Welcome to Pripyat
by Juli Scalzi
Title
Welcome to Pripyat
Artist
Juli Scalzi
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Pripyat was built in 1970 purely for the workers of what was to become the largest power plant in the world, with a total of 12 reactors planned. It was once a model city of the Soviet government situated just three kilometers away from the power plant. The average age of the city inhabitants was, at the time of the accident, only 25 years old.
Following the accident, the town of Pripyat received large amounts of radioactive fallout. Within hours of the accident, the radiation levels within the town had soared to over 200,000 times normal, and despite the presence of large numbers of military personnel on the streets in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical protective clothing, the town remained oblivious to the damage. During the whole day after the accident, the state officials had not warned the Pripyat residents about the threat of radioactive pollution. Neither had they provided them with iodine pills to counteract the effects of the radiation. By the time they were evacuated, they were all exposed to large amounts of radiation.
It was more than a day following the explosion that the evacuation order was given. The 50,000 inhabitants of Pripyat were evacuated in 3 hours. During the evacuation, women and children were collected first, but there was a serious lack of buses in this part of the Soviet Union. The buses had to come from other parts of the country and the lines for the buses were up to 25 kilometers long. The people were ordered to pack only the bare essentials and were expected to return to the town within 3 days.
No one ever returned.
Pripyat is now a ghost town.
(information provided by CHERNOBYLwel.com)
Uploaded
April 25th, 2018
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