Kind: captions
Language: en
that is true noble nuclear reactor
number four it melted down on April 26
1986 so what happened was so much heat
was generated inside that reactor that
it basically blew the top off spreading
radioactive isotopes throughout this
whole surrounding area and over into
Europe and that is why we can still
detect the contamination here today and
they covered it in that sarcophagus
which is kind of crumbling as it ages
and so they're actually building a
brand-new containment facility over here
which when it's finished will be slid
over on top of the old containment on
top of the old sarcophagus the town of
Pripyat was built just a few kilometers
away from the reactor mostly to has the
families of the people who worked there
and now it is completely abandoned so
now you can find all of these high-rise
Soviet apartments completely empty and
crumbling and the forest is basically
reclaiming this whole town when the
residents of Pripyat were told to
evacuate they were told that they would
only be away for two weeks so they left
most of their belongings exactly where
they were and they never came back
so their lives are on display here
I'm inside an old kindergarten and it's
incredibly peaceful you know you look
around and it looks like a disaster is
hit here but mainly what this shows is
thirty years of weathering no
maintenance so things just fall apart
[Music]
the most insidious thing about radiation
is how invisible it is you can't feel it
you can't smell it or see it this could
be pristine wilderness but it's not it's
a contaminated deserted wasteland this
is what a real post-apocalyptic world
looks like abandoned buildings overgrown
streets everything crumbling rust things
breaking near the reactor there's an
area called the red forest because after
the accident so much radioactive
material was dumped in that area that
all the trees died and their leaves
turned red just like they do in autumn
I'm standing on the stage I feel could
be a theater something about this place
that just I can picture the scene I can
picture it here a packed house all the
great Russian productions that were
staged here and you look it around at
all the old lights and the layers upon
layers of walkways they would have used
this is a pretty amazing location this
is my favorite place so far nothing
radioactive it's just an amazing look
and the past of this place
[Music]
everything is so recognizable and so
familiar and yet it's it's being
destroyed it's crumbling and nature is
reclaiming this whole area this is what
the world would look like if man
disappeared one day all of a sudden this
is what it would look like thirty years
later
I filmed this video while shooting a
documentary for TV all about how uranium
has shaped the modern world for details
about when and where that'll be
broadcast check out the description and
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if you thought that that was an alien
landscape what you just saw
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