Thursday, August 4, 2016

Pripyat Amusement Park


Pripyat amusement park, located in Pripyat, Ukraine, was built to celebrate May Day in 1986. The park was meant to be temporary, with the ferris wheel being the centerpiece. Since so many residents of Pripyat were employed by the local power plant, the park expected to entertain primarily the power plant employees and their families. Opening day was set to be on May 1st, however that day never arrived.
Several days earlier on April 26th, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant melted down, making it a day that would go down in history as one of the worst nuclear disasters. After the reactor had blown, most of the town wasn't made aware of the event right away. Clouds of smoke began to reach
Pripyat while the children were still playing outside. The next day, buses were sent to gather all of the residents for a mandatory evacuation. 
The amusement park opened a few days early, the day after the catastrophe occurred. It opened for a few hours during the day of the evacuation to take some of the gloom away from the community. Once everyone evacuated, Pripyat was left empty. The only people to return were scientists, journalists and photographers. However, government regulated tour groups do sometimes visit the park, carrying radiation monitors since the levels are still deadly. The whole town remains in the Zone of Alienation due to the hazardous risks one takes when visiting. Scientists say that the amusement park is one of the most contaminated areas in the whole town. 
Thousands of people were killed in the incident and still haunt the park to this day. Pripyat has become a ghost town, and some believe that to be in the literal sense. 

Source: http://allday.com/post/935-pripyat-amusement-park-where-the-ghosts-of-chernobyl-play/

2 comments:

  1. I wonder how close the amusement park was to the plant considering Scientists say that it is one of the most contaminated areas in the whole town. It must have been extremely bad for the people that visited on the day of the evacuation to cheer themselves up. Scary to think how they did not know how much danger they were really in. .

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  2. I wonder how close the amusement park was to the plant considering Scientists say that it is one of the most contaminated areas in the whole town. It must have been extremely bad for the people that visited on the day of the evacuation to cheer themselves up. Scary to think how they did not know how much danger they were really in. .

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