Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum

Exhibit resembling reactor 4 which suffered the catastrophic failure, Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum, Kyev, Ukraine Jorge Láscar/CC BY-SA 3.0

the names of all the affected villages in Chernobyl emmastargirl (Atlas Obscura User)

a victim of the aftermath emmastargirl (Atlas Obscura User)

Hall 1 of 3 emmastargirl (Atlas Obscura User)

Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum emmastargirl (Atlas Obscura User)

The Sign to the Chornobyl museum in the historic Podil neighbourhood in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Sajmon/Public Domain

Scale model of Reaktor #4 Avoiding Regret (Creative Commons)

front door Avoiding Regret (Creative Commons)

This small and unassuming museum documents the catastrophic nuclear incident that occurred at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, at 01:23, Moscow time. The museum’s slogan is “est dolendi modus, non est timendi,” Latin for “there is a limit of sadness, anxiety has no limits.”

Outside the museum stands a tank, an ambulance, a fire jeep, and a military jeep. The entrance is a staircase lined with street signs which name every village affected by the disaster.

Chernobyl had a population of 49,346 people living in 11,000 apartments, and as such evacuation was not immediate. The radiation on April 27, 1986, the day of the evacuation, was 400 - 1500 mR/h. This exceeds the acceptable norm 75,000 times.

The small museum includes three exhibit halls that seek to inform, remind and issue a stark warning of the reconciliation that is necessary between man, science, and the technology that threatens and endangers the Earth.