Today marks the 30th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in Ukraine.
I visited the exclusion zone earlier this year and have put together a personal photo essay of my trip there.
I hope you will find it interesting.
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PZF Photography 
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I am studying environmental impact of Chernobyl in one of my classes right now, and I was struck by the lack of preparation that the government put into evacuation procedures and emergency systems… I think I read that they let people carry on days(36 hours?) after the incident had occurred and people were already falling ill of acute radiation sickness. Your photos are fascinating and you did a wonderful job. I’m glad you took the precautions seriously and that you were brave enough to venture to this place.
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Thank you so much for adding to the discussion. The environmental impact is really interesting and it’s great you’re studying it. I’ve read some information on it, and I would certainly like to learn more about it. I think the delay in evacuating the area around Chernobyl was not necessarily due to lack of preparation. The Soviet regime did not ever countenance failure and, from a lot of the research I’ve done, it seems that was at the root of the delay. They just could not – or would not – accept the scale of the tragedy unfolding before them until it was too late.
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Hi I am really interested in the topic. I am originally from Poland, and my parents have memories about this event. It was a hot day, but sky used be somehow different. The communists would not even allow news broadcasting stations to report the event. I want to visit the zone, if I have a chance to go to Kiev.
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The official Soviet TV news announcement of the disaster, when it was finally made, was shocking in its brevity. It gave absolutely no indication of the severity of the disaster. I think it lasted 14 seconds in total. I hope you will get the chance to visit the zone some day. I am sure you will find it fascinating.
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I wouldn’t be caught dead in the Exclusion Zone.
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I still wouldn’t walk in that excluded zone.
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Interestingly, Jean, a day in the zone these days exposes you to less radiation than a dental x-ray (as long as you stick to designated routes and follow certain, basic precautions). There are staff working on a new sarcophagus and they work 15 days on and 15 days off. We had a geiger counter with us at all times and it was extremely low apart from one or two places (the Kindergarten for example). But I do understand that it will never be a destination of choice for many people.
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