CHERNOBYL

- 22 years on

In the early hours of Saturday 26th April 1986 the CHERNOBYL DISASTER (what an understatement!) occurred. Thousands of people died as a result. The area around the reactor is contaminated with radiation, and it will be at least 600 years before it is safe to inhabit again.

In the days following the explosions, the area was evacuated. People had to leave all their belongings behind as they fled. The whole place is a gradually decaying time capsule.

ELENA FILATOVA, (pictured right), a lady now in her early thirties, remembers that night.

She has recently gone into the deserted zone near the reactor on her motorbike and taken

some dramatic photographs.

She has made a spooky but gripping website containing these pictures, and the story about

that dreadful night. It makes compulsive reading.

You can get to it from this link:

It will open your eyes!

The six photographs below appear on the website. (Click on each one to see it clearly)

LINK

to Elena's

website

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

1 2 3 4 5 6

THE PHOTOGRAPHS EXPLAINED

PICTURE 1: The deserted highway into the "ghost town" of Chernobyl. These street lights went out for ever in 1986.

PICTURE 2: On the roof of a high building looking at the town. Not a single human being is in any of the buildings in this once-busy town. The reactor plant can be seen in the distance.

PICTURE 3: This ferris wheel has not moved in over twenty years.

PICTURES 4, 5 & 6: The town's kindergarten. On the website, Elena cannot find any words to describe this. Neither can I.