Chernobyl nuclear plant
These are the rest of the pictures of the plant and surrounding areas. We stopped at various points on the approach to the plant - there didn't seem to be many restrictions as to where we could go or what we could do. We couldn't photograph the control buildings (but see pictures of them below anyway).
The radiation readings show the difference between the air and the ground.
There is a sort of 'visitor centre' in which a very knowledgeable woman described (with the aid of an amazing model) what had happened. And why. And what they were doing about it. She acknowledged that all they were doing was containing the reactor and it's material. They were unable to 'do' anything else. Current work was concerned with 'enhancing' the existing sarcophagus that was very hastily built just after the accident with little time for niceties like design or thoughts of longevity - it was built to as quickly as possible contain the reactor core that was in fact exposed to the atmosphere after the accident. They reckoned at the time that it had a life of 25 years (it was built in 1986). The enhancements are designed to extend its life until they can build something better.
Basically, they are 'propping' up the existing framework that was initially built on the existing containment building walls, which are now, predictably, collapsing under the weight.
In the end, we were 100m from the reactor building.
From the pictures you can see half-finished building works. When the reactor blew, they were in the process of building more reactors. They immediately stopped and the cranes are there as they were when the work stopped. Same is true for the unfinished cooling towers.
The 'river' in the picture is in fact a channel for cooling water. Because of the residual heat of the remaining reactors, the first time that the water froze was last year.
It is also sometimes hard to remember that the whole site of umpteen nuclear reactors was in fact here just to generate electricity. So, when you see forests and forests of pylons and very heavy-duty electrical switchgear, it comes as a bit of a surprise that in fact this is (was) merely for generating electricity.
The black statue in front of the control building is of Prometheus, the Greek god who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals for their use.
This is from the road outside the visitor centre, which as you can see doesn't show any of the building work that you see in the picture above.
The radiation readings show the difference between the air and the ground.
There is a sort of 'visitor centre' in which a very knowledgeable woman described (with the aid of an amazing model) what had happened. And why. And what they were doing about it. She acknowledged that all they were doing was containing the reactor and it's material. They were unable to 'do' anything else. Current work was concerned with 'enhancing' the existing sarcophagus that was very hastily built just after the accident with little time for niceties like design or thoughts of longevity - it was built to as quickly as possible contain the reactor core that was in fact exposed to the atmosphere after the accident. They reckoned at the time that it had a life of 25 years (it was built in 1986). The enhancements are designed to extend its life until they can build something better.
Basically, they are 'propping' up the existing framework that was initially built on the existing containment building walls, which are now, predictably, collapsing under the weight.
In the end, we were 100m from the reactor building.
From the pictures you can see half-finished building works. When the reactor blew, they were in the process of building more reactors. They immediately stopped and the cranes are there as they were when the work stopped. Same is true for the unfinished cooling towers.
The 'river' in the picture is in fact a channel for cooling water. Because of the residual heat of the remaining reactors, the first time that the water froze was last year.
It is also sometimes hard to remember that the whole site of umpteen nuclear reactors was in fact here just to generate electricity. So, when you see forests and forests of pylons and very heavy-duty electrical switchgear, it comes as a bit of a surprise that in fact this is (was) merely for generating electricity.
The black statue in front of the control building is of Prometheus, the Greek god who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals for their use.
This is a model of the reactor building as it is now, encased in the sarcophagus. The model has been 'opened up' to show the interior of the building, The 'top' of the model you see here is the sarcophagus. The explosion removed the roof of the containment building.
This is the model of the core that exploded. The 'lid' of the reactor blew off and landed sideways as you can see here. The 'hair' is supposed to represent the tubes through which the fuel rods, and control rods, were inserted and removed.
Another place we were expressly forbidden to take pictures was from the window of the 'visitor centre' as it afforded the best, elevated, view of the reactor building and the sarcophagus building work.
This my picture from the window showing the sarcophagus building work.
This my picture from the window showing the sarcophagus building work.
This is from the road outside the visitor centre, which as you can see doesn't show any of the building work that you see in the picture above.
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