Take a look at this photo essay by Elena, a Ukrainian motorcyclist who has a disturbingly eerie photo essay of Chernobyl on her website. Elena traveled through the deserted areas to show a modern-day Pompeii. [hat tip SimpleBits]
The Chernobyl explosions and subsequent meltdown happened 18 years ago this month. I remember watching the news of the event as an eleven year-old, wondering about the depth of the damage done there.
In 1996 I traveled to Gomel, Belarus for a few days. Gomel is less than 100 miles northeast of Chernobyl, and was badly affected (local lore says that a week’s stay in Gomel today is equal to a chest x-ray—I only stayed three days). Gomel was a lovely city, but it was a little unnerving to know that something lurked beneath the surface.
That was a fascinating read. I have always wondered what has happened there since the meltdown. Thanks for pointing us that way.
Jared, thanks for that link. Have you read any books on Chernobyl? Ones which you could recommend?
Will
Will–It’s been a few years since I’ve read up on the subject (I wrote a paper in college in 1997 on the ecological effects of the disaster), but I do remember “The Legacy of Chernobyl,” by Zhores A. Medvedev to be pretty informative. I just checked and you can find it used at Amazon. It’s pretty dated (1990), and I don’t know if there has been anything substantive written since. If you do a search for Chernobyl on the IAEA’s website [http://www.iaea.org/], you can find oodles of info there.
hey man. long time no see. nice article. I first read about Elena’s 2 wheeled adventures through Chernobyl on Slashdot.org back in the fall. her most recent web site added a few more photos. Some really neat photos. Email me soon if you get a chance. I want to update you on what I am doing.