CHERNOBYL AND IT'S LEGACY

TRIBUTE

2008-07-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

VICTIMS OF RADIATION

2008-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

CHILDREN OF CHERNOBYL

2008-07-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

HEROES OF CHERNOBYL

2008-07-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

THE LIQUIDATORS

2008-07-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

28 DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT

2008-07-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

AFTER THE EXPLOSION

2008-07-26T13:06:00.002-07:00

INSIDE THE REACTOR

2008-07-26T13:06:00.001-07:00

"NEVER AGAIN"

2008-05-14T03:05:00.000-07:00

"THE CHILDREN "THE INNOCENT VICTIMS"

2008-05-14T02:57:00.000-07:00

CHERNOBYL IN PORTUGUESE

2008-05-11T21:46:00.002-07:00

CHERNOBIL EN CASTELLANO

2008-05-11T21:46:00.001-07:00

MALFORMATIONS

2008-03-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

Between 1989-1990, a notable increase in genetic malformations in animals was noted. The following year, almost 400 deformed animals were born. In 1990, Igor Kostin took photographs of these mutations, including this eight-legged foal, and sent them to Mikhail Gorbachev to encourage him set up an international commission to investigate the causes of the changes; he received no reply from the Soviet leader.

CANDLES ILLUMINATE THE NIGHT

2008-03-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

Candles illuminate the night, as people in silence think and remember...

UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT LAYS FLOWERS

2008-03-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko lays flowers at a Chernobyl monument in Kiev.

REMEMBERING FRIENDS WHO DIED

2008-03-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

Memorial services dedicated to the Chernobyl disaster were held the early hours of Wednesday morning. Here, a couple lights up candles in the city of Slavutych, Ukraine -- located just outside the Chernobyl exclusion zone -- to honor those who died.

BLUE BALLOONS IN REMEMBRANCE

2008-03-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Blue balloons in remembrance of the people who died in Chernobyl, Belarus opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich releases balloons on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Gomel, the nearest Belarusian city to the exploded reactor.

THE PEOPLE DEMAND THE TRUTH

2008-03-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Demonstrators request the government make Chernobyl secret documents public during a march that ended in the Dynamo stadium in Kiev. A banner reads "We demand a Nuremburg tral for Chernobyl."

THE PAIN WILL ALWAYS BE THERE

2008-03-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

Igor Kostin / Corbis

The former director of the Chernobyl site, Viktor Brioukhanov, sits with his wife in their apartment on his return home after serving a ten-year prison sentence for his involvement in the catastrophe.

CONCERT FOR CHERNOBYL

2008-03-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday afternoon, a French group performed "La diagonale de Tchernobyl"

in front of Reactor no. 4 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

BABUSHKA STAYS PUT

2008-03-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

One of several Ukrainian villagers who have refused to leave their homes in the

"zone of exclusion."This babushka continues to live in a toxic land and eat the contaminated water and food.

TWENTY YEARS

2008-03-02T19:20:00.000-08:00

Igor Kostin was born in Moldavia in 1936. After working as an engineer for ten years, he became a photographer for the Nowosti news agency. Kostin has been documenting the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster for 20 years.

ONLY ONCE IN A LIFETIME

2008-03-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

In September 1986, reservists -- the so-called "liquidators" cleared 170 tons of rubble from the roof of the reactor complex. Normally, the liquidators ascended the roof only once, because the radiation dose they received there is the maximum authorized dosage a human being should receive in his entire life.

THE LIQUIDATORS

2008-03-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Reservists working in the disaster area -- the so-called "liquidators." They are building makeshift protective suits from lead sheets.

THE FIRST HELICOPTER TO FLY OVER

2008-03-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken at 4 p.m from the window of the first helicopter to fly over the disaster zone to evaluate radiation levels above the site, 14 hours after the explosion. The overview of the exploded reactor is foggy due to radiation, which also explains why the shot was not taken too close to the window. Later, radiation experts learnt that levels reached 1500 rems, 200 meters above the reactor, despite the fact that their counters did not exceed 500 rems.

THE CHERNOBYL CHILD

2008-03-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Igor Kostin discovered this deformed child in a special school for abandoned children in Belarus. The photo, published in the local Belarus press, named the boy "The Chernobyl Child". Following the publication of the image in German magazine "Stern", the photo appeared throughout the world and the child was adopted by a British family. The boy underwent several operations carried out by a British surgeon and is now living a relatively normal life and going to school.

TO WORK UNDER A TOXIC CLOUD

2008-03-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

When the Chernobyl plant was shut down, it was nevertheless necessary to assure its maintenance and surveillance. Employees head off by bus to begin another day's work in a highly contaminated environment.

CHECKING FOR RADIATION

2008-03-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

A Soviet technician checks toddler Katya Litvinova, during a radiation inspection of residents of the village of Kopylovo, near Kiev, May 9, 1986.

THE RECHITSA ORPHANAGE

2008-03-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Children in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine have been suffering from the effect of the radiation released in April 1986. The Rechitsa orphanage in Belarus has been caring for the huge population of sick children,

ABANDONED CHILDREN

2008-03-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

Twenty-one years after the disaster, abandoned mentally and physically handicapped children are being found and taken in by orphanages.

MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

2008-03-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

Mentally handicapped children exposed to radiation

THE BIRTH DEFECTS DUE TO RADIATION

2008-03-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

Sasha is one of the children at the Vesnova orphanage. More than five million children are living in the affected areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

CHA0S

2008-03-02T02:38:00.000-08:00

CHILDREN THE INNOCENT VICTIMS

2008-03-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

THE CONTAMINATED RIVER TECHA

2008-03-02T02:30:00.001-08:00

Muslyumovo, Russia

The contaminated river Techa

TWIN BROTHERS BOTH SICK

2008-03-02T02:28:00.000-08:00

Minsk ,Belarus
Twin brothers Michael and Vladimir are 16 years old
Michael with hydrocephalus is five minutes older than Vladimir who is deaf
Picture by Robert Knoth

IRINA AND YELENA HAVE CANCER

2008-03-02T02:25:00.000-08:00

Gomel, Belarus,

Two sisters with brain tumors. Irina is 19 and Yelena is 24

They left Chernobyl as soon as they were told, but the radiation was too strong.

Picture by Robert Knoth

RAMZIS IS ASHAMED AND SAD

2008-03-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

Kurmanova, Russia

Ramzis Faisullin, is 16 years old, he suffers in school because of teasing by boys and girls, he hopes his children will not look like him

Picture by Robert Knoth

AINAGUL DOES NOT GROW ANYMORE

2008-03-02T02:17:00.000-08:00

Semipalatinks, Kazakhstan

Ainagul Aksuatsky is 6 years old, but has not grown since the age of three, her parents took her out of school and have considered placing her in an orphanage because they do not have the money for her care, she tries to study at home now.

Picture by Robert Knoth

THE CHILDREN OF CHERNOBYL

2008-03-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

The incident of troath cancer is alarming specially among little ones, who have to eat and get their chemotherapy through a tube in the chest.

Vova a 15 year old lost his leg due to cancer. from the radiation exposure, the cancer has now spread to his body.

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A nurse hugs a little 3 year old Yulya who's brain is in a membrane in the back of his head

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A nurse prepares a bath while Zgenya a 2 1/2 year old with a massive growth that contains his kidneys, sits and waits. the tumor is inoperable

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A nurse holds a 2 1/2 year old with a massive growth that contains his kidneys

Novinki Asylum, Minsk Irish university students, spend their summer helping the children

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A young boy smiles sitting on the lap of Katia Matusevich who directs the students volunteers and works with the children.

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A grade teacher, Ocsana Saveleva visited the asylum and never left, she teaches and cares for the children, and they love her

Novinki Asylum, Minsk The boys love the physical therapist Valentine

Novinki Asylum, Minsk A hydro cephalic little girl sit in silence among the chaos

Novinki Asylum, Minsk These boys rock and huddle all day

Novinki Asylum, Minsk This boy has to be restrain so he does not bite his hands until they bleed

Novinki Asylum, Minsk This little boy, cries all the time.

ALL GREEN BUT CONTAMINATED

2008-03-02T00:55:00.000-08:00

All is green but contaminated and it will stay that way for many, many, many, years...

Picture by Elena Filatova

INSIDE THE CHERNOBYL PLANT

2008-03-02T00:50:00.000-08:00

A rare picture of the inside of the Chernobyl plant.

The sun filters through the color stained windows

Picture by Elena Filatova

PROMETHEUS FIRE

2008-03-02T00:42:00.000-08:00

Prometheus fire. This sculpture was in the center of the town, it was moved to the nuclear power plant after the accident. It is Prometheus stealing fire from Gods and giving it to the humans...
Picture by Elena Filatova

LEFT BEHIND

2008-03-02T00:37:00.000-08:00

Many houses and apartments were left with memories like these portraits of two little brothers

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE DEAD TOWN

2008-03-02T00:34:00.000-08:00

It seems like a normal town. There is a taxi stop, a grocery store, someone's wash hangs from the balcony and the windows are open, but there is nobody home, it is sad to think that those windows were opened to the spring air of April of 1986.

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE RADIATION

2008-03-02T00:29:00.000-08:00

It is safe to be in the open air in Ghost Town. It is inside the houses where the real danger lies. One must be especially careful in houses with open windows facing the Atomic Power Plant. Taking such a walk with no special radiation detecting device is like walking through a minefiled wearing snowshoes. Chernobyl released more radioactive contamination than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined, producing more than 200 times the Caesium contamination of the two nuclear bombs.

Picture by Elena Filatova

LOOKING AT THE SILENT CITY

2008-03-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

From here, the shining cloud above the reactor must have been a staggering sight. Standing on the roof of the highest building in this empty town brings a feeling of being completely alone in the world - like this whole town is. Perhaps future archeologists will compare this town to Pompeii. The Soviet era is forever preserved here - in the radiation that will last for many centuries. Picture by Elena Filatova

RADIATION CARS

2008-03-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

Every step toward the little cars adds 100 microroentgen to my geiger counter reading. Picture by Elena Filatova

ONLY THE ROAD IS NOT CONTAMINATED

2008-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

It shows various levels of radiation on asphalt - usually on the middle of road - because at edge of the road it is twice as high. If you step 1 meter off the road it is 4 or 5 times higher. Radiation sits on the soil, on the grass, in apples and mushrooms. It is not retained by asphalt, which makes rides through this area possible.

Picture by Elena Filatova

EMPTY CITY

2008-03-02T00:09:00.000-08:00

Around 70 percent of the fallout settled in Belarus where more than 3,500 settlements including 27 tens, and more then 2 million people were exposed to contamination Since de accident more than 134.000 Belarusian have moved to "clean"areas of the country..

Picture by Elena Filatova

LEAVE IN A HURRY

2008-03-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Children had to part with their favorite toys. People had to leave everything, from photos of their grandparents to cars. Their clothes, cash and passports has all been changed by state authorities. Incredibly, people had homes, motorcycles, garages, cars, country houses, they had money, friends and relatives. People had their lives. Each had their own niche. And then in a matter of hours , their entire world fell to pieces. After a few hours trip in an army vehicle, they stood under a shower, washing away radiation. Then they stepped in a new life, naked with no home, no friends, no money, no past and with a very doubtful future.

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE FAIR IS SILENT NOW

2008-03-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

This town might be an attractive place for tourists. Some tourists companies have been trying to arrange tours in this town, but the first group of tourists found the silence unnerving and downright SPOOKY. And it is. They charged 1200 hryvnas for a 2 hour excursion and after some 15 minutes, they wanted to flee to the outside world. The silence here is deafening.

Picture by Elena Filatova

WILD LIFE

2008-03-01T23:55:00.000-08:00

Populations of wolfs, wild boars and deer grow rapidly. They occupying the abandoned houses and sheds. They are curiously unagressive here. Maybe that has something to do with the food supply which plentiful for all species except man, but contaminated. It's not unusual to see a wolf, a fox, a wild boar or a wild deer casually crossing the road.

Picture by Elena Filatova

GHOST TOWN

2008-03-01T23:49:00.000-08:00

With a 4 kilometer leap, we are at the gates of the Ghost Town. It was founded in 1970 and located 4 kms North of the reactor. 48,000 people lived here and loved their town. In 1986, it was a modern, green and cozy place to live.

Picture by Elena Filatova

ROAMING FREE

2008-03-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

Strange to see wild horses running in the silence of the morning...they belonged to someone and after the evacuation they were left behind, they multiplied since then and now the ones who survived are roaming free

Picture by Elena Filatova

DANGER KEEP OUT

2008-03-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

In the countryside the sign hanging from the dead tree reads...danger radiation keep out!

Picture by Elena Filatova

EMPTY HOMES

2008-03-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Empty homes that once had happy people living, laughing and children playing...are now silent

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE LITTLE SHOES

2008-03-01T22:54:00.000-08:00

The little shoes on the window, who knows if the little ones were saved

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE PRESCHOOL

2008-03-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

There are hundreds of little gas masks, a teachers diary and a last note saying that their walk on Saturday has been canceled due to some unforeseen contingency...

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE BRIDGE

2008-03-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

This bridge that many times people crossed on their bicycles, became the looking post for many curious people that came here to have a look and without knowing were bathed in a flood of deadly x-rays emanating directly from the glowing nuclearcore.
picture by Elena Filatova

THEY NEVER RETURNED

2008-03-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

The fire engines never returned in their garages, and the firemen never returned to their homes. .

picture by Elena Filatova

THE REMAINS

2008-03-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

These abandoned fire engines are some of the most radioactive objects in all of Chernobyl.

picture by Elena Filatova

THE HEROES WHO DIED

2008-03-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

The causes of the accident are described as a fateful combination of human error and imperfect technology. . The firemen were the first on the scene, and they thought it was an ordinary fire. No one told them, what they were really dealing with.

Picture by Elena Filatova

ONE WAY TRIP

2008-03-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

On the night of the explosion, about 600 young men with no protective gear, volunteers firefigthers, fougth the fire and exposed themselves to the radiation...

most died within 3 months of acute Radioactive Sickness.

Picture by Elena Filatova

NO MORE DANCING

2008-03-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

This colorful mural, shows people celebrating, it was painted on the wall of a party hall...

Picture by Elena Filatova

THE PLAY THAT NEVER WAS

2008-03-01T00:59:00.000-08:00

This pictures are of actors who were going to present a play ....

Picture by Elena Filatova

HOW DOES IT WORK?

2008-03-01T00:44:00.000-08:00

The operation of a nuclear reactor is as follows: as the reaction occurs, the uranium fuel becomes hot water pumped through the core in contained pressure tubes removes the heat from the fuel the water boils into steam the steam turns two turbines which spin electrical generators the water is cooled ...and the process continues on and on.

All the reactor is really doing is boiling water which in turn, becomes steam and turns turbines to generate electricity.

The Reactor Vessel houses all of the other reactor parts

The Core consists of a huge container filled with the graphite blocks (in RBMK reactors)

The Control Rods long metal rods which, in the Chernobyl reactors, contain boron they help control the chain reaction by absorbing free neutrons an elevator-like device just outside of the reactor vessel inserts or withdraws the rods to slow down or speed up a chain reaction, respectively

THE RADIATION

2008-03-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

In the first days after explosion, some places around the reactor were emitting 3,000-30,000 roentgens per hour. The firemen who were sent to put out the reactor fire were fried on the spot by gamma radiation. The remains of the reactor were entombed within an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus, so it is now relatively safe to travel to the area - as long as we do not step off of the roadway Some 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material remains deep within it, and this poses and environmental hazard until it is better contained
The Chernobyl unit 4 is now enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was erected quickly to allow continuing operation of the other reactors at the plant.

A New Safe Confinement structure will be built by the end of 2011, and then will be moved into place on rails

It is to be a metal arch 105 metres high and spanning 257 metres, to cover both unit 4 and the hastily-built 1986 structure

AND THEN IN ONE TERRIBLE HOUR

2008-03-01T00:36:00.000-08:00

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard for safety. The resulting steam explosion and fire released at least five percent of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind. 28 people died within four months from radiation or thermal burns, 19 have subsequently died, and there have been around nine deaths from thyroid cancer apparently due to the accident: total 56 fatalities as of 2004. An authoritative UN report in 2000 concluded that there is no scientific evidence of any significant radiation-related health effects to most people exposed. This was confirmed in a very thorough 2005-06 study.

Picture by Elena Filatova

MAP OF UKRAINE

2008-03-01T00:33:00.000-08:00

THE PEACEFUL MORNING

2008-03-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

That peaceful spring morning, the horses were pasturing and the forest was filled with the sound of birds

THE CHURCH

2008-03-01T00:23:00.000-08:00

The night before

SAILING

2008-03-01T00:20:00.000-08:00

The weather was nice, and people went out to the lake to sail

CELEBRATING

2008-03-01T00:16:00.000-08:00

The whole family was celebrating, the wedding party

REHERSAL

2008-03-01T00:13:00.000-08:00

That spring they were rehearsing for a school play, parading up and down the school yard

SCHOOL

2008-03-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Just like children all over the world, the children of Chernobyl were attending classes and making plans for a school play

THIS WAS CHERNOBYL IN APRIL 1986

2008-02-29T23:13:00.000-08:00

Chernobyl was a lovely place, with gardens and roses and good schools, children were happy, the families were out on weekends filling the parks and enjoying the good Spring weather.