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Chernobyl Disaster 30 Years Later: Victims Today Face Uncertain Future In Ukraine

By Kirsten Silven
Published on: 14:07 PST, May 1, 2016

Life after the Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986, has never been the same for victims who live in what was then part of the Soviet Union and today is located in Ukraine.

When Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor exploded near the town of Pripyat about 100 miles north of Kiev, the nuclear poisoning affected the surrounding area of Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of what is still Russia today, creating a cloud of radiation that stretched all the way to Scandinavia, reported Time. The catastrophe was immediately dubbed a disaster of the worst kind and – despite a serious lack of transparency from government officials ever since, Chernobyl today is still no paradise.

“Even 30 years later, much about Chernobyl and its aftermath remains clouded in secrecy and conspiracy theories.”

The Chernobyl disaster is even credited in large part for ruining the Soviet Union (sorry, Reagan), thanks to admissions from then-President Mikhail Gorbachev himself. Cleaning up after the Chernobyl disaster – as much as that was even a real possibility – cost the Russian government billions at a time when the nation’s economy was already in bankruptcy following a lengthy arms and space race with the United States.

So what is life in Chernobyl today really like? How are victims getting on 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster? Aptly described as “nuclear ruins” by National Geographic, Chernobyl is a deathly study in the long-term ills of nuclear power, standing as a testament to everything that can go wrong with this popular form of energy.

“Due to high radiation levels, the thousand-square-mile so-called ‘Exclusion Zone’ was quickly established around Chernobyl and the nearby city of Pripyat. More than 100,000 people were permanently evacuated, and more than a hundred human settlements in the zone were demolished or abandoned.”

University of Sydney Ph.D. candidate Robert Maxwell is the only archaeologist currently studying the Chernobyl disaster and spent two seasons doing work in the Exclusion Zone. One interesting takeaway is that 30 years after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, nature is thriving in the region. The absence of humans has made way for growing populations of gray wolves, raccoon dogs, and red fox.

Originally built just two miles from the Chernobyl plant, Pripyat was at first viewed as a shining example of what the Soviets called “Atamograds” or “Atom Cities,” which were essentially set up as restricted areas where nuclear activities occurred. Life in Chernobyl offered everything those who lived there could need, including an amusement park, supermarket, post office, apartment buildings, and the social and cultural center of the city, the Palace of Culture and Science.

Unfortunately, this setup – which appeared so perfect on the surface – was actually fatally flawed from the beginning because it was not only plagued by design imperfections, but it was also run by a management team who had a background in coal-fired energy technology and had little or no understanding of nuclear physics.

“We think it’s a place where humans aren’t supposed to go, that it’s supposed to be a wasteland,” shared Maxwell in a National Geographic interview about his studies. “But when you get there it’s teeming with wildlife, there’s a local community of 2,000 people living in the zone, and the French consortium that’s building the container shelter project over the Chernobyl plant is a 6,000-strong workforce. There are also thousands of tourists coming into the zone every year.”

But still, the Chernobyl disaster looms large everywhere in this part of the Ukraine today, even moss is dangerous to touch — a reality that will continue affecting victims and survivors for decades to come. And that’s a fact everyone who is familiar with life in Chernobyl today can agree on.

[Photo via Twitter]

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