Prypiat - Chernobyl

I was lucky enough to be given free roam around Prypiat almost 3 years ago. At the time I was only using iPhoto to edit my pics so they were not the best but I finally got around to revisiting them today.

A very strange place. There can't be many cities that have been abandoned pretty much over night and then left to nature for 30 years. Following the accident at Chernobyl the city of 50,00 inhabitants was completely evacuated over the course of 3 days.

A couple of pics and a link to the album on my flickr site

Room in hospital

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Kkeb​aM

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JvJh​Zk

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Kpn4​6w

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Kpch​vs

Pictures are great but isn't the radiation a big concern for you?

Pretty safe around there nowadays. Clearly there are some areas you wouldn't want to have a picnic but in general its OK. I worked on the Chernobyl site every day for 1.5 years and never received a dose of any significance. Everything is monitored and controlled pretty much in line with western standards now.

Looks like something from Half Life 2 video game

Great shots, of a very sad place.

I think it was actually used on one of the Call of Duty games. One of my friends sons recognised it!!

Agreed. It is a pretty sad place when you consider what happened there.

We have several friends who were actually there when it happened. Some very scary stories.

I am pretty privileged to be here helping with the protective measures being installed now

Interesting shots.

...saw an episode of Anthony bourdain at Chernobyl, they had monitors/timerswith them. they could only stay for a certain time and were not allowed to touch any of the vegetation - probably to add some drama to the episode.

Yep. Because we were all on site all the time we had film badges (legal requirement) but no active monitoring was required. Wandered everywhere and none of us died. You wouldn't eat the vegetation but walking through it is not really a big deal.

We met a guided tour there which you can book from Kiev. Everyone was wearing scarves over their faces, the guide has all sorts of monitors on him etc and we were wearing our suits as we had come straight from our office that was about 1km away. Said "Good morning" in typical British fashion as we walked past them LOL!!

Like you suggested, I am sure it is done to make the visit seem a lot more edgy than it really is. If it was genuinely dangerous then the general public wouldn't be allowed in. There are radiation protection laws in Ukraine like everywhere else.