Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy - Pierpaolo Mittica

Pierpaolo Mittica
Trolley Limited Editore, 2007, 240 pp.
ISBN: 1904563589, 9781904563587

This volume photographically shows the aftermath of the catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. From 2002-2004, the author visited Belarus and the Ukraine several times to document the heritage left by Chernobyl. The expanses of abandoned cities, buildings left in a hurry, and decaying rural villages - all still contaminated with mega doses of deadly radioactivity - became horrifying testimonies of the extent of damage. Worse yet, many of the thousands of victims of this tragedy (mostly young, since many older victims are already dead) tell their stories from cancer wards and orphanages for handicapped children with genetic defects. Older residents from the surrounding contaminated areas have chosen to return to their homes to live out their limited lives on their own familiar turf rather than in substandard state-sponsored housing projects. The series of photographs are interspersed throughout the book with short easy-to-read essays, statistics, maps, and quotes from scientists, doctors, residents, and international governmental reports. A bibliography includes a list of sources, including books, documentary films, web sites, and footnotes to some 200 scientific, medical and governmental reports.(*)
(*) from http://books.google.it/books