Fallout: the human cost of nuclear catastrophe

Posted by bex — 5 April 2006 at 8:00am - Comments

Fallout: the human cost of nuclear catastrophe

Chernobyl fallout exhibition - Annya


A photographic exhibition to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster

It's 20 years since Chernobyl became the site of the world's most infamous nuclear accident, one which released 270 times more radiation than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation levels in the plant - at 15,000 times normal - were high enough to destroy the human nervous system in 30 minutes. More than two and a half million people are defined as 'Victims of Chernobyl' in the Ukraine alone while a fifth of land in Belarus was contaminated.

The disaster may have receded into distant memory for some of us, but millions of people in Western Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine are still living lives blighted by radiation, displacement, disease and trauma.

 

Fallout exhibition - Aksuatsky Aksuatsky Rayon, six,
stopped growing at the
age of three.
Fallout: The human cost of nuclear catastrophe is a powerful exhibition by award-winning Dutch photographer Robert Knoth which documents the human legacy of Chernobyl and other nuclear accident sites of the former Soviet Union. Poignant portraits of people whose lives have been blighted by radiation exposure combine with haunting landscapes of deserted and contaminated villages, and tender scenes of every day life in the radioactive ruins.

This Greenpeace / Panos Pictures exhibition offers a poignant reminder of the risks of nuclear technology - and the deadly consequences when things go wrong.

 

Independent scientists and economists know that nuclear energy is the most expensive electricity source available, counting the cost of building, running and decommissioning the power stations. But an economic analysis alone cannot calculate the costs of damage done to our genes, the very foundation of life.

 

Fallout Exhibition - Prypyat The 1st of May fair in the ghost
town of Prypyat has stood
untouched since the disaster.
Fallout: The human cost of nuclear catastrophe is a powerful exhibition by award-winning Dutch photographer Robert Knoth which documents the radioactive human legacy of Chernobyl and other nuclear accident sites of the former Soviet Union. Poignant portraits of people whose lives have been blighted by radiation exposure combine with haunting landscapes of deserted and contaminated villages and tender scenes of every day life in the radioactive ruins.

With nuclear power firmly back on the political agenda here in the UK, these photographs offer a timely and cautionary reminder of the risks of nuclear technology and the deadly consequences when things go wrong.


The exhibition

Fallout will be showing between 18th April and 14th May (11am-6pm) at:

the.gallery@oxo
Oxo Tower Wharf
Bargehouse Street
South Bank London SE1 9PH

Admission is free.


Find out more

Who is affected?. Meet Annya, a teenager living with cancer since the age of four, and Yuri, the only surviving member of the work crew on duty the night the reactor blew up.

 

Follow Greenpeace UK