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April 29, 2006
Chernobyl Radiation Visualization in Google Earth
Last week, our friend Valery Hronusov from Russia's Academy of Science in Perm, Russia (aka Valery35 at the Google Earth Community) posted a series of Google Earth files to illustrate radiation quantities at the Chernobyl site. Chernobyl (located in Pripyat, Ukraine) was the site of the worst nuclear power disaster in history and occurred 20 years ago on April 26, 1986 (see Wikipedia story). It turns out Google Earth now has a high resolution photo for the Chernobyl disaster (not sure when that got added).
You can visit Chernobyl and see Valery's visualizations below. There are more examples in his post. Valery used a GIS tool he has helped develop called KMLer.
- Radiation quantities I
- 1st illustration - legend shows amount of radiation - Radiation quantities II - 2nd illustration with rectangular cubes
- New containment building - Wire frame model of new building
By the way, you would think the site of the worst nuclear disaster would be empty of life. But, in fact people work nearby there today. And animals have seen a startling comeback (in the absense of a lot of people living near the site). And trees have overtaken the nearby building northwest of the site. Read this BBC story about it.
Posted by FrankTaylor at April 29, 2006 08:14 AM
Comments
Posted by: Bill White at April 29, 2006 09:48 PM
Regarding the statement: "By the way, you would think the site of the worst nuclear disaster would be empty of life. But, in fact people work nearby there today"
This is true, but depends what is understood by 'nearby' - if you exclude workers still trying to make the site safe.
National Geographic did an interesting feature in their April 2006 issue, including a map of the exclusion zone - there's a gate and guard house house 18 miles from the reactor apparently!
Have a look at www.ngm.com/0604 for the story and pictures
Posted by: Roger Driver at April 30, 2006 06:08 AM
This is a devastating catastrophe...I must ask is the Russian government helping clean up efforts? And is their any fund raisers active to raise money for the re-encasement of the reactor?
Posted by: Ben at October 4, 2007 11:36 PM
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Here's a website devoted to the author's motorcycle rides through and explorations of Chernobyl: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/