Hauntingly beautiful photos of nature swallowing up Fukushima’s nuclear radiation zone

NEARLY 30 YEARS ON, CHERNOBYL has been swallowed back up by nature. Now, it appears the same is happening to the exclusion zone around Fukushima Daiichi, the site of the world’s second-worst nuclear disaster.

Four years after the accident, Polish photographer Arkadiusz Podniesinski visited the exclusion zone at Fukushima.

Eerie photo from #fukushima #Japan #日本 #福島県

A photo posted by Katherine T. Tyson (@katherinettyson) on Oct 13, 2015 at 6:39am PDT

THE FUKUSHIMA EXCLUSION ZONE HAS BEEN OVERRUN BY NATURE – Killcool.com #nature #fukushima #deserted

A photo posted by Killcool (@xkillcool) on Oct 20, 2015 at 10:31pm PDT

除染袋と海。 #fukushima

A photo posted by ayaka oda (@ayaka_calm) on Oct 18, 2015 at 9:42pm PDT

He found that the area has huge dump sites for bags like these, which are all full of irradiated soil.

But in the midst of the destruction and decay, Podniesinski discovered mother nature has returned to the condemned zone in force.

Carros são engolidos pela floresta na área isolada de Fukushima, no Japão, após o acidente nuclear de 2011 provocado por um tsunami. Diversas áreas, imóveis e bens foram abandonados durante a evacuação da cidade. O registro impressionante é do fotógrafo polonês Arkadiusz Podniesinski.

A photo posted by Gazeta do Povo (@gazetadopovo) on Oct 20, 2015 at 5:31am PDT

In the Fukushima reactor zone #Fukushima #Japan #nuclear #abandoned #abandonedporn

A photo posted by @museumofmodernart on Oct 18, 2015 at 9:36pm PDT

Cartoline da #fukushima le strade del Uomo durano poco.

A photo posted by alberto strada (@albertostrada) on Oct 14, 2015 at 1:35pm PDT

Photographer Andrea Bonisol Aquati also captured the eerily beautiful phenomenon in the nearby ghost town of Namie.

Tsunami inundation area I. Great East Japan earthquake tsunami inundation area near Minamisoma, Japan.

A photo posted by @andreabonisolialquati on Jun 13, 2014 at 3:04am PDT

Abandoned house. Fukushima Exclusion Zone. Near Namie, Japan.

A photo posted by @andreabonisolialquati on Jun 12, 2014 at 7:12pm PDT

While the events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after the earthquake and tsunami were a catastrophe, there’s a strange comfort to seeing how quickly nature can bounce back and take over places that have been destroyed by mankind’s greatest mistakes.

For more pictures of Chernobyl and Fukushima, check out Arkadiusz Podniesinski’s website here. For more from Andrea Bonisol Alquati, check out his website here. h/t: Bored Panda.