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A City of Silence in a Place of Death


BurnSide

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In the wee hours of an April morning in 1986 crews at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant began a saftey systems test of reactor 4#. Soon after the test began a chain reaction occured and quickly spead out of control. And then in an instant the world came to a halt.

Within a few minutes the blast from the meltdown explosion spread radiation across the country side. Those who didnt die from the radiation were evacuated away from the danger zone, leaving their cities, towns, and belongings behind. Time stopped in the city of Chernobyl foever.

Today the city and most of the country side sits as it had on the day of the meltdown. Its a silent place. So silent that its almost scary.

A friend found me this link and said to read it and I did. Its the journey of one person into this area of silence. And its recorded in pictures. It's something else entirely. Check it out, click on 'begin'.

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

I think it's important we remember this. Check out the pictures, it's eerie. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to actually be there. Anyone who has seen 28 Days Later will be reminded of the scenes of the movie in the pictures taken.

Time stands still in Chernobyl.

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Edited by BurnSide
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thanks burnside people need to learn a lesson and i am glad you wont let people forget our mistakes do you think we have learned???

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I don't think people have learned squat since this time, and it's bound to happen again someday.

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reminds me of the end of resident evil, or 28 days later.

is it still radioactive?

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And excerpt from the journal, to answer your question riotboy. If you care to read it.

Roentgens

To begin our journey, we must learn a little something about radiation. It is really very simple, and the device we use for measuring radiation levels is called a geiger counter . If you flick it on in Kiev, it will measure about 12-16 microroentgen per hour. In a typical city of Russia and America, it will read 10-12 microroentgen per hour. In the center of many European cities are 20 microR per hour, the radioactivity of the stone.

1,000 microroentgens equal one milliroentgen and 1,000 milliroentgens equal 1 roentgen. So one roentgen is 100,000 times the average radiation of a typical city. A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach.

This sort of radiation level can not be found in Chernobyl now. 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.......

The map above shows the radiation levels in different parts of the dead zone. The map will soon be replaced with a more comprehensive one that identifies more features.

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.

I have never had problems with the dosimeter guys, who man the checkpoints. They are experts, and if they find radiation on you vehicle, they give it a chemical shower. I don't count those couple of times when "experts" tried to invent an excuse to give me a shower, because those had a lot more to do with physical biology than biological physics

user posted image

So basically, high levels of radiation will remain in the area probably for a good century or so. These levels are dangers in the 'dead zone' but you're pretty much safe as long as you don't stray too far into the hot zones and don't remain in the area for long.

You're welcome Jan. It's been around for awhile, but it's always fascinated me.

Edited by BurnSide
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silence

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.

I'd give my right leg to go.

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wow, A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach. ....if the human race ends because of nuclear war...i think we can say the world will be in the hands of the cockroaches. though im sure that alot of plants could survive

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I'm sorry, I don't know much on the area of radiation etc. so I have a question:

If this area is indeed still uninhabitable and highly radioactive...how is this person able to go there and take photo's out of a radiation suit?

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Appalling to see, I saw a PBS documentary showing the inside of Chernobyl. The structure inside, the walls, beams, floors looked like they were built by a tweeker. No craftsmanship what so ever. Scary thought to say the least. If the reactors construction and maintenance was anything like the inside of the building, I'm not surprised.

There was an upside to the documentary. They were showing how the land in and around Chernobyl was being inhabited now by multitudes of new life in respect to large animals and birds using it now as their new large quarters.

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Population of wolves, horses and boars are high too. Funny thing about the wolves is, they're relatively friendly...as someone said, it's probably because they're eating well.

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It also gives you a very good idea of what the entire planet will look like in the aftermath of a worldwide nuclear holocaust.

Life will simply go on without us, the animals will inhabit the emptied cities and adapt.

I think it's beautiful actually...we destroy ourselves and they live in harmony.

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Absolute great find Burnside. I read the whole thing. She is my kinda gal to jump in there like that for us. These quotes of hers hit home............

"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."

The following I borrowed, from my daughter atrueoriginall. It depicts the possibility of something quite similar that could certainly take place in Southern California. Those in Los Angeles should really heed these words she spoke of and stand up to the plate with your local government. And let me say it before any of you do. "As if it matters", their hands are flat from sitting on them for so long. Do it anyway!

Here's a good "END TIME" scenario.

Considering that they are speaking of a port in the next paragraph, I would peg Los Angeles because we have enemies and it is one of the largest ports in the world. San Francisco on the other hand is more a fishing port, which is currently changing, but not anywhere near the degree of the Los Angeles port. Thousands of containers are taken off ships daily in Los Angeles. Containers are only check "inside" randomly. Can you imagine just one of them having a nuclear weapon in it.

Revelations 18:17

17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

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wow,  A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach. ....if the human race ends because of nuclear war...i think we can say the world will be in the hands of the cockroaches. though im sure that alot of plants could survive

398077[/snapback]

Well actually, in my opinion, if the world fell into a nuclear winter there would be three living survivors. Two of which, as you said, would be cockroaches.

The thrid... would be Keith Richards. Smokign a joint. Then he would look at one of the roaches, take a toke, and say 'you know, i smmmoked yer uncle ah! fackiiin craaaaazyay.'

(take from Robin Williams Live)

I'm sorry, I don't know much on the area of radiation etc. so I have a question:

If this area is indeed still uninhabitable and highly radioactive...how is this person able to go there and take photo's out of a radiation suit?

398120[/snapback]

They took with them a radiation detector and stayed within the areas that had next to no radiation at all. Mostly on roads. The detector picks up the hot zones, and whenever they strayed into areas where the detector showed up to much radiation they backed off. Relatively dangerous of course.

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Absolute great find Burnside.  I read the whole thing.  She is my kinda gal to jump in there like that for us.  These quotes of hers hit home............

"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."

The following I borrowed, from my daughter atrueoriginall.  It depicts the possibility of something quite similar that could certainly take place in Southern California.  Those in Los Angeles should really heed these words she spoke of and stand up to the plate with your local government.  And let me say it before any of you do. "As if it matters", their hands are flat from sitting on them for so long.    Do it anyway!

Here's a good "END TIME" scenario.

Considering that they are speaking of a port in the next paragraph, I would peg Los Angeles because we have enemies and it is one of the largest ports in the world.  San Francisco on the other hand is more a fishing port, which is currently changing, but not anywhere near the degree of the Los Angeles port.  Thousands of containers are taken off ships daily in Los Angeles. Containers are only check "inside" randomly. Can you imagine just one of them having a nuclear weapon in it. 

Revelations 18:17

17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

398193[/snapback]

Thank you Ms. squweekie, and you're very welcome.

I know i read the whole thing too. Awful things huh. Another passage that affected me was the one about the playground and amusement park being right next to the reactor and first hit. Mothers were running around screaming in a giantic cloud of radioactive dust desperately searching for their children. The pictures of the area are especially chilling.

We can only pray that mankind is to learn from the terrible mistakes it makes, but we already know this is not true, and history always has a way of repeating itself. Sadly i'm sure it will happen again, i can only hope that it doesn't though.

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Sadly i'm sure it will happen again, i can only hope that it doesn't though.

It will happen again most assuredly......it's just a matter of 'when'........

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I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv

http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=8951

Although she did fabricate pictures and her story, this should not take away from the horrific scene that still exists there. If she did accomplish anything with her hoax, it was reminding us about this seemingly forgotten tragedy.

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Is that right, it was a hoax?

Well, i guess that kinda makes more sense as to why she didn't, yanno, DIE or something. But the pictures are real right. It is a ghost town.

I'd live to see it one day.

Where have you been Chauncy? Good to have you back!

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Posted by "pulse" -

I've been biting my tongue about this one for a month now as I prepare my own website on the subject..

On April 27, 2004 (18th anniversary + 1 day of the Chernobyl disaster) I did a tour of Chernobyl, the nuclear power station and the ghost town Pripyat. As part of this, I had lengthy discussions with my tour guide about Elena's website, and she told me a few things about it.

1) Her father is NOT a scientist. She does NOT have an 'unlimited access' pass to Chernobyl

2) She has never been on a motorcycle inside Chernobyl. If you notice, the pictures including her bike stop when she gets to the access control point. They did NOT let her in.

3) While she HAS been to Chernobyl, she did exactly the same tour I did, and she went with her husband.

4) In her original website, she mentioned she never goes inside buildings without a girl who lives in Chernobyl, who "is familiar in the ways of the atom and has good taste in shoes" and makes her living showing people around. This person's name is Rimma Kiselitsa. She works for the group Chernobylinterinform (http://www.chernobyl.info) - and was my tour guide.

Yes, I had the same tour guide in Chernobyl that Elena had.

But there's more. I'll give an example - one of the pictures on her original site was inside a kindergarden. It's a picture of a baby's crib, with a photo of Lenin, a child's gas mask, and some toys. These photos were 'staged' by Elena's husband. He found the photo of Lenin elsewhere, put it in the cott and placed a gas mask alongside then took a photo of it.

This annoyed Rimma immensely. She was not impressed from start to finish about Elena and her husband, as they seemed to be trying to take photos for shock value - not how the place really is. I had no intention of doing such things (in fact, I saw the very cott they took the picture of I mentioned above, still in the same state that they left it in), and Rimma picked up on this. She took me to MANY places she didn't even tell Elena about. As part of my day's tour, I took over 400 photographs. I watched Rimma remove the gas mask and photograph of Lenin, and put them back in their original homes.

The reason I was told all of this was because Rimma is very annoyed about the whole affair - she's getting phone calls from movie producers wanting to make movies about this "heroic" girl. She's getting people demanding the same unlimited access pass that Elena supposedly has. These do not exist, and she's sick of explaining it to people. When I mentioned I too wished to create a website, she started to talk about it all. Rimma has been featured in Maxim magazine, a number of other magazines and newspapers, and indeed the day I did the tour she told me if I got back to my hotel in Kiev on time to turn on Channel 1 at 7:30pm - she was hosting a documentry on Chernobyl (which looked interesting, but I'm an Australian - I don't speak Ukrainian. I couldn't understand a word).

As part of this, I have offered for her to proof read my website before it goes live, to make sure I have all the facts right. In return, Rimma has said that I may use an "Endorsed by Chernobylinterinform" logo on the page.

So yes, Elena's website is fake, and much of the things she discusses are complete, utter, 100% bull****.. such as you have to stand in the middle of the road. Rimma and I strolled through parks, across fields, around gardens, everywhere. At the end of it, the machine said I had as much radioactivity as when I arrived. Bugger all. This is Rimma's job, this is her life, and she's been doing it for 10 years. She KNOWS what she's talking about, and is truly one of the nicest people I've ever met.

I'll just finish by giving a link to a panoramic photo I took on a rooftop in the centre of Pripyat - it also shows Rimma in it standing just below me (in fact, due to the way the photos were stitched together she's actually shown twice).

http://www.web-axis.net/~pulse/chernobyl/p...t-panoramic.jpg (4mb - 13,112 x 952 resolution)

Details of the tour that I AND Elena did can be found at http://www.ukrcam.com/tour/tour_3.html - where you can also book your own tours if you're interested. By the way, it's not exactly a tour group - it was myself, my driver (in the fearsome Soviet Lada car) and Rimma. That's it. It's a private tour, not exactly a Greyhound tour of Chernobyl..

It was quite simply the most AMAZING experience I've ever had.

Tony Brown (pulse .. at .. web-axis.net)

*modified to add my name for verification.

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Edited my post. Don't want to sound like I'm making waves. Great site though. Too bad a conspiracy on the writers work had to be thrown in.

Edited by atrueoriginall
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Not sure what you're on about atrue, but hey i'll that it as a compliment. original.gif

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But just the same, you discredited the credibility of the topic and its falling off the charts accordingly. By Tuesday it'll be in the trash and darn it, it's probably the absolute best post I have yet seen done in all topics within this whole forum since I came in.

So...Manfred's the bad guy here? Not the person who originally staged the shots and hoaxed the article?

That it is a tragic story is true, however it would have been just as tragic if it were told as it was. Instead, it was given the "Hollywood" treatment, and passed off as real. Its credibility was destroyed when it was based on an untruth, not when the truth was exposed. Using a lie to support an idea does nothing to further credibility.

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I agree with aquatus. What was the point in lying in the article and blowing it up to higher proportions? Why not just say it how it was?

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