Ukraine
Visit to the Ghost town near Chernobyl
Around Chernobyl, villages and towns that were evacuated after the nuclear disaster in 1986 in a hurry. Jens Thurau accompanied Pripyat, the German environment Minister Barbara Hendricks at the abandoned place.
An amusement Park that was never opened – Ferris wheel in Pripyat
A Ferris wheel, not rusted, in operation for decades. A car-Scooter, the destroyed car. Houses without doors and Windows, supermarkets, the boarded up entrances with wood panels. The whole city is full of wild growth. And it is quiet, scary quiet.
Pripyat no longer exists three kilometers away from the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. And yet people always come back here – tourists even – and politicians such as the German environment Minister, Barbara Hendricks. You want to see and feel how it is in a Ghost town. A place that became a Ghost town, because the nuclear radiation has made life here impossible.
Abandoned home to escape the disaster, let the inhabitants of everything
50,000 people once lived in Pripyat. It’s a young city, average age is under 30 years of age. Because Pripyat was only founded in 1970, the many thousands of people found in nuclear power plant and around it to work, needed a place to Stay. Engineers, Doctors, Technicians. As the Block 4 of the nuclear power plant on 26.April exploded, was evacuated Pripyat for a few days only, it was the first, but it was for always.
“Everything is in the handle around the ruin”
Barbara Hendricks acts touched. It was a long day in Chernobyl, for hours, the Minister has listened, as the person responsible in the plant to tell her about the Demolition, the fact that you now have everything under control around the ruins, the beams still.
Pripyat is the last Station of the visit of the German politician, it is bitter cold. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Hendricks says: “It has, of course, something completely unreal. Also, it is one of the attractions of this amusement Park that was never opened, because he just on 1. May, so a few days after the nuclear disaster should be initiated that makes all the absurdity.”
The German environment Minister, Barbara Hendricks
Already in the morning the Delegation from Germany made in one of the 76 villages Holding that were abandoned 30 years ago, within a radius of 30 kilometers around the reactor. A total of 400,000 people were resettled in present-day Ukraine and in white Russia, which had suffered the largest share of the radiation dose.
Only old and very poor people returned
Until today, in the 30-Kilometer Zone is not actually possible, a few old people returned, and is as well tolerated as the influx of penniless people, from Moldova, which is located in the deserted area of forest fruits to feed. You are always exposed to a high radiation load.
The power plant itself, leaving the visitors strangely emotionless, to protect a Monster made of concrete and steel, which is now equipped with a new billion – dollar protective case, the environment is so good. Places like Pripyat, the tell a lot of insistent of the heavy mortgage, which the disaster imposed on the people here.