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Archive for the ‘Chernobyl’ Category

Chernobyl: Fukushima In 25 Years?

Posted in Chernobyl, Japan, Power Station, Pripyat, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Urbex on 2011/03/12| 12 Comments »

It’s a weird situation. Here I am, living in Japan, writing a series about Chernobyl 25 years after the catastrophe – while the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is getting out of control. I actually don’t have anything to add to the discussion as the media and their experts are all over the topic anyways. But since I got many, many messages, not only from family and friends, but also from readers of this blog, I just wanted to say that I wasn’t affected by the quake directly and that my thoughts are with the people suffering from the aftermath of this disaster – especially with everybody involved in trying to save Japan and the rest of the world from another nuclear catastrophe.

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Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Jupiter Factory

Posted in Abandoned, Chernobyl, Europe, Factory, Map, Military, Pripyat, Ukraine, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/03/02| 9 Comments »

“The next location will be even better!”
Those were the words Maxim used to lure us away from the absolutely amazing Hospital No 126. We hopped into the van and drove to the other end of Pripyat to see… an abandoned factory. Wait. What? A factory? Seriously? A factory? Better than a hospital? No way!
Please don’t get me wrong: The Jupiter Factory was awesome! I’ve never been to an electronics factory that big. But in the end it was just a factory… one of the most common abandoned places in the world. And not even nearly as fascinating to me as Maxim hoped it would be. But I’m not into First Person Shooters whereas a lot of people visiting the Zone Of Alienation are. And for them the Jupiter Factory is one of the highlights since it was a setting in the game “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat” by GSC Game World – one of the most popular FPSs of the last couple of years.
We entered the Jupiter Factory, one of the biggest employers in Pripyat, through the main gate and passed by some administration buildings. Since the site is located at the western city limit of Pripyat nature is taking over the area rather quickly. The streets on the premises were partly overgrown with climbers, some of them even seemed to be some kind of grapes. None of us tried them though, for obvious reasons.
The assembly halls were absolutely impressing – huge constructions with all kinds of machinery still in there. The walls displayed dozens of warning posters and the workbenches were covered with tools and instruction manuals. But like with so many other places in Pripyat there is hardly any reliable information about the Jupiter Factory. It’s known that the plant produced tape-recorders and other consumer products under the label “Mayak”, but of course there are also unconfirmed speculations. Rumors about secret military research and stuff like that in underground laboratories. But since the basement is flooded nowadays it only adds to the mystery…
Which makes me wonder why nobody really tried to write a comprehensive book about Pripyat, at least not in English. Every tiny town in Europe has a local historian that knows every little thing about the surrounding 25 km2 – but Pripyat? It’s surprisingly hard to find reliable information about the city… (I’d love to do it, but with no knowledge of Russian / Ukrainian I don’t think I’d get far.)
Anyways, if the Jupiter Factory would have been my first urbex exploration ever I’m sure I would have been completely blown away and could have spent hours there. Even now that I’m back home I wish I had a place like that nearby. It would be worth to write several postings about it and I could come back at different seasons and during different weather conditions. But when I explored the place I was rather underwhelmed, especially since I had to leave the hospital in a hurry…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)


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Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: All The Pretty Przewalski’s Horses

Posted in Animals, Chernobyl, Europe, Map, Pripyat, Ukraine, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/02/18| 9 Comments »

The Przewalski’s Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii, Dzungarian Horse), named after the Russian explorer and geographer Nicolai Przewalski, is a rare and endanger kind of wild horse and was first described in 1881 by L.S. Poliakov. The current world population of about 1500 animals are all descendants from nine horses kept in captivity in 1945 (total population then: 31). At one point extinct in the wild Przewalski’s Horses have been reintroduced to their former native habitat in Mongolia as well as to Hungary, China and Ukraine; the latter one offering space for the wild horses in Askania-Nova and the Zone Of Alienation.
On the first day, on our way from the 30km checkpoint of the Zone Of Alienation to Pripyat, Maxim told us how scientists returned several dozens of Przewalski’s Horses to the wild in the late 80s. The Exclusion Zone was already kind of a natural preserve, so the horses did well and their number raised to about 120. Nowadays, Maxim told us with some sadness in his voice, they are a rare sight since their number is down to about 60. Officially they migrated to the Belarus part of the Zone Of Alienation, but Maxim had a different explanation that involved bored militia and rifles…
On the second day, when we were driving from the monument at reactor #4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to do some more exploration in Pripyat, Maxim and our driver all of a sudden had a quick conversation in Ukrainian. Close to a building in the middle of nowhere they stopped the car, got out and pointed to the road in front of us. Przewalski’s Horses. At first I had no clue what they were talking about, but then a horse’s head appeared behind a tree about 80 meters in front of us. The horse was carefully stepping on the street, followed by about half a dozen more. Maxim and the driver (sorry dude, forgot your name!) were really excited, taking pictures with their cell phone cameras. Luckily I had my 18-200mm lens mounted, so I was able to take some quite nice shots of those shy creatures. I’ve never seen wild horses before and it was very interesting to see how they behaved – they kept us under constant surveillance. While some of the horses nibbled on some grass now and then, at least half of them always had their eyes on us, making sure that we didn’t get too close.
Having urban exploration as a hobby I ran into all kinds of rather unusual wild animals before – snakes, boars, monkeys… but the Przewalski’s Horses were by far the most impressive ones. Another experience that took me completely by surprise.
After we got back into the van to continue our way to Pripyat Maxim told us that he hasn’t seen any Przewalski’s Horses in more than three years – and he spends half his life in the Zone Of Alienation as a guide…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)


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Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: The Sarcophagus Of The CNPP

Posted in Abandoned, Chernobyl, Map, Monument, Power Station, Ukraine, Urbex, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/02/15| 2 Comments »

Exploring Pripyat on the first day was very exciting, no doubt about it. But it wasn’t until the morning of the second day that I fully comprehended where I was – and that’s why strongly recommend making the sarcophagus the first place to go if you ever have the chance to visit the Zone Of Alienation.
Don’t get me wrong, before I made my way to the Exclusion Zone I prepared myself quite well. I read up on the catastrophe and watched some documentaries. I studied maps and read reports by other people visiting the zone. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was clearly visible from Pripyat most of the time and the Geiger counter went nuts every now and then. But overall exploring Pripyat felt like exploring any of the 60 locations I visited before – just more spectacular; way more spectacular.
Entering the cooling tower of reactor #5 was awe-inspiring and then finally standing in front of the sarcophagus at reactor #4 was… It changed my perception of the area. Like I said, I was prepared and aware where I was, but finally seeing the place so familiar from TV while the Geiger counter shows that the level of radioactivity was 400 times the normal level even at a distance of 250 meters… All of a sudden everything became real. Way more real than before. Reading and watching TV is definitely no substitution for actually experiencing stuff – which makes it so hard to describe now how I felt standing there. Because the sight actually isn’t that impressive. A small monument in front of a security checkpoint we were not allowed to take photos of, with a greyish building in the background. But it was interesting how it brought back the imagines of the documentaries I’ve seen… and of the TV news I watched in the 80s, almost 25 years ago.
I just wish Novarka wasn’t behind schedule – the consortium won a contract worth 453 million Euro to build a new sarcophagus replacing the old one which looks quite dilapidated, but it is way behind schedule. A French consortium BTW, as Maxim wasn’t tired to point out – our guide was a very lighthearted guy, but there were two things he couldn’t stand. Well, three: militia, Russian vodka and French companies building stuff in the Zone Of Alienation.
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)

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Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: CNPP Cooling Towers 5 & 6

Posted in Abandoned, Chernobyl, Map, Power Station, Ukraine, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/02/11| 5 Comments »

After spending the whole first day exploring Pripyat we started our second day by going to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to finally see the building where the tragic accident happened almost 25 years ago.
On the way to reactor 4, the one that blew up, we stopped at a water canal a couple of hundred meters away. From there we were able to have a look at reactors 5 and 6, under construction at the time of the accident, as well as their cooling towers. The original plan in the 70s and 80s was to have a huge power plant with up to 12 blocks, by far the biggest in the Soviet Union. After the accident the construction of the reactors 5 and 6 continued, but due the high levels of radiation in the area were put on hold on January 1st 1988 with most of the machinery left behind. When the Soviet Union dissolved a couple of years later and Ukraine became a sovereign state the plans of expanding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were finally scrapped and so the construction site became another abandoned place in that area.
The stop was rather underwhelming and when one of the Swiss guys wanted to get closer I just thought “Really?”… But Maxim, after thinking for a couple of seconds since it wasn’t part of the schedule he planned for us, agreed and so we got back in the van, drove closer, crossed some railroad tracks by foot and walked towards the cooling towers. They looked interesting, but I still wasn’t impressed. Being in front of the almost finished cooling tower Sebi and Michi looked happier than ever before. After standing around for a minute or two I asked, without being serious at all, if we were able to get inside – usually the asphalt and concrete surfaces were not so much contaminated whereas the Geiger counter went nuts once we stepped on moss, grass or soil. To my surprise Maxim said something like “Yes, just make sure to walk this way!”, making a gesture with his hand.
I walked the 30 meters from the street to the cooling tower and entering the giant open hyperboloid structure almost was like entering a cathedral – even if you are not into the purpose of the building the architecture is still mind-blowing, especially when looking up. And then it hit me: I was actually standing in the half finished cooling tower of a nuclear power plant, only 2.5 kilometers away from where one of the biggest man-made catastrophe in history happened! A very humbling, fascinating and knee-softening moment.
Since entering the cooling towers wasn’t planned we only had about 20 minutes there, but given that the lighting was quite difficult it was actually enough – although Maxim told me on the way to the van that he once spent more than 3 hours with a photographer there. Just to shoot the cooling tower. And although I spent two days in the zone, seeing maybe a third of the interesting locations, I often had the feeling that I’ve spent maybe a tenth of the time it deserves at every building…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)




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Zone Of Alienation – Entering The Zone / Chernobyl

Posted in Chernobyl, Europe, Map, Ukraine, Urbex, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/01/05| 6 Comments »

After half a day of sightseeing in Kiev (most of it while rain was pouring) my second day in Ukraine started the main event: The trip to the Zone Of Alienation.
Meeting point was a hotel in the city center and my contact person was easy to find since a rather large group of about 25 people gathered on that sunny Saturday morning. Luckily I didn’t have to join the day trippers since I booked a 2 day tour, joining two guys from Switzerland, Sebi and Michi. If you do the day tour for about 160 US-$ you get the standard program: Transport by bus to Chernobyl, quick introduction about the history of the place and a lection about how to behave in the zone and then the well-known locations Sarcophacus, Amusement Park, Swimming Pool – maybe one or two more, like the Palace Of Culture or a School; always with the group (= always somebody in your way when trying to take a picture) and no time to improvise. A 2 day trip (about 500 bucks, depending on the group size – it can be considerably more if you travel alone) is way more relaxed and in-depth. You basically have your own guide plus a driver, transportation is by mini van, you can choose where you want to go and if you want to stay longer at a place it’s usually not a problem. Also included are an overnight stay at the hotel in Chernobyl and several meals.
We were supposed to see a documentary about the Zone Of Alienation during the two hour drive from Kiev, but since the mini van was lacking the necessary equipment Maxim, the guide, told us to get some rest since the day will be packed with information and places to see – but to me the drive from the big city to the middle of nowhere was interesting since of course it showed quite a different side of Ukraine. Even 20 minutes outside of Kiev the country is rural. Really rural…
The Zone Of Alienation begins 30km away from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant with a road block guarded by special units of the MVS (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and therefore the area is partly excluded from the regular civil rule – which is kind of scary considering that even normal MVS units have a dubious reputation according to Wikipedia, though you don’t need to have a look at Wikipedia to know that you don’t wanna mess with anybody inside of the zone.
Chernobyl itself is actually quite unspectacular – a small, wide-spread town with rather low buildings (two or three stories) that once housed the people cleaning up after the nuclear disaster; even before the catastrophe Chernobyl was actually quite a small town (14,000 inhabitants) since most of the employees of the power plant lived in the newly constructed city of Pripyat (50,000 inhabitants) – closer to their place of work and way more modern. Pictures of abandoned, rotting buildings taken in the ZOA are almost always taken in Pripyat, not Chernobyl – but since people associate the name Chernobyl with the power plant, they naturally assume that Chernobyl must be the decaying city. The most interesting fact about Chernobyl is that all the piping is actually above ground since the old water pipes were unusable after the disaster and the new ones had to be easily accessible. Nowadays only 500 people live in Chernobyl. Almost none of them permanently, most of them guarding or guiding – or supporting the guards and guides, like the hotel and kitchen staff or the people running the two supermarkets in Chernobyl.
Arriving in Chernobyl we went directly to the hotel to check in (i.e. dropping our bags in a room of the container building) and then met up with the day tourists for the introduction meeting. Maxim later told us that in 2009 10,000 people visited the zone, by July of 2010 it was already 8,000 for that year. About 1,000 scientists and journalists, the rest all kinds of people; from teenage game freaks in camouflage outfits to senior citizens who can finally visit the former “Evil Empire”. While the tour was organized by a private company, our guide was actually a state employee with the State Enterprise Agency of Information, Internal Co-operation and Development “Chornobylinterinform Agency”, which is part of The Ministry of Ukraine of Emergencies and Affairs of Population Protection from the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe – gotta love the old fashioned way of naming institutions!
After the introduction meeting we were told that we would have lunch first to get some strength for the things to come. We were guided to a room next to the kitchen and it felt a bit like what you can read about the guided tours to North Korea – the mid-sized room was filled with tables covered with lots of food, but us three were the only ones eating; Maxim and the driver were nowhere to be seen. So we sat down and dug into the great salad, sausages and bread. A hearty meal, and being used to Japanese portion size a pretty filling one, too. But then a waitress came in and brought us some borscht – the salad actually was just the salad, not the whole meal… and of course the borscht was just the soup, not the main dish – that was some meat and mashed potatoes! So after having our 3,000 calories lunch we finally made it back to the van to start our trip exploring Pripyat and Chernobyl – the meal, prepared on location from produce delivered from outside of the zone, was great by the way and one more reason to book a 2 day trip instead of going with the 1 day option.
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)
Addendum 2012-12-19: The Chernobyl Hotel mentioned in this article is NOT the the Countryside Cottage Chernobyl Hotel just outside of the Zone Of Alienation in Orane! When I was visiting Pripyat and Chernobyl I was able to stay overnight at a container hotel in Chernobyl…

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