Inside the ghostly abandoned remains of Chernobyl and Pripyat 32 years after nuke power plant disaster
THE ghostly remains of Chernobyl and the abandoned nearby town of Pripyat have been captured by an adventure photographer 32 years after the nuclear disaster.
Creepy images show a stalled Ferris wheel, baby cribs, classrooms filled with dusty desks and and a piano on a crumbling stage.
Other spooky shots show a chessboard left mid-game, a room full of children’s beds with stuffed toys left behind and bumper cars rusting after being left to face the elements.
Romanian photographer Cristian Lipovan travelled to the 18-mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl in Northern Ukraine to photograph the eerie ruins.
The power plant and nearby town Pripyat – once home to 50,000 people – remain more or less untouched three decades after they were evacuated.
Lipovan said: “In the photos, you can see the sad or the happy story of a people who once lived there.
“My expedition to Chernobyl and Pripyat was the most exciting adventure I have ever had.
“It changed my life – I now appreciate everything around me.”
He says his next expedition will take him to Fukushima in Japan – which was abandoned after the nuclear disaster caused by a tsunami in 2011.
Chernobyl was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident when the No.4 reactor overheated during a bungled safety test on the night of 25–26 April 1986.
The explosion and fire that raged for nine days sent radioactive particles into the atmosphere which spread across Europe.
At least 31 people died – including two at the scene and dozens more who succumbed to radiation sickness in the following weeks – but the number of deaths including from cancer could eventually hit 4,000.
The local town of Pripyat became uninhabitable because of radiation levels which are still dangerous today.
It has become an unlikely tourist attraction – but visitors are allowed only for a short period to limit their exposure.
Last year another photographer captured the daunting legacy for a generation of youngsters growing up near the disaster site in the former USSR.
Work has begun on a massive shield designed to seal in the shattered reactor.
But scientists fear wolves living at the radioactive site are spreading mutant genes across Europe.
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