I recently "discovered" with great surprise this amazing site on google earth, and was equally amazed by its story. The unfinished "Crimean Atomic Energy Station" (Ukrainian КримськаАЕС, Russian КрымскаяАЭС) was supposed to be a new nuclear power plant for the region of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

It's construction started in 1976 when Crimea was part of USSR. What exactly happened is unclear to me, it seems that the construction lasted almost forever (more than 10 years). Between 1986 and 1989 the station was inspected following the Chernobyl disaster, and was found to be located on a geologically volatile site. Construction of the facility was summarily abandoned.

All the construction equipment was left on the site, I suppose that the situation of the weakened Soviet union plays a role in this messy situation. Part of the nuclear reactors were shipped as spare parts to other nuclear plants of Ukraine.

The building of the nuclear power station entered into the Guinness book of records as the most expensive reactor construction in world history. The nearby city of Shcholkine also commonly known as Shchelkino or Shchyolkino by its Russian name, was constructed in 1978 to house workers of the power plant, the town population was later divided by 2 after the project halted.











coordinates : 45°23'30.52"N 35°48'12.66"E
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In this third part, we discover the amusement park located in downtown Prypiat. Abandoned amusement park are always an incredible vision, this one makes no exception, everything was left were it was 22 years ago when the fallout invaded the place.

Prypiat (Ukrainian: При́п'ять, Pryp”jat’; Russian: При́пять, Pripjat’; or Pripyat) is an abandoned city in the Zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. It was home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. The city was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident... see more of the city in Chernobyl disaster part 1 and Chernobyl disaster part 2





coordinates : 51°24'30.44"N 30°03'20.57"E
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the explosion crater : 2000 m wide

This is the story of the biggest atomic bomb tested by the USA, the second biggest atomic bomb ever as well as the story of a design mistake that provoked a massive nuclear accident. And I knew nothing about it...

Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, by the United States. Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States, with a yield of 15 Megatons. That yield, far exceeding the expected yield of 4 to 6 megatons, combined with other factors to produce the worst radiological accident ever caused by the United States.
In terms of TNT tonnage equivalence, Castle Bravo was about 1,200 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Fallout from the detonation—intended to be a secret test—poisoned the islanders who inhabited the test site, as well as the crew of Daigo Fukuryū Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5"), a Japanese fishing boat, and created international concern about atmospheric thermonuclear testing.

remains of the bunker on the island

When Bravo was detonated, it formed a fireball almost four and a half miles (roughly 7 km) across within a second. This fireball was visible on the Kwajalein atoll over 250 miles (450 km) away. The explosion left a crater of 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in diameter and 250 feet (75 m) in depth. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 47,000 feet (14 km) and a diameter of 7 miles (11 km) in about a minute; it then reached a height of 130,000 feet (40 km) and 62 miles (100 km) in diameter in less than 10 minutes and was expanding at more than 6 kilometers (4 miles) per minute.

Unanticipated fallout and radiation also affected many of the vessels and personnel involved in the test, in some cases trapping them in bunkers. Sixteen crew members of the aircraft carrier USS Bairoko received beta burns and there was a greatly increased cancer rate. Radioactive contamination also affected many of the testing facilities built on other islands of the Bikini atoll system.

The fallout spread traces of radioactive material as far as Australia, India and Japan, and even the US and parts of Europe. Though organized as a secret test, Castle Bravo quickly became an international incident, prompting calls for a ban on the atmospheric testing of thermonuclear devices.

The following pictures are remains of various ships wrecked during atomic bomb test in the Bikini Atoll, some by accident, some on purpose : USS Saratoga ,USS Lamson, USS Anderson, USS Apogon. Some of the most beautiful underwater pictures you could ever see.











coordinates : 11°41'46.57"N 165°16'21.17"E
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In this second part, we explore the inside of the buildings of Prypiat . As in most ghost town, the oddity comes form the perception that people were still living there recently, and left suddenly, and they in fact left suddenly - they were given 72 hours to leave - but this happened 22 years ago.

Prypiat (Ukrainian: При́п'ять, Pryp”jat’; Russian: При́пять, Pripjat’; or Pripyat) is an abandoned city in the Zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. It was home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. The city was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident... see more of the city in Chernobyl disaster part 1















coordinates : 51°24'27.26"N 30°03'08.48E
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