25 years ago today...

[Sledgehammer427]

Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl NPP melted down causing the worst nuclear accident in history.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/View_of_Chernobyl_taken_from_Pripyat.JPG/800px-View_of_Chernobyl_taken_from_Pripyat.JPG
its not exactly a holiday but I almost forgot that it happened exactly 25 years ago today.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Ironically, and unwittingly, I've just bought a copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl from a charity shop for £2 this morning :o

Due to the anniversary there's been quite a bit regarding the incident in the media recently - shocking that people are trying to recase it, shocking that people still live there (older generations only though!), but a relief that fewer cases of side effects have developed - but still too many!

[mookiemookie]

Not to turn this into a STALKER thread, but its amazing how when you look at pictures of the real Pripyat, you can recognize the exact same spot in the game.

That place is super creepy. A nuclear ghost town.

[krashkart]

shocking that people still live there (older generations only though!)


Maybe the ones who stayed are like the old man who refused to leave his cabin near Mount St. Helen's before it blew; so attached to the land they love and know so well that they will not uproot for any reason. :DL



A good read for anyone interested is Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. I had to put the book down in a few places to rest my eyes (:03:), but I read it cover to cover in about one night.



That place is super creepy. A nuclear ghost town.

Google for "Battleship Island" some time. That's also a super creepy place. :)

[Sledgehammer427]

A good read for anyone interested is Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. I had to put the book down in a few places to rest my eyes (:03:), but I read it cover to cover in about one night.


I actually read that over a couple days, its one of my favorite books. very quotable.
""Saint Francis preached to the birds. He spoke to them as equals. What if these birds spoke to him in their bird language, and it wasn't he who condescended to them?""

I like how one person described Pripyat, that it "looks exactly like it did when everyone left, and its just sitting there, like everyone is in the next room, waiting for someone to say its okay to go back."

I intend on going into the Zone sometime before I die. Lifelong dream.

[Ducimus]

http://www.firesuite.com/chernobyl-exclusion-zone-2008-09.html

[Betonov]

2 days before my ''2 months on this world'' anniversary. I am told that there was a hell of a panic over how this would effect me. So far so good.

[Jimbuna]

I was watching some footage last week of the people on the reactor roof (or what was left of it) removing the remnants of the radio active tiles wearing next to no protection :nope:

[Ducimus]

I do like pictures. IN case anyones Surf Fu isn't all that great, here's some subset links in the previous link i posted:

Chernobyl gallery (http://www.firesuite.com/firesuite-|-chernobyl-gallery.html)

Chernobyl photos (http://www.firesuite.com/chernobyl-photos.html)

[Alex]

I can't see very well where's the need to celebrate such an anniversary... Besides for those who live far away from that **** and need to amuse themselves (God morbid that I should call them simpletons) with something scary their country has not been related to...

Personally I do find THESE people to be quite creepy themselves, but maybe that's just me.

[Fish In The Water]

I can't see very well where's the need to celebrate such an anniversary...

Well not to 'celebrate,' but certainly to remember in the hope that history doesn't repeat itself...

If we can learn from (or at least be mindful of) this tragedy, then perhaps we are in a better position to improve safety measures to reduce the likelihood of it happening again.

[joea]

Exactly what Fish in the Water said Alex, well celebrate is the wrong word I would say note, mark or better commemorate the date just like we do for famous sad events like the Challenger disaster, etc. Remembrance and reflection.

[Ducimus]

Since when does someone marking the anniversary of a nuclear disaster become construed as celebratory? Must be a French thing.

[TorpX]

I am surprised that so many people work and live in the zone.
Also, it seems odd that anyone would loot items likely to be contaminated. :doh:

[Torplexed]

I am surprised that so many people work and live in the zone.
Also, it seems odd that anyone would loot items likely to be contaminated. :doh:


Most likely, the people sneaking into the exclusion zone to loot and sell radioactive scrap metal are junkies or boozers who don't give a damn about their own lives or the lives of the people they sell it to.

[Ducimus]

Also, it seems odd that anyone would loot items likely to be contaminated. :doh:


People will loot just about anything that isn't nailed down. Although i think most of the looting in the alienation zone was motivated by greed then by souvineer hunters. I've read or heard (probably on some documentary) that most everything of value in the zone has been looted already. Mostly anything that can be sold as scrap for profit. Electrical wiring, water heaters, etc.

One thing i've always wondered, is how much looting and tresspassing has been inspired by the stalker video game series. I love the game series, but in the back of my mind ive always had this niggeling thought that it's probably inspiring the wrong kind of behavior, in a place that should be left alone.

[Torplexed]

There are quite a few mentions of Stalker in the comments section of that Firesuite.com site. I get the impression that a lot of younger people learned most of what they know about Chernobyl through that game. Might also be responsible for the feeling that some had of "being watched" in the crumbling hospital.

[Ducimus]

I get the impression that a lot of younger people learned most of what they know about Chernobyl through that game.

Your probably right. Interesting tidbit. The last stalker game, "Call of Pripyat" actually features many areas from the real alienation zone. They are not arranged to be geographically correct in relation to one another, but some of the locations were made to be represent the real thing. I was reading in the games credits the makers had a few tours of the area. Makes sense really.

[TorpX]

I guess you're right about people taking anything that isn't nailed down.

I've never played any of the "stalker" games so most of what I know of the zone is from newspaper stories back when or bits and pieces since. That travelog was interesting though. It reminded me of things written about places like Pompeii, where disaster struck a city without warning and left the ruins as stark monuments to what occured. I had never heard of the "bridge of death" before. The part about the old woman who went back and still lives in her home is moving. If I was in her shoes, I would do the same, I guess.