.

The disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at about 1.23 am, at the V.I. Lenin nuclear plant, located in northern Ukraine, at the time part of the USSR, 3 km from the city of Prypiat and 18 km from that of Cerbonyl, 16 km south of the border with Belarus. The causes were variously indicated in serious failings by the personnel, both technical and managerial, in problems related to the structure and design of the plant itself and in its incorrect economic and administrative management. During a defined safety test, the personnel was responsible for the violation of various safety and common sense rules, leading to a sudden and uncontrolled increase in power and therefore in reactor temperature n. 4 of the power plant, the refrigeration water was split into hydrogen and oxygen at such high pressures as to cause the reactor cooling system pipes to break. The contact of the hydrogen and the incandescent graphite of the control bars with the air, in turn, triggered a very strong explosion, which caused the reactor to uncover and consequently caused a huge fire.

The reactor where the fire broke out, at the nuclear plant of Chernobyl
The building that was also home to the theater, completely surrounded by vegetation, in the Chernobyl city
The city of Prypiat seen from the roof of one of the many abandoned buildings, and in the background the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Also the ships have remained stopped at the port of the nuclear plant since the moment of the disaster
A large area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still contaminated by radiation
Immediately after the disaster, a large area around the nuclear power plant was evacuated. This couple, however, never left their home and continued to cultivate their land.
The Chernobyl school. Inside the classrooms there is still everything left, books, notebooks and little girls' dolls
The main street of the city of Chernobyl. Pipes for heating gas can not be buried because the soil is still contaminated with radiation
The old Chernobyl train station. It is forbidden to get on trains because they are still contaminated by radiation
One of the many murals painted on the palaces in the city of Prypiat. The city had about 50,000 inhabitants until the day of the disaster. Now it's a ghost town
An impressive government building, in the classic Soviet style, in the center of Prypiat
Thousands of abandoned gas masks inside a school
An old photo of Lenin, lying on the floor of a classroom in a school in Chernobyl
The monument to the first rescuers