Praying the god to see the day of N-weapon free Earth....
Not to mention, the Biological weapons are more destructive than Nuclear weapons...because, they are never used or tested... no one knows its impact. May be...even the creators of them too dont know their scale of destruction !

This is wat the need for power does...
Sad...

Very sad and let me worried...

Oh, again the Big Bad Soviet Union. What about Hiroshima and what about the American nuclear tests in Nevada and the children of the soldiers used in those tests or maybe this is not important as it was done for "world safety reasons". Yeah right!

Also ganz im Ernst, es ist ziemlich erscheckend wenn man sieht was daraus resultiert wenn die Atomkraft einfach wahrlos eingesetzt wird, aber auf der anderen Seite bin ich total für Atomkraft wenn sie so wie in Deutschland in sicheren Kraftwerken zur Stromgewinnung genutzt wird. Jedenfalls so lange bis es andere Alternative gibt die sich auch finanziel rentieren. Erst dann sollte man darüber nachdenken Atomkraft abzuschaffen. Was wollt ihr denn bitte machen wenn wir alle Atomkraftwerke in Deutschland abschalten? Woher beziehen wir unsere Energie? Wollen wir wirklich riskieren das irgendwelche Länder AKWs bauen die nicht ansatzweiße die Sicherheit unserer deutschen erreichen um unseren Strombedarf zu decken und somit zu riskieren das es dort Zwischenfälle gibt? Ich denke dochmal nicht.

sad :(

What sort of a manner is this ? Huh.
Today we all are living as if though we are not going to die forever.
But the matter of fact is that we all are walking dead bodies living in Hell.
O Lord save tha man Kind

So sad, nothing else to say. Can't the human race just get it together and stop this kind of tragedy? I know it sounds utopian but we are capable of it, look at what we are able to do. Why don't we? I don't understand.

:'(

And this is why everybody has to support Obama when he says he wants a world without nuclear weapons. Praying doesn´t help. Action is required.

@Andreas, typisches von der Wand bis zur Tapete denken. Kein Mensch weiss was er mit dem nuklearen Abfall machen soll. Unter der Erde verstecken ist keine Lösung.

Strange things are happening in #16.
Nice leather jacket in #13

#10 - #14 is so awfully sad. Awful what war and governments do to their people.

"It's encouraging to know God's unconditional love for everyone."

By having a child born blind and with Infantile Cereberal Paralysis (ICP) and hydrocephalia? I'll pass on that brand of love, thanks.

This is a very tragic legacy. But please don’t think that the harm to humans (and the environment) illustrated by this photo essay is limited only to radioactive nuclear fallout and waste. We collectively continue to pollute the world-wide environment with a plethora of chemical and biochemical toxins, which can also result in similar harmful effects on all organisms, including humans. When will we all learn (industry, governments and citizens) that we only have one planet earth and we all need to treat it with the utmost respect?

This reminds me of Valeri Legasov and the memorable statement he made after the Chernobyl disaster: "Technology has to be protected form Man".

such sad pics,these are the innocent victims of a deadly tragedy that started decades ago.why did they have to do this?these people don't seem to think,they fight the war, maybe for a few years,but their damaging effects stay on.the nuclear war is the worst way to destroy people,you don't just kill someone,but kill countless innocents,is it these people's fault that they were born in that place,just think,it could be us too.we should thank God for every luxury that we enjoy and also help these people in whatever small way we can.maybe the government can do something like shift all the people from radiation prone areas.we have to help them somehow.

Life is really a struggle for those living in the town which was a playground for Nuclear Warlords of former U.S.S.R... i pity and imagine how intense was the drive for winning the cold war that it adversely affected generations of innocent and common peoples of Kazakhstan.

but at times of hardship i also find smiles and intense dedication to help their people.

May God Relieve their Pain and shower them with happiness and blessings

I was very shocked and depressed when I saw this pictures.
The little Byo named Adil who is blind and and with Infantile Cereberal Paralysis (ICP) was shaking my heart so much that I donated for him. If someone wants to donate some money to this victims you can go to this site gomel-hilfe.de
I did it because this humans need it. Just think twice: we are living free, rich and not disabled.They are poor and they will never see the world like you are able to see it......

thank you for these amazing pictures, there are pieces of truth and life, so sad but true, it is important to know what happened, to let us be conscoius of what the human beign can do. Im always astonished with this site.

Who made this?
The thing that should not be.

It's a crime against humanity. Innocents suffering. Shame.

All governments are evil, they are about power and control, the general populace is their guinea pigs, if caught they apologize profusely and start passing the blame among themselves until a believable lie can be found, that the ignorant and undereducated are pacified then they continue their madness in a more covert manner...

Hi from Spain,amazing work and amazing info,
Then do they want nuclear energy? in Spain even nuclear power plants stay in functioning and already many of Ascó 1 in tarragona where on April 4 44 pupils of 4th of primary and many are resident in the city where I reside and three teachers of the school visited the nuclear power plant and on the following day Greenpeace it denounced that in November there had gone out a few metallic particles of activation of the ventilation of the building of fuel. Although the Nuclear Security Council (CSN) classified the level fact under the international scale of INES, who comes to 7, in case of serious accident, on the 14th 2 re-classified it under level, and he told that the radiological impact derived from the new information, in spite of there was the spilled one it was superior to the initial, it kept on being «very little significant.....
For me is not it a little significant since apart from not warning to the school for the above mentioned accident and putting the life in danger of these children the nuclear one says that it was not for so much? what would have happened if these children "had been contaminated?" who would be guilty? govern of spain, nuclear..?, I believe that it is demonstrated that the renewable energies are much more effective that the nucleares. we hope that they should not turn to see these impactantes images.

really saddening. these pics show how some politically ambitious men destroyed the beatiful earth created by God. All for wat? my tribute to the parents and the caretakers of those kids. they teach us to be courageous in times of pain and anguish. my prayers for u..............................

shame of governments in all countries! We are authentic puppets!

This is too brutal... I have no words.

people can say this is wrong all you want
and i totally agree with you, that such powers should be used as a war weapon, and also deform innocents from birth, not eve giving them a chance. but those of you who are American or English
who would rule us if we did not have nuclear weapons?
wjhat freedom would we have?
what freedom would other developing countries have?
what freedom would kazakstan have?
to have peace, you must be ready for war. The only way to solve this problem is to wipe out humanity. And no one wants to do that.

Incredibly moving and sad.

You can't really establish a causal relationship between those cases and radiation exposure, I'm sorry. Just because someone lives there doesn't mean their child got palsy due to radiation exposure. I'm not saying none of them did, but saying "he's got hydrocephalia because of radiation exposure" is a blatant lie.

And before US folks get all self-righteous, I'd ask them to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

These pictures made me physically cry surely this is very wrong and the perpetrators should have been made to pay for this very serious crime treating these poor people as guinea pigs. Who knows even nowadays what
trials and experiments are happening behind closed doors as we live and breathe.

This is horrible, nothing can excuse this. But on the other hand why are you so surprised? It was Russia, it is Russia and it always be Russia. Life of a human being has less then 0 value there, rules, if any, are just for fun. I don't trust them even if they say "good morning".

The first time PC pictures made me cry.
Thank God for my 3 healthy children.
Once again many of us are reminded, that we should not complain about our lives.
These people have real issues and no silver lining whatsoever in sight.
#22 holds some hope, though.

I just realised smoking is cool.

The deformed man smoking a cigarrette looks cool in that photo.

@148 - "And before US folks get all self-righteous, I'd ask them to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

You know, it's worth noting that we intentionally bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki for military reasons. If Japan hadn't, say, bombed the US in an unprovoked strike at Pearl Harbor, then we wouldn't have gone to war. Had they surrendered at any point, including after the first atomic bomb, then they could have greatly reduced deaths. The alternative was a full-scale invasion of Japan, which would have resulted in far more deaths, and far more American deaths. Japan was horribly guilty for what they did to the Chinese, and the war was ready to end as soon as they surrendered. It took a massive bombing of two of their cities (which were significant military installations) before they realized it.

On the flipside, the USSR was irradiating its own people.

It's just horrible. I'm glad these photos came to the Czech republic a I hope they will fly all over the world to show, such a beasts the russian were and are!

The era of Stalinism was replaced by new era of Putinism ! Soviet Union or Russia....is there any difference ? The mentality of the russians has not changed. Even the new generation is being brought up the same way as their parents and grandparents were. Values of russians are very different from the values of europeans, americans, asians or africans. Life of people means nothing to them.

Very sad and heart breaking. They are great parents.

People brought this lot to other people! We should always remember that being a human is more important than belonging to some nationality, or religion. We're all the same and we should forget all the conflicts!

These pictures show once again, that atomic weapons and atomic tests are irresponsible.

But I have to correct some things here:
@Chris : you are a prime example of history US-style.
1.) Japan didn't bomb the US in an "unprovoked" strike at Pearl Harbor. The US had been provoking Japan for month (by cutting of resources for example) until Japan had no other choice given its politics at the time. When Japan did finally strike (which the US was prepared for), the US finally had a blank cheque for the war in Asia. Like Coulmas wrote: "Pearl Harbor stood and still stands in the USA for infamous treachery and wicked aggression of another race and became the code for the moral legitimacy of all American acts of war." Especially Hein, Cumings and Selden showed in their works, how important this was for the US foreign policy. Because now the US could finally get involved, had the opportunity to create the moral highground and had the possibility to portray the Japanese a an inferior, wicked, monkeylike race against which every means is justified.
2.) Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not bombed solely for military reason. Read the works of historians like Bernstein, Dower, Alperovitz, Selden etc. and not just your school's politically brainwashed history textbook.
3.) That a full-scale invasion of Japan would have cost far more (American) lives is a postwar myth created 1945-1947 by Truman, Conant, and Ayers, especially through Stimsons famous article "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb" in Harper’s Magazins issue from February 1947. It has been disproven countless times by scholars of history, political science and Japanese studies. Just because a big part of the American populus doesn't want to accept that, doesn't make a myth the truth.
4.) That the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki alone persuaded the Japanese elite to surrender is also a postwar myth to be found in countless American books about the end of WWII. Again, read Bernstein ("The atomic bomb, The critical issues", "The Atomic Bomb and American Foreign Policy, 1941-1945. An Historiographical Controversy", "A Postwar Myth. 500.000 U.S. Lives Saved", "Marshall, Truman, and the Decision to Drop the Bomb", "Understanding the Atomic Bomb and the Japanese Surrender: Missed Opportunities, Little-Known Near Disasters, and Modern Memory"), Sherwin ("A world destroyed. Hiroshima and its legacies", "Hiroshima as Politics and History"), Walker ("Prompt and Utter Destruction. Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan", "History, Collective Memory, and the Decision to Use the Bomb", "Recent Literature on Truman’s Atomic Bomb Decision. A Search for Middle Ground"), Dower ("Embracing Defeat. Japan in the wake of World War II", "War without mercy. Race and power in the Pacific War"), Cumings ("Parallax Visions. Making sense of American-East Asian relations at the end of the century"), Frank ("Downfall. The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire"), Hasegawa ("Racing the enemy. Stalin, Truman, and the surrender of Japan"), Bix ("Japan’s Delayed Surrender").
5.) The US irradiated their own people and other peoples at least as much as the USSR did. (Read for example Kramer, Wangh, Messerschmidt, or Gallagher). So, pointing fingers is a very unwise thing to do here.
6.) Neither Hiroshima nor Nagasaki very solely military bases. Nagasaki had arms industry and an important shipyard, Hiroshima had army camps at its vicinity. That's it. Hiroshima had a pow-camp and was a refugee town. The US had deliberately not bombed these two cities until the dropping of the atomic bombs, so that as much damage and human casualties as possible would be inflicted. That is proven by the documents of the so called Interim-Committee that was set up by the US president to arrange the bombings. All these documents are in the Truman and the Roosevelt libraries and archives. And if the intention had been to destroy military installations, why did the Nagasaki bomb explode over a tennis court and the Hiroshima bomb over the Shima hospital in the middle of town?
As long as the US remain blind to these points and too much in love with their own history, they should refrain from judging and accusing others.

Just remember, folks, there are thousands of kids here in the US dying of cancers caused by toxic chemical effluent, radiation, and various environmental toxins, too - just remember that when you want less government or less regulation of industry, because it could be your child next.

@153

"You know, it's worth noting that we intentionally bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki for military reasons."

Yes, but not the military reasons you give. The dropping of the bombs had everything to do with real-life testing. Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki such appealing targets? For reasons of military significance? No. It was the direct opposite - the Target Committee at Los Alamos selected them because of their insignificance - they were essentially untouched by previous bombing operations which meant they were the perfect candidates to use to compare the effectiveness of an atomic blast on a 'fresh' city.

Why did the US drop TWO DIFFERENT types of bomb? Again as a real-life test to find out which was more effective.

Did the bombs hasten the end of conflict? Quite probably, but at the cost of a massive war-crime (and a war whose outcome was already written on the wall). I mean how would you guys feel if someone decided to wipe out two of your cities? And yet so many Americans are proud of what happened - sheesh. And you can't say that Pearl Harbor is justification because that totally ignores the very real difference between an unprovoked attack of a MILITARY installation and the indescriminant killing of two cities full of CIVILIANS.

I know that plenty of reprehensible actions were precipitated by all sides, but that does not excuse what should be an enourmous souce of shame for the US population. But then I guess with the dioxin legacy in Vietnam, atomic testing in the Pacific and a century of constant interference and regime-change in order to further its own ends, the bombs were just another episode in a very long list of disgrace...

As an American parent of a boy adopted from Semey, I would urge the writer and others to be cautious about drawing a circumstantial conclusion that all medical conditions in the region stem from the nuclear testing. There are children in need of families and these articles tend to 'scare' away potential adoptive familes. The pictures that are shown are heart breaking and heart warming to see families taking care of their own. Having spent time in the region, I saw first hand that there are other factors that could be the cause, as there are in many parts of the world. My son is thriving and we are so appreciative of those in Kazakhstan who cared for him first.

Why is that woman ringing bells for a Christmas Eve service on January 6th?

Amazing images, really powerful, truly artistic and realistic at the same time!

sadly the innocent pay the price... most of the times.

im very touched by these... these pictures tell more than words

Pedant said:
it is impossible to say that the fallout from the nuclear tests "caused" any of the deformities shown

Look at any place where there was high concentrations of radiation, like Chernobyl for instance. saying "statistically" there is no way to tell is total bullsh*t. People from this area, Chernobyl, and Hiroshima, were all greatly affected. To give you an idea of how long radiation lasts, they say that at reactor #4 in Chernobyl where the actual explosion happened, wont be fully safe for another 20,000 years. So go ahead and move there, let everyone know when you have a kid with no arms that statistically it was a coincidence.

SAD ..VERY VERY SAD !!.........why on earth do we need nuclear weapons???.........to destroy each other we need weapons which have such uggly effects!!!!!!....human beings have lost the respect for life........and have lost values......cant we make a biological medicine or sort of thing which can make human beings less dangerous and kill the demon inside which has so little infact nil respect for life !!!....can scientist invent such things instead of wasting their talents to destroy humanity and life !!......science and technolgy is actually making evils out of Homo sapiens with time !!!

"God doesnot change the conditon of a people until they change what is in themselves"(Quran).It is so true nowadays,i'm not saying that it is these people's fault that this happened to them,man in general has grown greedy in his lust for wealth,power and fame.even when some people do the mistakes,others bear the brunt.we have to go back and learn from those people who lived peacefully.

Es una ABERRACION......... no tienen perdón los autores y culpables de tales ACTOS..... ésto si es un CRIMEN.
¿A quién se le puede pedir responsabilidades?... Seguro que quienes mandaron a realizar estas pruebas nucleares han vivido a vien sin tener ningún tipo de remordimientos, y si sabían las mínimas consecuencias que ésto podía acarrear. ¿porqué no pararon de deformar una población?.... Sólo puedo decir que me apena y me dá mucha lástima lo que he visto.

As of the pictures...the worst is the fact that only the innocent ones suffer the most...The only one who is responsible for this is former Soviet government. No doubt they were aware of the population in the affected area and it only is their neglect and irresponsibility for their own citizens. Look at it from another point of view...look for what their government did to all of those who were imprisoned of political reasons and brought to trials based on the purpose to eliminate enemies of the communist regime. Government of the former USSR is responsible for this and they are to blame as the military started off the testing as soon as they were given orders. We must seek justice for the innocent ones...got to find the guilty ones and bring them to court. Before they all die out.

Wondeful pics for an amazing subject.

They truly were weapons of mass destruction, even though only two were ever fired in anger they still cost untold lives, and probably will do so for generations.

That is the danger with such weapons, that you may still be taking lives even when the fight is long forgotten and animosity has long departed.

This is really sad and yet we still don't learn from it!!!

Look at what human has done. Eventually the world will be destroyed by our own hand.

Re: Comment #12 - Russian (and Greek and Ukrainian etc. )Orthodox Christmas is 2 weeks later. They are following a different calendar.

Very humbling pictures. It made me ashamed that my only worry when I got up this morning was whether I should drop an obscene amount of money on an article of clothing.

I don't know where these people find the strength to carry on when a "normal" life is so bleak in their country. In the best of times, taking care of a disabled child is exhausting, heartbreaking, and very expensive. Looking at these pictures made me realize some not very nice things about myself. I couldn't do what these mothers (and fathers) do. Their children are very lucky to have been born to them.

Btw, does it really matter that not ALL of these deformities can be conclusively linked to nuclear testing. I'm sure there is a pretty good case for most of them. It doesn't take away from the power of the essay at all.

look at these photos again try to tell us that nuclear energy is safe. heartless and inhumane.

I am from Kazakhstan, and all these pictures are true, sad and touching... We have Nuclear plants too in Western Kazakhstan, but these pictures depict the result of the nuclear testing on open areas without informing the local population... Now (after collapse of USSR in 1991) people at least know why it is so, before they were not even aware-(. Chernobyl suffers, I hope everybody knows the consequences, from 1 single explosion, but what had happened in KZ is that Russia exploded/tested 456 nuclear weapons within 40 years!!! 4-5 tests per year, so one can imagine the impact of it...

"And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him and to be kind to your parents.when one or both of them grow old in your presence,donot say unto them"Fie",nor mistreat them,but lower unto them the wing of mercy.and say"My Lord,have mercy on them as they cherished me when I was little""
our parents have done somuch for us that howmuch ever we try to repay them,it wouldnot be enough for all what they have given us,when we are sad,they console us,when we go astray,they guide us,when we fall sick,they take care of us.we have to do all what we can to please them and earn God's Pleasure.

13 - Berik Syzdykov is led outside by his mother in Semey, Kazakhstan on Tuesday, November 19, 2008. (Ed Ou/Reportage by Getty Images)
(y a pas qu'au Kazakhistan que ça s'est passé, hein ! merci)

J'admire cette mère, son port, l'affectif (bras-dessous, en balade) (il joue du piano ...) qu'elle transmet à son fils-une monstruosité ( ne nous voilons pas la face ! ) -n'ayons pas peur des mots- et son regard, vers nous dirigé, sont sans équivoque : une ("sacrée") femme, mère, pugnace ... yep ! JAMAIS, non jamais, je n'aurais pu être en mesure, et ne pourrai jamais, tant psychologiquement que physiquement, etc ... "faire" le 10ème de ce qu'elle fait ...

EPR sont "fashion" : ça se vend (malgrè TOUT ça ... même s'il y a des défauts) : le "ridicule-qui-ne-tue-pas (Sarkozypardi) en fait la promo, c'est dire ... dormez, brââves (petites) gens, il est vrai que les maîtres (et quelques m/tr/aîtresses) brandissent "non à l'avortement - non à l'ivg, ...que du béni oui-oui, beurk, histoire de rester poli) (fondations s'ougvriront, histoire de mea culpa, so easy, hi ! hi !

Thanks Ed for ur story. Proud to know you!
Your pictures are prove that with photography we can really make a difference!

miss u:)
maja

Pido A Dios por estas personas y muchas otras en la misma situación.....

The former Soviet Government is not the only one to do this type of thing.The US government did many experiments that included unaware civillians.They also did many medical experiments to study the effects of disease in white and non-white subjects.They gave medical attention,but no medicine or cures.Just collecting data,while human beings suffered and died.That shows how much your government cares about its citizens.We are all just a stastistic on one list or another.

#162-January 6th.Is called "Little Christmas".It is the last day of the 12 days of Christmas,and in some parts of the world the whole 12 days are celebrated,not just the one when you get the presents.
#130-Listen to and support Obama? Have you lost your mind?Obama is just the next puppet in a long line of puppets.You think because he has some black blood in him he can save the world?He is no more or less than any other American president,and he will do nothing more than his keepers tell him to.Just like all his predisessors.Although lately he has become somewhat the little media whore.making comments on athletes,and actors blunders and getting his comments and face all over the media(TV,News Papers,Internet Web-pages).No president before made his personal thoughts on these trivial matters known to the press as he does.Is he becomming addicted to the lime light.I hope not what if he starts making stuff up,because there is nothing going on for him to comment on? Or maybe Kanye West will constantly make an ass of himself so Mr.Obama can continue to point out the obvious.

not so funny. it's horrible
We are very lucky

One of the most touching issues...
These people are amazing.

Very moving pictures, thanks.

I'm impressed that Stewart Brand commented too (#88) - I've read some of your books and always find them interesting and thought provoking. Unfortunately issues like this are driven mainly by emotions than science. I think in many ways this is an indication of how much safer nuclear radiation is than we're often lead to believe. Over 400 nuclear bombs were exploded in close proximity to these people and yet the majority of people are not effected and total life expectancies *only* dropped by 7 years. Yes, I absolutely agree that the consequences are tragic, but I'd also be a lot less concerned about radiation if a nuke was dropped near my home, or if a nuclear power plant was built. The risk, surely, from 1 plant or 1 bomb must be tiny compared to the risk these people face.

We should definitely be careful with nuclear materials and enforce very high safety standards, but we should also perhaps not be so afraid.

"Total life expectancy *only* dropped by 7 years."

Written by someone who apparently doesn't understand the misery necessary to drop the life expectancy of a large community by 10% overall, or how many lives have to end 28 years early for the average to drop by 7.

You and Stewart Brand read like callous fools trying to rationalize the irredeemable, trying to explain away the torture and injustice of others.

In my own rationalization, I like to pretend Jeremy and Stewart are paid industry shills employed to mollify a moritified public. It makes me feel better than to think there are people out there so discompassionate and amoral as to try to justify such inhumane monstrousness on a voluntary basis.

It is impossible not to feel compassion for the people in these photos. However, it is intolerable that the author and photographer present their hypothesis as fact without a shred of scientific analysis to back their claims. They lay blame on exposure to what was in all likelihood minute amounts of radiation that would not have caused the health effects shown in the photos.

There are numerous well-documented cases examples of large numbers of people living for years or lifetimes in elevated radiation fields without any ill effects (see Ramsar, Iran and www.jpands.org/vol9no1/chen.pdf for examples). I suspect that’s the case here, but without a scientific study we won’t know.

John Wheeler
Producer and Host
This Week in Nuclear podcast and blog

I am touched by the humanity. Forget the cold war, forget politics, forget who did what to whom. These are people with have loved ones who sacrifice so much for their care and well being. One of your best posts to date.

everyone thinks war is the reason we have so many problems...yes it is becuase of war that all these bad things happen...but who starts the war... in world war 2 i didn't just randomly happen it was the racist people on earth who caused it...even though hitler was probably the stupidest person to lead that being his mom was jewish and he was not part of the arien race but either way if racist people were not around this stuff would not have happen

that is so sad i hate that people have to go threw this man that sucks

Utterly depressing pictures but amazingly well taken at the same time.

Almost unbearable to look at the juxtaposition of human degradation and tenderness.
Ed has done well to capture it all with such poignancy.

I have been looking at this site almost since its inception and I have to say that this is truly one of the best series of photos yet displayed. I am humbled by the compassion in these photos and I thank the families for allowing themselves to become part of this photo essay. Blessings.

--y los políticos siguen comprando armas que luego usan otros...sus bolsillos cada vez más llenos y la Tierra cada vez más envenenada... y se les sigue votando....y no se piden explicaciones...

You see the Pain! I see the Courage! You see hopelessness I see Perseverance! If anybody ever had a doubt about the extent of Parental Love, they should see these pictures and all their doubts will be cleared! God Bless the Parents for caring and not abandoning their chidren in the sorry state that they are. God has already blessed these children by giving them to these parents who have been and are going to be with them as long as they can, come what may!

The soviet's government was a real blackness. Detonate a nuclear bomb at the Kazakhs was it's purpose, but the accident in Pripyat, Ukraine, was a kind of punishment. That's why this stupid government desn't exists anymore. God is love, but he's too justice.

Absolute sad and heart breaking pictures. :[

Is it like a running joke on this site that every post regardless of content or subject has to have someone talking about God?

@199
God is not a joke. people just try to remind us to be grateful to God for what He has given us. we have to be thankful to Him for all the kindness He has bestowed upon us and that we do not have the fate that these people have.

great compelling photographs, although at the same time tear wrenching

Ohh! My God… it’s so painful and depressing…………I have never criticized these atomic inventions …perhaps insanely.

But thank you very much for making me aware of such devastation and catastrophe that becomes a misery for humanity.

This is a humanly service of the author and who ever that played role in producing such shaking and mind blowing footages.

I appreciate your effort to change human concept of thinking against humanity.

You people by publishing such a marvelous presentation have accomplished your work for saving humanity thus forbidding one single mind to abstain and debar thoughts that distorts humanity.

You have brought a change in me.

Let me declare I hate such inventions from today.

God bless you for your services.

razahaider.wordpress.com

very sad :( f*cking soviet union...

I wonder: Are those people children of lesser God? Is this oue legacy?
Humanity has forgotten them, and all we care about is "development" and evolution.
Those photographs remind me of an era, when nations on both sides of the Atlantic, tried so hard to prove who is the biggest power on earth, so as...what??

Photograph the poor children being born right now in Fallujah that have horrible deformities from depleted uranium.

Heart-wrenching.. can't imagine how it feels to lead such a life.

It left me speechless. Amazing images and to the point thought provoking info.

This is so sad to me. I am not sure which would be more humane, keeping these people alive or putting them out of their misery? There are worse things than dying and I do not have that answer.

It is almost as if there is a new generation of side show freaks being created.

"109. The fictional entity that some people call god does not exist.
Posted by Djinn November 10, 09 01:34 AM"

Your humanity implores you to deny the existence of such a deity, and mine forces me to accept that He must Be. For these brothers and sisters of ours who suffer so, will not be in vain, without purpose. The lives we are able to live and which they will never experience, cannot be a simple matter of consequence of chance. No.

As Kraftwerk said in their "Radioactivity" song :
"This is the end, for you and me. !"
This must stop quickly ! Nuclear waste is growing, and we don't have secure places to put it in. We have another ways to get some electricity. Our planet is not supporting us anymore.
Nuclear weapon is a mankind shame. We must erradicate this absurd as fast as we can.

@ 209 Yitzhak Rabin - very well said. +1.

marss

If you hate soviets, why do you not hate US which had bomb Japan 2 times in a row with nuclear weapon?

#162, #183 Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 6th.

Shocking pictures.

A reminder for those who brandish too easely the spectre of nuclear weapons (Iran for instance).

Russia should be made responsible for caring of the damages it has caused and I say that even if I love that country.

Well, if you hate sovients be because of ignoring the simple people then you have to hate a lot of other countries like the china,korea,usa,japan,taiwan,bangladesh, most of the african, asian as well as south american countries,saudi arabia, italia, and so on.

Thanks for the incredible pictures and stories.

Send the hait weapons to the Sun. And from that day on we are trully ready for the next level of human evolution. The peacefull one.

#199: yep. It's weird.

It's got to the point now where I do a quick text search for "god" just to see the bizarre connections people come up with. There's always something, regardless of the topic.

I find some people's constant fascination with a nonexistent being to be really quite odd.

Goodness.. i absolutely love these pictures. I feel extremely bad for them.. it looks like a beautiful country. these pictures are beautiful and yet very sad..

How can anyone decide to cause this.
If hell exists I hope the ones in charge are in it.

Why do we need nuclear tests and weapons ? Do we not have any respect for humanity and living beings ? It is painful to see these pictures. Who is responsible for this disease and disability ?

It is very important to realise that these are a series of pictures of people who are living in very difficult circumstances, with severe disabilities that make us all humble to realise how lucky we are.
However, it is impossible to immediately imply (as the editorial and captions do) that these conditions are caused by the radiation related to nuclear testing in the area. The nature of radiation damage generally allows us to see changes in clinical conditions across a population rather than to individuals. There a seriously disabled people living everywhere, it is amazing how invisible they are to the wider world. There is no evidence or information presented anywhere in this big picture of any overall difference in the health of this population compared to an equivalent population in an are not involved in nuclear testing.
As someone who works in radiation protection and who has a child with serious disability, I'm keen for people to take precautions against radiation and to recognise the problems of disabled people. As a scientist, this whole piece is built on an incredibly shaky foundation of blind assertion rather than any evidence that is presented here.