Here’s an interesting, and somewhat timely, AP article on the “thriving” wildlife population in the radiation soaked area surrounding the former Chernobyl nuclear (uh, “nucular”?) plant:
Two decades after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant sent clouds of radioactive particles drifting over the fields near her home, Maria Urupa says the wilderness is encroaching. Packs of wolves have eaten two of her dogs, the 73-year-old says, and wild boar trample through her cornfield. And she says fox, rabbits and snakes infest the meadows near her tumbledown cottage.
“I’ve seen a lot of wild animals here,” says Urupa, one of about 300 mostly elderly residents who insist on living in Chernobyl’s contaminated evacuation zone.
The return of wildlife to the region near the world’s worst nuclear power accident is an apparent paradox that biologists are trying to measure and understand.
Many assumed the 1986 meltdown of one reactor, and the release of hundreds of tons of radioactive material, would turn much of the 1,100-square-mile evacuated area around Chernobyl into a nuclear dead zone.
It certainly doesn’t look like one today.
Yeah, we’ll see.
Related posts:
- POTD: Chernobyl exclusion zone checkpoint Yesterday, news outlets reported that you would be allowed to tour the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant beginning in 2011. I was a bit surprised by this, considering I had done just that in 2006. According to the Ukrainian government, however, the tour I went on was “illegal”...
- POTD: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant View of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from a bridge leading into the deserted city of Pripyat. Taken during our July 2007 excursion to the exclusion zone....
- Ukraine Photos: Touring the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone I’ve uploaded all 220 of my photos from our “ecological tour” of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, including reactor no. 4 and the “ghost city” of Pripyat: I’ll post more about the tour later. Read more about the tour: 1. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part I: Dude, where’s your Geiger counter? 2....
From john:
You should find this site most interesting:
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/
The author rides a Kawasaki Ninja through the deserted Chernobyl “dead zone” with a camera, a good eye, Geiger counter, and a good deal of courage. The pictures and comments in this travelogue are absolutely fascinating.
From Lindsay:
Hey John,
I’m actually heading out there myself…we’re supposed to tour on July 4, although it will likely be in a mini-van and not a motorcycle
From john:
Lindsay,
Excellent. (And good choice on the mini-van.) Then Elena’s website and her info will be great prelude, and perhaps provide some good background for your upcoming travels.
As for me – an old, Cold War Warrior – so many of the places you visit were very verboten for me, back in the day. Thus I am fascinated by your travels to “certain lands” and “places” that I only remember as being labeled “Top Secret” on classified maps littered with enemy anti-aircraft missile sites, and other unnatural ‘things’.
And while I can now travel to these many and formerly forbidden places, I am almost as happy traveling vicariously with you and others.
So thank you for your wonderful travelogues. After a lifetime of traveling myself, yours gives me a pleasant chance to relax at home in sunny SoCal (with surf and Rubio’s fish taco’s, and In & Out Burgers) , yet still enjoy some of the world-wide adventures.
From El Capitan:
Of course they failed to mention the three Godzilla sightings in the radioactive zone.
Selective reporting.