Scarred for life
40 years on, Chernobyl still questions humanity on how to safely harness nuclear energy
As the iron gates of the exclusion zone at the Polesie State Radiation-Ecological Reserve in Belarus creaked open, the vehicle moved slowly along a narrow village road, as if crossing a boundary between present and past.
The road was scarred by years of neglect. Fallen trees lay scattered through the forest, while nameless wildflowers bloomed quietly in the marshes. The hum of the tires felt intrusive, breaking the heavy, almost unnatural silence.
"This was a school — a place where visitors now come to take photos," said Alexey Kazakov, head of the reserve's information department. After the disaster, then-Soviet authorities evacuated all settlements within a 30-kilometer radius of the plant, including the village of Dronki, where the school once stood.
