The USSR was gearing up for the May Day celebration and Chernobyl was all decorated, even a Farris wheel. Then Chernobyl nuke blew. Even though it was a miniscule event compared to the one in Japan, it’s a ghost town today. Has been a ghost town since April 27, 1986.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/ghosttown.html
Lots of pages and photos of a 2008 visit:
So Far From Heaven 
There’s a lesson in here somewhere…
kmabarrett: I think you might be right. Maybe that’s the reason it’s been so forgotten. Thanks for coming by. J
My pleasure.
I think if the reactor were land-locked and they could drop cement on it like the Russians did at Chernobyl, no one would really give a hoot how much Japan was messin’ up their country.
Given it’s dropping it all into the PacOcean, it’s another story for us fish eaters…
kmabarrett: Evidently not much to be done about it. Maybe they’ll figure out how to deal with this one before it happens somewhere else to some other nuke. Elegant solution. J
There is NO such thing as a safe nuclear plant. And we always underestimate the results of a catastrophe until we’re beat over the head by it. There’s not enough profit in prevention.
kmabarrett: Seems to be the law of unforeseen consequences working overtime. Thanks for coming by. Jack
I recall reading that site a while back. That gal done us all a good service with her explorations and writing it up.
Good seeing you Ed. Yeah, I’m surprised anyone was willing to spend that much time in there soaking up the local atmosphere. Gutsy lady. Gracias, J