In April-May 2003 I happened to visit several cities:
Voronezh, Zaporozhie, Yalta
and Energodar, a Ukraine town, that was built around Zaparozhskaya Atomic
Power Station. The town is very unlike other Ukraine towns, yet very
interesting.
Energodar is situated on the bank of the
Kahovsky storage reservoir (Dnepr River). The Population is 56 thousand
people. The nearest city is Zaporozhie.
In fact Energodar was built around 30
years ago to support Nuclear Power Plant.
Nearly 15 thousand people
work on NPP and 10 thousand people used to work on HPS (hydro power
station or thermal power plant) but now it has lost its importance.
Most of the houses are 9-story buildings.
It takes 20-40 minutes to cross the town from one side to the other.
People generally speak Russian. I mean that in other cities of
Ukraine people also speak Russian but in Energodar they don't talk in
Ukrainian (or do very rarely)
And almost all signs are in Russian .
Two buses run in the town. They are
called "1st clockhouse" and "2nd clockhouse" (of NPP). I haven't seen it
with my own eyes, but people say that women and men go to the different
parts of the bus. No one knows why. But everybody got used to it.
Also
you can find several taxi-buses (small buses, they cost a bit more), but
they are not that necessary because of taxi. There are a lot of
them and they are easy to catch in any part of the town. Moreover they
are quite cheap and people instead of taking a 10-minute walk when they
go home after work, take a taxi.
I don't know anything about the life level in this town.
Qualified specialists working on the NPP are well paid (especially
for Ukraine). And I think that a large number of children in the streets
shows that the life level is quite high.
Some houses have code locks and video
cameras. People usually name the person they want to go to. The
care-taker looks at the visitor and opens the door.
An apricot tree in bloom
Fountains
You feel like you're in the USSR of
1980's.
That is because of children in the streets and the fact that
sometimes people are given flats for free. Right when I was in the
Energodar a family of my friend was given a flat in the new building.
And also because of so called "small family flats". Those are small
one-room flats that are given to young specialists who come to the town
(a family of my friend had moved out from one of those).
There are no problems with central
heating and electricity (because the NPP is near).
And the main street
has illumination as bright as Nevsky prospect has. On the whole people
don't fear poverty.
The prices and a range of goods are the same as in the St Petersburg
(if one convert grivnas into rubles). Fruit and vegetables are even
cheaper when they ripe.
6 blocks of thousand mega watts each
7 kilometers from the town
People who work on NPP don't drink alcohol (even on holidays and days
off). Everybody is checked at the clockhouse. So from this point of view
the difference between Energodar and any other similar town is great.
I also went to the NPP for an excursion.
I took some pictures but they won't make an album.
But some things I
found worth taking a picture of.
There were fenced water reservoirs. On the fences there were sings
saying: "Restricted area", "Swimming and fishing prohibited".
Nevertheless some men were fishing there.
Taking about fishing, as the water in the
reservoirs was warm (it is used for cooling the reactor), somebody
suggested to put piranhas in them.
At first everything was well but then due to the shift of capacity, the
temperature of the water fell down and piranhas start dying, clogging up
the sink bars. Piranhas were fished out and given to the NPP workers...
Kahovskoe storage reservoir.
Spring,
water is still cold.
It's 3-4 kilometers to area of gardens,
where people grow fruits and vegetables. People usually are given 4
ares. The pine forest was planted on the storage reservoir bank.
I doubt that Energodar citizens have
goats. It might be a man from a village nearby.
Tulips.
All three. But of different kinds.
A lizard was creeping by :)
You also
can meet vipers. I saw two of them.
The sand on the storage reservoir bank is
very nice. It's white and clean.
That's all about Energodar.
I don't know yet but probably I'll make albums about other cities
I've visited.
