Buley, Kevin

Buley, Kevin

Kevin Buley

3 September 2002Comment

16 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, have we gone back to sleep? Was Chernobyl a turning point or simply the first such catastrophe in a dangerous industry just a few decades old? Kevin Buley visits the radioactive exclusion zone

Pripyat is a large modern town in the lush green region of Pollisia in northern Ukraine. Purpose built for the new generation of atomic workers and their families. An object of envy for those unfortunates not working in this sparkling new technology. Spacious heated apartments with bathrooms and balconies were constructed in a woodland setting with wide tree-lined streets and boulevards, hotels and houses of culture, all banged up next to this prime example of Soviet technical wizardry, the…