Pictures Of The Atomic Bomb

Chernobyl: Pictures of abandoned disaster zone 25 years since nuclear meltdown

Twenty five years since the world's worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power station, the surrounding settlements are still ghost towns, with  thousands of houses abandoned and left to fall into ruin.

Ukraine is today preparing to mark a quarter of a century since the disaster, which endangered hundreds of thousands of lives and contaminated pristine forests and farmland with deadly radiation.

The blast on April 26, 1986, spewed a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the most heavily hit areas in Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will commemorate the victims of the nuclear accident with prayers and candle-lighting in Kiev tonight before they travel to the Chernobyl station on Tuesday.

A 19-mile area around the plant has been uninhabited except for occasional plant workers, and several hundred local people who returned to their homes despite official warnings.

Vasily Voznyak, the head of the Soviet government's Chernobyl department in 1986-1990, told a news conference today that officials were totally unprepared for the accident: 'Neither the civil defence, nor the station's management, nor the Soviet party organs in the region were ready for an accident of such a global scale,' he said in Moscow.

The U.N.'s World Health Organization said at a Kiev conference last week that among the 600,000 people most heavily exposed to radiation, 4,000 more cancer deaths than average are expected to be eventually found.

Soviet authorities initially offered a generous package of benefits to Chernobyl clean-up workers. But over time the benefits have been cut back.

About 2,000 veterans of the Chernobyl clean up rallied in Kiev earlier this month to protest cuts in their benefits and pensions after Ukraine's Yanukovich said fulfilling the past promises to Chernobyl workers was 'beyond the government's strength' amid the financial downturn. Chernobyl veterans in Belarus are facing similar cuts.

Japan is struggling to bring the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control after last month's earthquake and tsunami triggered another nuclear disaster.

Tokyo Just Became a Better City | The Neon Lounge

While in Phoenix last week I received an email from a producer who works for Japan’s NHK Television. A few years ago NHK filmed a documentary about my father and his atomic bomb photographs, and the film was a huge success in Japan. Takuomi Matsumoto was the producer and director, and I spent many weeks with him while the documentary was being made. By the end of the film, Tak-san not only proved to be an incredible producer and director, but also a great friend.

You can see a clip from his film here: Nagasaki: Photographs From The Trunk

I almost didn’t take my laptop with me to Phoenix, but now I’m glad I did, and I’m glad the crappy hotel had free wi-fi service. Here’s the letter I received:

Takuomi is going to be promoted and will move to NHK headquarters in Tokyo. So we are going to give a farewell party for him this friday. We have always respected Takuomi as a talented TV director (producer). With “NAGASAKI” he erected a monumental landmark in the history of Japanese TV. And he always says that “NAGASAKI” is the best work he has ever done.  At the party we are going to look back to that program and if possible, would like to read out a message from you. Is it possible for you to write some memories or stories about him ? (It doesn’t have to be long) We want to know how it was like when Takuomi was filming you. Working with you on my father’s Nagasaki documentary was a life-changing experience for me. Thanks to you and your wonderful team, I saw photographs and listened to recordings from my father that I had never seen or heard before. This gave me a better understanding of my father, and it also gave me insight on how he would have wanted me to live my life. I have such fond memories of our travels: Washington, D.C., Nashville, Tennessee, and of course, Nagasaki. In each of these places you were always professional, but at the same time, even with our language barrier, you were understanding and compassionate. I am proud to have been part of something that you now see as your most important work to date, and I thank you for it.