the chernobyl disaster: 30 years on (day 1) - laser room measuring device

Eoin English returns to Chernobyl to assess lasting damage and to find a beacon of hope in ruins and radiation.
In the first of a special three
Part of the series, we will take you into the ghost city of Pripyat.
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The Day of Pompeii, the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, is a chilling monument to the world's worst nuclear accident, which happened 30 years ago next Tuesday. . .
Pripyat was built in 1970 and announced as a city in 1979, and is one of the nine atomic cities built by the former Soviet Union to accommodate workers (
And their families)
Chernobyl nuclear power plantpowerstation.
In April 1986, the average age of almost all of its 50,000 residents was 26 years old, with some connection to nuclear power plants three kilometers away. googletag. {});
Pripyat has 13,000 apartments in 160 blocks, more than a dozen single men's and women's residences, eight residences for married couples, 15 primary schools with 5,000 children, and five secondary schools. It had a 410-
The hospital, dozens of shops and shopping centers, cafes and restaurants, and a cultural palace with an amazing glass facade overlooking the magnificent public square, with a public amusement park in the rear
The location of the giant Ferris wheel.
Together with the gymnasium, three indoor swimming pools, the Shooting Hall, the stadium, a huge public park and 30 playgrounds, Pripyat has become a source of great national pride --
A shining example of Soviet industry and modernization.
It all ended in the early hours of April 26, 1986, when a catastrophic error occurred in a safety exercise at the nuclear power plant. googletag. {});
Pripyat was the first to bear the brunt of the accident, which triggered the tsunami of a social, economic and health disaster that is still felt today.
The accident occurred during the closure of the controlled test at Chernobyl. four reactor.
A series of catastrophic misdecisions triggered a deadly explosion and triggered a fierce hell, releasing up to 9 km of radioactive graphite and uranium into the atmosphere.
The deadly radioactive cloud quickly spread to the surrounding area, then moved north, into the south of Belarus, and then spread to Europe, to the UK and Ireland.
3% of the reactor's 190 tons of fuel were discharged.
The rest is still in the broken factory building.
Within a few hours, pripiat was doomed.
By the next day, however, its residents were still not warned of danger. {createP});
Hundreds of volunteers
The soldiers fought to save the power plant from collapse. most of the so-
The person known as the liquidator will die of radiation in a few weeks.
Related Diseases
Although Pripyat's radiation levels are thousands of times higher than natural levels, state officials are trying to keep the scale of the disaster calm. googletag. {});
Until the afternoon of April 27, a city-
Extensive evacuation orders were issued.
To avoid mass panic, residents were told to bring only basic items as if they were allowed to return within three days.
The queue of 1,000 buses is more than 120 km kilometers long.
The evacuation took less than three hours.
The residents never came back.
The city has not lived since then.
An abandoned city, located in the center of a huge restricted area, up to 30 km kilometers.
It is the most radioactive city in the world.
It was compared to a huge setting after
Revelation horror film
It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
Today, as radiation levels have dropped significantly, it is considered safe to visit the 30 km restricted area, but only by permission, which is approved under strict conditions.
Enter Pripyat and the nearby town of Chernobyl, located in the center of the area, under more strict control, and visitors can only visit it accompanied by a tour guide.
Various Ukrainian companies offer guided tours in the alienated Pripyat district, and the number of visitor applications surged ahead of the 30 th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. googletag. {});
Irish humanists, who founded the Adi Roche of the Chernobyl Children's International charity, which provided 100 euros in aid to the region and became the largest global contributor to the victims of the nuclear disaster, led a historic delegation of Irish citizens, including Mayor of Cork, Chris O'Reilly, and the city's chief executive, and as part of the week, Ann Doherty entered the pribiante
A long-term visit in February.
Such delegations rarely have access to such unprecedented visits.
The delegation must go through several external checkpoints to reach the inner cordon guarded by guards equipped with Geiger counters.
The guards inspected every vehicle entering the restricted area only a few kilometers from the power plant.
The curfew starts at eight o'clock P. M. every night. No-
One is allowed in and out.
The delegation drove from the town of Chernobyl along the pripiat River to the city, after dozens of yellow radiation signs planted in the bushes, hundreds of houses on the roadside were flattened.
There are 4,000 adults living in the town of Chernobyl.
Most scientists who are either working for a long time
Long-term monitoring projects, or workers involved in the construction of a huge shield to cover transnational projects at Chernobyl power plants --
Pripyat is a ghost town.
It has appeared in countless documentaries and music videos.
The Top Gear shot there a few years ago is also the background for two missions in the Playstation Call 4: Modern War.
30 years later, however, nature is taking back toxic land.
It was the only sign of life. thriving city. googletag. {});
Passing through the outer barrier of the city, where a cross stood next to another sign of radiation warning, the delegation entered an invisible piece of toxic land, walking through abandoned streets and rotten buildings.
There is no sound in the air.
There are no birds on the tree, no cats or dogs on the street.
Tour guides enforce strict visitor rules.
You can only take certain routes.
Contact with vegetation or buildings is not allowed.
There is a special warning not to touch any metal
Most of them are still exposed to strong radiation.
Weeds grow through cracks on the city's wide boulevard
In the style of Lenin Avenue, its sidewalks are covered with trees and bushes.
Some vacant apartment buildings, up to 15 floors, stood like silent sentries overlooking the street.
Twisted iron bars and rubble block the stairwell.
The robbers took most of their personal belongings.
The unforgettable scenes in the city's former kindergartens and schools highlight the scale of the city's impending human disaster.
The crib in the kindergarten room was rusty, which was once an echo of the children's laughter.
Worn-out teddy bears and broken dolls sit on the shelves, they are left on the shelves, while toy blocks and toddler shoes are scattered on the dusty floor with supervision next to them
In a school, in a broken window, near a row of numbered coats --hangers.
There are books on the bookshelf.
The faint marks of chalk can still be seen on the blackboard.
The water drips from the cracks in the ceiling onto a pile of posts that are still open on the table.
It is clear that in one classroom, the children had the last English class.
They are learning to read music in another room.
On the playground outside, in the bad weather in Ukraine, the swings and slides rust, and the net on the basketball circle is biting --cold wind.
The city's now iconic ferris wheel, frozen on Evacuation Day, soared above the city on a playground behind the palace of culture --
The wind roared through the huge steel bars.
The leaves are scattered on the floor of Dodge baby.
Car attractions-
Several yellow and red cars were parked at their abandoned place. {createP});
In the once magnificent Cultural Palace, paint a layer of paint from the faded murals to let the happy family dance together.
In a huge atrium on the ground floor overlooking the abandoned public square, where customers gathered excitedly before watching opera and ballet performances, the tiles are crumbling from the majestic staircase concrete from the wall.
From here, Adi Roche investigated the creepy scene --
The silence was only broken by the broken glass under her boots.
"I can imagine the people who live here.
They must have a wonderful life . "
"Come back and see if it lost people, and in decline it made me feel pain, sadness, heartbreak for what people lost.
Life changed in a millisecond.
"The accident a mile away left such a mark on people.
Radiation is invisible in nature, but it carries out insidious violence in all aspects of life.
"Lost Family, lost community.
Every time I come back, I feel very sad about the human events happening here.
"The impact of an accident can never be eliminated, and it leaves a radioactive footprint on the land and on people.
"It casts a long shadow on future generations," she said . ".
In the distance, you can see tower cranes rising up high in the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Here, one big, many
The national labor force has been involved in huge economic activities.
The 5bn project is designed to build a huge safety shield, a stone coffin several hundred metres from the side of reactor 4, to contain the threat.
Ireland has contributed € 8 m to the project.
Due to delays, it is hoped that the new structure of safe imprisonment of the international community, which is technically said, will be completed next year. The 100-metre-
High, steel, archshaped shield —
Long enough to accommodate two Crocker parks, high enough to surround the Statue of Liberty
A complex hydraulic pulse system will move along the track and stay above the reactor.
To replace the existing and leaking shielding that was hastily built on the reactor, it is hoped that this huge arch will accommodate at least a century of radioactive material.
Construction workers, most of whom earn € 1,000 a day, go in and out of the site like the label team to minimize radiation exposure.
They also wore two [radiation-
Measuring device]
Make sure they never get radiation at a lethal level.
However, just a few kilometers south, the Geiger counter still records dangerous levels of radiation, and Ivan ximenyuk, a 75-year-old couple, and his wife Maria, who married in 1958, ignore these concerns.
Among the first people evacuated after the accident, they were among the first to move back to their ancestral homes.
They continue to earn a living from toxic land.
Poverty is obvious.
Mr. Simenyuk invited us to visit his traditional farmhouse and to provide us with poitin from Belarus.
According to the guide's suggestion, we politely refused.
He is not only worried about radiation.
This is the power of alcohol.
Mr. Simenyuk sat on a low wooden stool in their kitchen, and his wife stood by, clasped with both hands, telling us that he remembered everything about that defining night in April 1986.
He said through our translator: "They had several explosions in the factory before the big explosion, so we were a little used to it.
"In the morning, we were told it happened.
By then, children at nearby schools were taking iodine.
But the children in this village didn't get iodine, so we thought it was OK here.
"But, three days later, the children of the village began taking the same medicine.
"I had to go to the nuclear power plant on my own business trip and I could see the fire in the reactor.
A few days later, we received an evacuation order from the government.
The army came and removed all the cattle.
"Later, the bus came to evacuate the residents to other villages," he said . ".
The couple and their families and hundreds of their neighbors were moved to a village 30 kilometres away.
"Some people refuse to take us in.
They are worried that we will be polluted.
But an order from the government warns these people that if they don't bring us in, they will be drafted to put out the fire at the power plant, "said Mr Simenyuk.
The evacuees were eventually settled and had a meal in the canteen every day.
Some people work in factories, while others build houses.
When the work was over, they got a location in a village further away.
By 1988 the evacuees had received military assurances that the radiation from their own villages had been restored to a recognized standard and that his wife, Mr. Simenyuk, and their youngest son, were also in 144 families.
Their eldest son who went to college stayed.
"We have been told that our village is clean and you can go back if you like --
So we moved back . "
"I asked military personnel to check the level of radiation in the soil.
We are sure that radiation is good.
So I decided to live in this place.
Mr. Simenyuk found a job in the town of Chernobyl, building houses and dismantling other houses in nearby villages, and also working in the nuclear power plant itself. {createP});
"I worked in the factory for 40 minutes due to radiation.
"I also spent a lot of time working near the nuclear power plant," he said . ".
"I think I'm in good health.
I think the radiation and pollution is up and it's blown by the wind to other places.
All nuclear dust goes with the wind.
"The helicopter pilot who put out the fire and the man who loaded the sand died in the first few weeks.
People trying to steal spare parts from contaminated machines are exposed to radiation, which kills them.
"But those who worked on the nearby ground survived.
His youngest son was trained.
At the university in Kiev, about an hour in the south, then joined the Army and served in East Germany.
However, two of Mr. sinnyu's four grandchildren have had complications from birth --
His youngest granddaughter had a heart attack and one of his grandsons had a hearing loss.
He said he could not be sure that the consequences of the nuclear accident caused defects.
"This may be related to radiation pollution.
It may not be.
"I'm just not sure," he said . ".
As the Belarusian government under the leadership of the controversial President Alexander Lukashenko began to decrypt large areas of contaminated land in southern Belarus and canceled the payment of state support to people living in the region, the latest research report released by Ukraine
Until the 30 th anniversary, the incidence of thyroid cancer showeda radiation-Induced Cancer
The number of children in the region has almost doubled since 2000.
Sergiy Cherenko of the Ukrainian Centre for endocrine surgery science and practice in Kiev said: "Children exposed to radiation in 1986 still have a high risk of cancer and need to continue to observe . ".
At the time of the disaster, children are more dangerous than adults because they absorb five to six times more radioactive material because they are lower in weight, smaller in height and more active in metabolism.
Dr. Cherenko said the medical community was anxiously waiting for 10-to 15-year post-
Chernobyl is the peak period for thyroid cancer, especially among children born between the ages of 1982 and 1986.
However, when he and his colleagues looked at the case later, they observed no decrease in the incidence of thyroid cancer in children at the time of the Chernobyl accident.
Health radiation experts at the National Academy of Sciences say most cancers caused by radiation exposure will not develop in 30 years.
The highest incidence of cancer has not yet occurred and an accurate assessment cannot be made until the end of this period.
Dr. Mario Silva, professor of endocrinology at the University of Milan, said he was not surprised by the incubation period of radiation
Even 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster, thyroid cancer is continuing.
"If the thyroid receives radiation, the risk of cancer will continue," he said . ".
Professor Yuri bandazevski, the world's leading scientist studying the effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the human body through the food chain, said there should be no trace of the deadly radioactive element caesium 137.
"There should not be caesium in the body, nor should there be a problem with a temporary or acceptable level.
The silent killer is radiation.
"Any dose is excessive," he said . ".
MS Roche said research has proved that Chernobyl is not a thing of the past.
"Chernobyl is forever, Chernobyl is forever," she said '. ".
"The impact of this single, shocking nuclear accident will never be eliminated;
"Its radioactive footprint is always embedded in our world, and millions of people are still affected by its deadly legacy," she said . ".
As the world prepares to mark the 30 th anniversary of the disaster, the United Nations is consulting on new development plans in the region. {createP}); READ MORE -
Chernobyl disaster: 30 years have passed (Day 2)READ MORE -
Chernobyl disaster: 30 years have passed (Day 3)
Eoin english wrote that a generation of hopeless parents urged their children to leave the controlled country for a better life and they were too young to remember the nuclear accident.
But Belarus 30-
Some are keenly aware that it still casts a shadow on their country today.
Worried about the impact of the National Security Agency, an educated married father declined to be named. of-
The two said that most of his generation has lost hope for a brighter future, hoping that their children will immigrate abroad and build a better future abroad.
"Most of our country's territory is affected by radioactive dust and rain," he said . ".
"The state is not doing enough to change things.
Instead, they try to hide the fact that some territories are now considered free of pollution, but that is not the case.
"Anyone with a brain will tell you that in places heavily contaminated with such strong substances as sr and some others, radiation cannot disappear within 30 years.
"The country is run by the controversial Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was elected five presidents --
Semester 1994.
But under his supervision, the constitution changed and fixed terms were removed.
He has been president since then.
This country is described as a softdictatorship.
Opposition leaders are often imprisoned.
Forced early elections have been observed.
In last year's presidential election, the government allowed unauthorized opposition rallies in Minsk without police intervention, but Lukashenko warned that,
The election protests are intolerable.
It is against this background that Fatherof-
"Two" outlines the deep feeling of despair and despair, like the invisible radiation leaked from Chernobyl 30 years ago, in the past decade, this despair and despair slowly penetrated into him.
"When I was young, I thought that if we took to the streets to protest, at least if we had peaceful protests, we could change things in this country," he said . ".
"But it didn't happen and we are still the same as 10 or 20 years ago.
"I lost hope and I would prefer my children to go somewhere else to look for their future instead of wasting 20 years here.
"It's the most productive period for a person, and if you 've spent 20 years hoping for something to change here, but not, then you're frustrated.
"Most younger generations think the same way.
He said: "His parents have different ideas from this generation, and they are still plagued by the terror that caused to their country during the 11 th World War, when 25 people were killed.
"They prefer to stay calm rather than protest or make a loud noise.
"They prefer to live a quiet life and put bread and butter on the table," he said . ".
"But bread and butter are not enough for most young people.
Not everything in our lives is about bread and butter. . .
There are more important things in every way, like freedom --
Freedom of speech, freedom of choice of education, of occupation, and so on.
"But the family will not speak out for nothing.
He said that while his situation in Belarus would become better and lose hope, he still felt that people, especially those who were educated, had access to the Internet and information, say it out loud.
"If we continue to think this way, it will continue and there will be no change in 10 years," he said . ".
"We should talk about this.
At least between us.
If we can't speak publicly, we can speak in the kitchen, talk between neighbors, share information about the issue and our concerns.
He said the international community must continue to press the North Korean regime in an effort to improve the living conditions of its citizens.
"We hope that the progress that the West has brought to Belarus through information and education will eventually change the whole country," he said . ". “I hope so. . .
I hope that change will arrive here sooner or later.
"Information is hidden for us, but fortunately, our generation has access to the Internet and information abroad.
"If people know the truth, visit such a place and spread it in the message, it will play a big role in our lives.
At the same time, he wants his children to leave Belarus.
"It's up to them to decide.
But I would prefer that they leave the country as much as possible, receive proper education, and get the right opportunity to build themselves in life.
"That's what anyone who is a parent would say.
Parents will want his or her children to have a brighter future and a better chance somewhere, and even though they are far from their home country, they can start a new life.
"We have a plan for their education, so if they are educated, they may change their lives a little if they find a good job.
"It's a pity that we can't make any changes ourselves.
Irish charity International Chernobyl Children's FundCCI), the only UN-
Recognized NGOs working in the region have been fighting for nearly 20 years to bring hope to the region.
Adi Roche, the company's voluntary CEO, led a historic Irish delegation to the region before its 30 th anniversary, saying: "Our message is that there will always be hope. ”READ MORE -
Chernobyl disaster: 30 years have passed (Day 2)READ MORE -
Chernobyl disaster: 30 years have passed (Day 3)