Chernobyl
Approximately 90 km to the north of Kiev Ukraine lies the city of Chernobyl, once a bustling and vibrant city but now considered a ghost town. About 2,600 square kilometers of land in Chernobyl known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone was affected by a nuclear disaster in April 1986 making the land uninhabitable to human to present day, this land containing several infrastructures and equipment that are now reconciled by nature draws the attention of tourists and scientists interested in the effects of radiation which allows it to be considered a relict/repurposed landscape.
On April 26, 1986, there was an explosion in reactor number 4 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant following a routine cooling test which destroyed the containment building releasing large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. This phenomenon that was blamed on flawed Soviet Union infrastructure and lack of precaution by the operators, took the lives of two workers this day. An exclusion zone was established 36 hours after the incident which caused a mass evacuation of approximately 117,000 people with thousands more leaving at later dates leaving a once thriving city relict. This catastrophe led to a massive clean-up operation which saw 237 of the workers developing Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) which claimed 28 lives within the first three months and an additional 14 over the next decade. The Chernobyl explosion saw numerous long-term effects with over 1800 documented cases of thyroid cancer in people were between 0 to 14 years old at the time of the explosion. It is also said that doctors advised pregnant women who expose to radiation even though the levels were low to have abortions which resulted in over 1 million abortions because of misconception.
The people were relocated to Slavutych which is a city 30 miles away from Chernobyl built for the people affected by the disaster. The animals and trees in the region saw many mutations with leaves changing shape and animals being born with physical deformities, and although the radiation levels have significantly decreased 187 communities in the exclusion zone remains vacant with a few people returning home however, children are not allowed to live in the area.
Today Chernobyl is a relict/repurposed landscape offering a view Soviet life in the 1980s, with cities like Pripyat remaining the same as the people left it; with homes, schools, and amusements parks laying untouched scattered with personal belonging and children toys depicting evidence of the rush the residents were to evacuate. Nature have since reclaimed much of the regions with tress trees growing through cracks in concrete and infrastructures covered by vegetation, the region is also now the home to wildlife including bears wolves and horses who roam the area freely transforming the region to somewhat a nature reserve. The exclusion zone a research site for scientists studying the effects that radiation on the environment and the animals that lives there, the region is also a site for tourism where tourists can visit areas in the exclusion zone with trained guides which allows the region to be seen as place of great educational value. The Chernobyl exclusion zone stands as a relict/repurposed preserving the remnants of the past disaster and the stories of the people who experienced this devastating reality.
2 comments:
I have always found the location of Chernoybal interesting in that it allows historians and scientists a unique perspective of what life was like and the way mutations occur, respectively. I also find it fascinating that a whole town was built for those affected by the disaster. Along with these ideals, it brings about the thought that one day, humans may be able to enter the area again, recollecting it for everyday use. One last thing is the idea of using the exclusion zone as an area of tourism seems interesting to me and is going onto my bucket list.
It is interesting to consider Chernobyl a relict landscape because instead of being a preserved landscape, it is more of a wasteland that is preserved because it is too toxic to interfere with. Most relict landscapes take work to keep clean and consistent, while Chernobyl has no human life anywhere near it and is relict because of it.
Post a Comment