GRcade

Karl Pilkington goes to Chernoblol.

On 26 April 1986 01:23:45 a.m. (UTC+3) reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area. Four hundred times more fallout was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

The plume drifted over extensive parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and eastern North America, with light nuclear rain falling as far as Ireland. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.

Was reading the BBC site ahead of tonights game against the Ukraine and found this:

Shevchenko was born in the Ukrainian village of Dvirkivshchyna but in 1976, the year of his birth, the village was part of the then Soviet Union, frequently referred to as Russia.

When he was nine the village was affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, forcing his family to abandon their home.

Prototype wrote:Karl Pilkington goes to Chernoblol.

Damn, beat me to it.

By 2 Days

Edit: A photo for comparison.

The likeness is canny.

Well looks like the parties over, no more sticky.

I don't know if it's been mentioned in this thread (I've looked about a little but not read the whole lot), but through searching Wikipedia for GRCade (after the topic in the Feedback folder), I noticed that this topic is linked to in the Other web-resources of the Zone of alienation page on Wikipedia -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_alienation

Having been reading up on Chernobyl etc today, I found myself reading this thread for the first time, so apologies to anyone now thinking 'Oh not that thing dragged back up... again'.

<waves to the denizens of GRCade>

'Respec' to the chap who went on this trip and then posted up a combination of such good quality photos / dialogue etc.

Ever considered a career in investigative journalism?

In direct contrast to the person criticising you for not donating the 700 euros it cost you to do the trip, I'll congratulate you on raising the profile of what has to be one of the worst peace time man-made disasters we've seen to date, and which more importantly, is almost certainly one with some of the most far-reaching consequences we'll (hopefully) see in our lifetimes, and I reckon as a result of you bothering to do this, far more than 700 euros will have been donated to causes related to the disaster which otherwise wouldn't have been.

It's a sign of the times when something as catastrophic as this is forgotten by so many just because it's no longer front page news.

StayingDead wrote:Very nice video, it's still amazing me how that many people got out alive, just think of the children sitting in school that day like any other when suddenly being told to get out as quickly as they can. It's like looking into a massive time capsule in some of those pictures, where nothing has changed since that faithful day with stuff left exactly how it was on the day.

I'm not entirely sure the children were evacuated straightaway?

If you believe what is written on wikipedia, the authorities decided not to evacuate the town until 36 hours after the disaster first broke; life effectively carried on as normal.

And they only did this when a Swedish nuclear power station detected radioactive particles on their workers clothing during routine scans, and then determined that said particles were fallout from elsewhere.



And the firefighters first sent to the plant weren't informed of any more than 'a fire has broken out at the power station' by all accounts, with some wondering just why so much hot graphite was strewn all around the ground when they first arrived at the plant.

Welcome, stick around, you seem alright.

bigcheez2k3 wrote:Welcome, stick around, you seem alright.

Cheers

Been bored today and happened upon someone elses account of a roadtrip they did to Chernobyl, and then stumbled across this as part of all the reading up I was doing.

Certainly makes you think... and certainly opened my eyes up to 'that level' in COD4.

Have had a nose around other threads and I reckon I'll stick around for a while - looks like the mods aren't too heavy handed around these parts.

Woofbark wrote:looks like the mods aren't too heavy handed around these parts.

Oh you'd be surprised...

But seriously, do stay.

Woofbark wrote:

bigcheez2k3 wrote:Welcome, stick around, you seem alright.

Have had a nose around other threads and I reckon I'll stick around for a while - looks like the mods aren't too heavy handed around these parts.

It depends if you get snitched on.

Woofbark wrote:
In direct contrast to the person criticising you for not donating the 700 euros it cost you to do the trip

I have never read the whole thread (just looked at the pictures) but who the hell said that? I hope that person never goes on holiday themselves and donates all of their spare money to charity.

If you listen to some people then people would never do anything. Reminds me of that clown that just got back from a trip into space. The BBC said there has been some criticism of him paying the Russians as he could have used that money to build more water wells in Africa. Maybe it could but why the strawberry float shouldn't he spend his money on what he wants?

Anny wrote:

Moggy wrote:Maybe it could but why the strawberry float should it be up to him to spend his money on wells?

It is up to him. Make sense foo

I have no idea what you are on about.

Oh Teh Noes wrote:

Woofbark wrote:looks like the mods aren't too heavy handed around these parts.

Oh you'd be surprised...

But seriously, do stay.

'I could take you to places...'

Seriously, trust me; compared to some forums I've been known the frequent in the past, here is a relative 'free for all' from what I've seen so far.

Brerlappins little hat wrote:Cheers, thanks for the comments

No worries. It's you that deserves the thanks for coming up with something so interesting and thought provoking to read

Brerlappins little hat wrote:Id consider a career in investigative jorunalism if someone offered it to me...its got to be better than working in IT

Speaking as someone who walked away from IT about a year ago, I quite agree...

Brerlappins little hat wrote:But its good to see people only just coming across this now, makes it seem all the more worthwhile. And its also just a little over 1 year ago that i went so its cool that people are still reading it a year later

Definitely.

What was it that put the idea in your head to go on the trip in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?

Moggy wrote:If you listen to some people then people would never do anything. Reminds me of that clown that just got back from a trip into space. The BBC said there has been some criticism of him paying the Russians as he could have used that money to build more water wells in Africa. Maybe it could but why the **** shouldn't he spend his money on what he wants?

Tsk! You'll never make a good Communist with that kind of attitude!

Hail glorious mother Russia.

It's back by popular demand.

Thanks, Pete.