11:00 GMT, 11 May 2012
These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The black and white shots, taken shortly after
the 1986 Ukraine tragedy, revealed the truth behind the tragedy that Soviet authorities were trying to hush up. But despite helping the outside
world to understand what had happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.
Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases
and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure. The only snapper to have seemingly survived any ill effects is Volodymyr Repik.
Anatoly Rasskazov died in 2010, aged 66, after suffering for years from cancer and blood diseases that he blamed on the radiation.
Valery Zufarov died in 1993, aged 52, of Chernobyl-related diseases. His first pictures were made from a helicopter 25 meters above the plant.
Igor Kostin, now 76, was working for the Novosti Press Agency when he was sent to cover the April 26 accident. Gaining unauthorised access to
the plant, by hitching a lift on a military lead-covered helicopter flight, he has admitted to 'foolishly' opening the window to take pictures.
Kostin's work in the days after the blast and in subsequent years on Chernobyl won him a World Press Photo Prize. But it also exposed him to
heavy levels of radiation. He has undergone several thyroid operations, with thyroid cancer as one of the most widespread consequences of the blast.
Volodymyr Repik, now 66, last year said that, if he had his time again, he would not have gone to Chernobyl because the risk of death was so high.
The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion
rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.
Thirty-one reactor staff and emergency workers were killed in the nuclear disaster, although a report in 2006 estimated the spread of radiation would
eventually lead to between 30,000 and 60,000 cancer deaths.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=Untitled-1-7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/Untitled-1-7.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The black and white shots, taken shortly after
the 1986 Ukraine tragedy, revealed the truth behind the tragedy that Soviet authorities were trying to hush up. But despite helping the outside
world to understand what had happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.
Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases
and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure. The only snapper to have seemingly survived any ill effects is Volodymyr Repik.
Anatoly Rasskazov died in 2010, aged 66, after suffering for years from cancer and blood diseases that he blamed on the radiation.
Valery Zufarov died in 1993, aged 52, of Chernobyl-related diseases. His first pictures were made from a helicopter 25 meters above the plant.
Igor Kostin, now 76, was working for the Novosti Press Agency when he was sent to cover the April 26 accident. Gaining unauthorised access to
the plant, by hitching a lift on a military lead-covered helicopter flight, he has admitted to 'foolishly' opening the window to take pictures.
Kostin's work in the days after the blast and in subsequent years on Chernobyl won him a World Press Photo Prize. But it also exposed him to
heavy levels of radiation. He has undergone several thyroid operations, with thyroid cancer as one of the most widespread consequences of the blast.
Volodymyr Repik, now 66, last year said that, if he had his time again, he would not have gone to Chernobyl because the risk of death was so high.
The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion
rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.
Thirty-one reactor staff and emergency workers were killed in the nuclear disaster, although a report in 2006 estimated the spread of radiation would
eventually lead to between 30,000 and 60,000 cancer deaths.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=Untitled-1-7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/Untitled-1-7.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
