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The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 was one of the worst the world has ever seen.
50 tons of radioactive material spread across the area, even entering neighboring Belarus.
While 4000 lost their lives in the immediate aftermath, thousands would be affected later.
Mass evacuations turned cities like Pripyat into abandoned ghost towns.
Which makes us wonder - what does the area look like today?
Here are the Top 10 Most Haunting Images From Chernobyl.
10.
The Remains of The No. 4 Reactor This is an image of the No. 4 reactor that
was destroyed in the Chernobyl explosion.
Investigators later found how the accident was largely due to a flawed reactor design.
As if that wasn’t negligence enough, it was also operated by untrained personnel.
Built-up steam that created excessive pressure resulted in a massive explosion, leading to
fires that released five percent of the radioactive core into the environment.
That 5% was enough to kill 31 people and displace 350,000 people from their homes.
For years after the disaster, people suffered the effects of radiation in ways we can’t
even calculate or imagine.
9.
Lead Sheets as Protection In the aftermath of the disaster, robots from
West Germany, Japan, and Russia, were pressed into service to clear the radioactive debris,
with surprisingly little success.
The machines could not cope with the high levels of radiation, so human reservists were
put into action instead - people we now know and praise as, "Chernobyl Liquidators".
The radiation was so great that workers could not remain in the area longer than 40 seconds.
If they did, they would be exposed to the maximum dose of radiation a human should receive
in their entire life.
Moreover, due to lack of clothing, they were made to use thick lead sheets worn under their
cotton overalls that were designed to protect their spine and bone marrow.
In this picture, liquidators can be seen putting on their gear preparing for a cleaning shift.
8.
The Bridge of Death When Reactor No. 4 exploded, several people
allegedly flocked to this railway bridge located just outside the city to get a better view
of the ongoing fire and the beautiful rainbow-colored flames, a phenomenon caused by the burning
graphite core.
According to the HBO show Chernobyl, nearly everyone on that bridge died that night.
However, there's no credible evidence to prove such an event occurred.
Still, it's a very eerie vantage point that a few people were at during the explosion.
7.
Nursery in Pripyat Particularly haunting among images of Chernobyl
was the abandoned and eerie ghost town like appearance of Pripyat.
Pripyat was a model Soviet city with a growing population of 50,000 people, several of whom
worked in the power plant.
The entire city was evacuated after the meltdown and quickly abandoned.
Years after the Chernobyl disaster, Pripyat still remains a ghost town and these are just
a few of the eerie images that prove it.
Rusted beds and carnival rides, rotting dolls, and moss reclaiming the city are just a few
of the common things you'll see.
6.
A Central Square in Pripyat This is an image of a deserted central square
of Pripyat taken on April 5th, 2017, thirty-one years after the Chernobyl Disaster.
While Pripyat and Chernobyl have been deemed safe to visit since 2010, tourists have to
be screened and checked for radiation levels after leaving.
Moreover, if you ever think of visiting Pripyat, you are advised never to touch anything in
case you get exposed to radiation, and to be especially careful not to step on any moss.
Today, Pripyat is used as a laboratory to study the fallout pattern.
Weirdly though, around 1000 residents returned unofficially to live within the declared contaminated
zones within weeks of the disaster.
Of those, about 100 are alive today.
5.
Birth Defects One of the worst results of the Chernobyl
disaster was the after effects that caused thousands of cases of thyroid cancer and birth
defects in babies born as far as Kiev, like the one you’re seeing in this photograph.
Even though citizens of Kiev were warned to keep windows closed and advised frequent bathing,
it didn't prevent babies from being born with weird defects and abnormalities.
UNICEF reported in 2010 that roughly 20% of babies in Belarus also suffered chronic illnesses,
neurological defects, heart conditions, and disabilities as a result of the radiation
leak that even swept across borders.
4.
Vasilii, 15 years old This is Vasilii from Belarus, and he's currently
20 years old as of 2021.
It has been more than three decades since Chernobyl, but the after effects are still
as vivid as ever in the likes of children like Vasilii.
Since 1986, in Ukraine alone, there has been a 200% increase in birth defects and a 250%
increase in birth deformities.
Like Vasilii, another child who made news was Igor Pavlovets from Belarus, who was born
in 1987.
His mother, who lived in a village near Chernobyl, became ill from radiation poisoning while
pregnant, resulting in Igor being born with stunted legs, no right arm and turned-out
feet like Vasilii.
The most common deformity however, turned out to be microcephaly, where children were
born with abnormally large heads.
3.
Two-year-old Nastya Waits for Treatment This is 2-year-old Nastya Dolgovevets from
Slutsk village in Minsk, Belarus.
This photo of Nastya was taken on August 16th, 1996, ten years after the disaster, and shows
her sitting on a bed at the Children’s Division of the Oncology Research Institute in Minsk.
She has iodine marks on her forehead to cover up spots that began appearing on her body.
The fire at the Chernobyl plant also sent 50 tons of radioactive fallout across neighboring
Belarus.
At the time, the government even denied the accident for days, an act which led to people
in the Gomel region of Belarus living in radiation.
2.
Mutated Wildlife The Red Forest in Ukraine is one of the most
contaminated areas in the world, but surprisingly has also turned out a favorable habitat for
some of the world’s most endangered species.
But that doesn’t mean animals were not affected in the aftermath of Chernobyl.
The disaster killed all the trees within the zone, which were bulldozed and buried in post-disaster
operations.
However, several animals began giving birth to deformed young like this colt here, which
was given the nickname, the Gorbachev colt.
This life-sized photo of the colt was taken to the Supreme Soviet in 1988 and shown to
President Mikhail Gorbachev so he'd know what was happening to the country’s wildlife.
1.
The Elephant’s Foot One of the most haunting images of Chernobyl
is the deadly Elephant’s Foot, discovered by researchers in 1986, and today, is the
most dangerous radioactive waste in the world.
It is a mass of melted concrete, core shielding and sand mixed together and named corium.
At the time it was found to be melting it was too hot to approach.
The temperatures recorded ranged from 1,660°C and 2,600°C, or 3020°F to 5,000°F, which
melted reactor rods.
As of now, spending just 30 seconds around the foot will result in dizziness and fatigue.
Two minutes and your cells will begin to hemorrhage.
In five minutes, you'll be dead.
After more than 30 years, it still remains slightly warmer than its climate due to nuclear
decay, and it will be centuries before it's considered safe to be around.
Thanks for watching!
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Should nuclear power still be considered for modern-day use to produce electricity?
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