On the morning of April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former Soviet Union exploded. The incident is the only level seven event — a “Major Accident” and the highest grade possible — to occur on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The result was fallout four hundred times that of Hiroshima, the complete destruction of the reactor and a cloud of radioactive dust and steam that spread through a large geographical portion of the world, with fallout reaching Sweden and parts of Western Europe a mere 48 hours later. The catastrophe left the nearby Soviet city of Pripyat a radioactive ghost town.
Pre-glasnost Soviet apparatchiks were initially tight-lipped about Chernobyl-related deaths. Over the years, however, the Cold War thawed and information concerning the accident slowly began to surface.
Within three months of the event, 31 people died from acute radiation sickness. Included in this death toll are the Soviet firefighters who knowingly rushed into a death trap to contain the blaze inside the reactor. These brave souls, reminiscent of our own FDNY on 9/11, would die of radiation sickness in a matter of months.
Yet the full impact of Chernobyl will likely never be measured — the incident continues to claim victims across generations through cancers and Down Syndrome spikes in former Communist countries and NATO nations alike.
Despite the initial silence, the Soviet response to the disaster was quick. A large concrete sarcophagus was built around the site of the explosion to contain any possible radiation leakage and the town of Pripyat was immediately evacuated.
Today, Pripyat is literally frozen in time, radiated beyond any acceptable threshold. Plates and eating utensils sit in sinks waiting to be washed; clothes hang in closets, ready to be donned; children’s strollers are lined up at the train station where hundred of parents promptly boarded departing freight cars, leaving behind everything they knew. Sitting eerily in the center of the town is a Ferris wheel, ensconced within a dead amusement park.
The population of the city the morning of the accident was 50,000 — with the next sunrise it was, and still is, zero. On that fateful day, entire lives were abandoned, with fragmentary remnants left frozen for decades.
The city of Pripyat and the Chernobyl site is an interesting case study for paranormal investigators. Many in the field feel that radiation and paranormal events are somehow symbiotic — wherever you find one, you will find the other. And there isn’t a more radioactive spot than this place. While some claim that radiation is a byproduct of paranormal activity, others believe that the radioactive particles act as “fuel” for the spectral. And yet the question persists as to whether or not a legitimate paranormal investigation could occur in this area, as the radiation levels are so high that visitors can only move quickly in and out.
During an episode of “Destination Truth,” Josh Gates and the crew went to Chernobyl and attempted an investigation. However, whenever the team began to experience events, radiation alarms would sound and they would have to move out. Yet Gates and his team claim to have seen the shadows and the outlines of people, doctors and firefighters walking amid the radioactive clouds of night.
Could there be a connection between radiation and the paranormal? Many investigators carry Geiger counters on their belts to measure spikes, the idea being that stronger radiation readings increase the likelihood of activity. If this is the case, Pripyat is ground zero in more ways than one.
There’s tremendous doubt about Chernobyl and the surrounding area ever being safe enough to host a proper paranormal investigation that could make explicit the link between radioactivity and the paranormal. With the march of time, the reactor’s concrete sarcophagus has begun to erode — it’s expected to completely collapse within the next decade — elevating safety concerns rendering any hope of of an investigation a near impossibility.
Until then, Pripyat and Chernobyl rests silently in the Ukraine, a relic of another time in history as well as a reminder of mankind’s limitations in harnessing the power of his environment. And perhaps within the emptiness and isolation of this radiated Russian winter are the lost souls of Chernobyl: frozen in time and waiting for release.
i fucked your mum last night bitch i fucking hate you and will never like you go rape a dog bitch
Allah akabar, Aiden Salam Mutha Fuckaaa I Die For Allah MUTHAA FUCKAAAAAA!
I DON”T KNOW
Ladies and gentlemen, “Ramblings of a Schizophrenic, Bi-Polar, Tourrettes Riddled Muslim” will be right back after these short messages from our sponsors…
يمارس الجنس مع يسوع هو الله مخلصي
Do you know what that says bitch?
“Fuck Jesus – Allah is my savior”
How many career homeruns did Ted Williams hit? (Trivia Time!)
What a fascinating take on something that is tended to on a regular basis.
How odd I just linked this to Molly’s stuff heheh.
I was just 13 yrs old when this happened, I can’t remember much except that I felt a huge disturbance in the force… which was promptly forgot about as soon as me mum told me I had to stay in until the nuclear cloud had past (asthmatic children were advised to stay indoors)… yay for video games.
Not to be flippant do I say these things but to try, and understand. (plus tbh I am having fun)
Many years later (circa ’96) I was comfortable in my little bubble thank you very much, when one evening, sat watching BBC Newsnight or some such programme… an item of sharpness was mentioned that left me leaden in my seat, and it wasn’t the grade ‘a’ hashish I was smoking neither. They were doing a follow up report on the after effects of Chornobyl on the surrounding populace. Deep in my subconscious lurked something beyond my knowledge, and understanding, and it was about to kick me in the nuts.
The report was brilliant as news items go, but they focused upon one little blond haired child, who was only 6-7 yrs old at best. This child though never alive at the time of the disaster, lost his parents to effects of the disaster (cancers, etc) he was orphaned.
The reporter asked this child (amongst many questions) “…who takes care of you…”, at which point a sadness grew in this child’s eye that erupted into a solitary tear (soon followed by more) and his reply was, “…no-one takes care of me”, transubstantiation was in FULL EFFECT.
Reporter then asks “…how do you eat..”, and with a single solitary tear rolling down my face he replied, “I can only look for food at night, as the other children beat me”.
The circle was complete. Freaky happenings, did I really feel all those people all those years ago, am I that sensitive? Did this child help me perceive myself through his tears of the memories of the many souls lost, or was it just my reflection, in the day?