Apr 15, 2014 6:30 AM

Gallery: 30 Years After Chernobyl's Meltdown, Gripping Photos Expose the Human Fallout

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
On April 26, 1986, operators in this control room of reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant committed a fatal series of errors during a safety test, triggering a reactor meltdown that resulted in the world's largest nuclear accident to date. \[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine 2011\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Workers wearing plastic suits and respirators for protection pause briefly on their way to drill holes for support rods inside the shaky concrete sarcophagus, a structure hastily built after the explosion to isolate the radioactive rubble of Reactor #4. \[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine 2005\]

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
19 years after the accident, the empty schools and kindergarten rooms in Pripyat – once the largest town in the Exclusion Zone with 50,000 inhabitants – are still a silent testament to the sudden and tragic departure. Due to decay, this section of the school building has since collapsed. \[Pripyat, Ukraine, 2005\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
When Soviet authorities finally ordered the evacuation, the residents' hasty departure often meant leaving behind their most personal belongings. The Soviet Union did not admit to the world that an accident had occurred until two days after the explosion. \[Opachichi, Ukraine, 1993\]

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Severely physically and mentally handicapped, 5-year-old Igor was given up by his parents and now lives at a children's mental asylum. It is one of several such facilities in rural southern Belarus receiving support from Chernobyl Children International. \[Vesnova, Belarus, 2005\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Victor Gaydak, 70, a liquidator of the Chernobyl accident, watches news of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. A major in the army, he was on duty when the Chernobyl explosion occurred. After the disaster, he had two heart attacks and developed severe stomach cancer. \[Kiev, Ukraine, 2011\]

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
From the rooftops of the nearby city of Pripyat, the first section of the New Safe Confinement can be seen. The New Safe Confinement, a 29,000 ton metal arc, 105 meters high and 257 meters wide, will eventually slide over the existing sarcophagus to allow deconstruction of the ailing shelter. \[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, 2013\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Suffering from thyroid cancer, Oleg Shapiro, 54, and Dima Bogdanovich, 13, receive care at a thyroid hospital in Minsk, where surgery is performed daily. As a liquidator, Oleg was exposed to extreme levels of radiation. This was his third thyroid operation. \[Minsk, Belarus, 2005\]

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Kharytina Desha, 92, is one of the few elderly people who have returned to their village homes inside the Exclusion Zone. Although surrounded by devastation and isolation, she prefers to die on her own soil. \[Teremtsy, Ukraine, 2011\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
A radiation sign along the road near Pripyat warns of the menace. The tranquility of the sight on an evening of heavy snowfall belies the lingering danger looming in the peaceful winter landscape. \[Near Pripyat, Ukraine 2011\]

Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
The evacuated city of Pripyat, once brimming with life, is now a chilling ghost town. For an exiled resident, the stillness of a city boulevard stirs memories of her former life. In her hand is an old photo of the same street years earlier. \[Pripyat, Ukraine 2005\]
Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
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The Long Shadow of Chernobyl - A Photo Book by Gerd Ludwig - PRESS IMAGES
Photographer Gerd Ludwig is suited up with protective clothing for a 15-minute entry into the highly contaminated Reactor #4 – the maximum he and the shift workers are allowed to spend inside for a single day. \[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine 2005\]

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