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Eerie Photos Show The Abandoned Control Room At Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Eerie Photos Show The Abandoned Control Room At Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Once a hive of activity, the power plant control room is now completely abandoned

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

An eerie photograph, and a whole gallery online, show the reality of what life is now like in the destroyed and highly radioactive control room at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

As you're no doubt aware, the plant - in what is now Ukraine - suffered from a catastrophic accident on April 26 1986, and has been pretty much dormant ever since.

Nowadays, it's a place of great interest for scientific observers and dark tourists alike, but it's always worth getting a peep inside the zone without being exposed to the extraordinarily high levels of radiation that make the area still of concern.

In fact, one helpful traveller has compiled a frankly incredible gallery of several sites of interest within the abandoned city, including shots of the old factories, sanitorium, and - of course - the nuclear plant itself.

SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

It's called The Chernobyl Gallery, and it's well worth checking out.

In case this all isn't good enough for you, there are specialist travel companies to take you into the nuclear exclusion zone that surrounds the old plant.

There's been so much interest in it that Wowcher even offered a £169 trip out there last year, back when travelling was a going concern.

Until then, we'll have to take the word of those who have been, and who have captured the eerie stillness of the place that was once the centre of the world's news cycle.

The Chernobyl Gallery

Well, that's if it isn't full of tourists when you get there. Martin Duben, who operates the CHERNOBYLwel.com tour company, reckons that he's taken more than 100,000 people into the exclusion zone near the abandoned city of Pripyat.

Back in 2019, he told LADbible: "It depends what time of the year you go, the spring and autumn are crowded - months April, May, September and October there are thousands of visitors per weekend.

"The ghost town of Pripyat is not a ghost town at all, you have a hard time trying to take a picture where there is no-one there. There's too many tourists."

The Chernobyl Gallery

He added: "November is the best time, it's not that cold but there is some snow and it is kind of depressing."

"Everyone is saying 'why do you want to go to Chernobyl' but then they get there and there are hundreds if not thousands of people there"

When asked why people keep coming back to the area, Duben explained: "It is so popular because it is falling apart. It's not like Disneyland which will be there in 20 years. You have to go now, because in five or 10 years it might not be there."

The Chernobyl Gallery

He's definitely right about it being nothing like Disneyland.

Anyway, until travel starts back up, we'll have to make do with observing the amazing pictures that we've got.

Featured Image Credit: Reddit

Topics: Ukraine, Interesting, travel, Chernobyl, Weird