Posted by Among the many places we’ve been to, Chernobyl is so far the most unique and interesting site. If you have never heard about Chernobyl disaster, a real quick introduction (Explained in Wikipedia):
The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred on 25–26 April 1986 in the No. 4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, in northern Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, approximately 104 km (65 mi) north of Kiev.
The Chernobyl accident is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011.
Why and how did we go to Chernobyl?
I was invited to visit Kiev by a friend and as a big fan of history and Call of Duty video games, my husband proposed that we also visit Chernobyl which is only 106 km from Kiev city.
We booked a Chernobyl tour agency on Trip Advisor where they organise a one day trip for us, one day really means one whole day including lunch, we started from 8:30 and returned the city at 21:00. There were 2 guides on the bus who were super professional and interesting, we were never bored for even one minute, all the way even on the bus it was filled with very interesting stories which happened 32 years ago, the guides also shared their personal opinions on the handling of the accident and the soviet union times politics. A totally unforgettable trip!
The ghost town with sign of lives
32 years after the disaster, this Chernobyl is also referred to ghost town. While walking in the exclusive zones, it is almost impressive to see, the nature actually took it back.
The trees are prosperous, weeks, years after the explosion, there were resettlers coming back to live in their original houses, and wild animals running around in the areas.
Our traject
Below is a map/certificate each of us got from the tour guides. Our traject started from the right bottom of the map – Zalissya. On the left bottom we also see the radioactive zones – 30 km zone and 10 km zone, after the explosion, there were still people living in 30 km zone, but not 10 km zone, however, due to the remaining project of the power plants, even today there are still more than a thousand people working in 10 km zone.
Zalissya
The first ghost town we visited inside 30km zone. Houses were completely abandoned, after the explosion all the people were evacuated, they were told that they would be evacuated for only 3 days, however, the first people coming back home was only half a year later, when they entered their house, everything was gone because of the liquidators and the looters.
The last self-settler in Zalissya died in 2016, she used to welcome the tourists and give apples to them. The tourists took the apples out of courtesy but had to throw them away after they left this town.
Chernobyl
The next stop was Chernobyl town, before soviet union came to this town, it was a home town of jewish people.
This House belonged to a jewish family, did you see the red five star simbol which symbolise communism? Before the soviet union killed them and placed this symbol in front of the door, there was actually a Star of David, which symbolized Judasm and jewish people.
Radar Duga-1 – Russian Woodpecker
At that time, this was one of the most confidential military project from Soviet Union, during cold war, the Soviets were always skeptical about US firing missiles towards them. The intention of building Radar Duga was not to stop the missiles attack, but to detect the missile signal and order militaries to fire back.
The size of Duga radar-1 is 165 m in length and 50 m in height, a system needed three of them to locate the accurate location of US missile. Duga-2 and 3 were already decommissioned. However Duga-1 cannot be easily decommissioned given the radioactivities underground, this requires a big budget which no one is willing to pay for, but everyone knows that if it falls down, another nuclear disaster will happen.
Right now, to make sure this giant does not simply fall down on the ground, there is one operator walking around this radar and checking if it is standing, however sadly he is not maintaining or repairing it. Why? My guess is Ukraine does not have enough budget to de-commission, repaire nor maintain it, but they have to make sure to get the right moment to ask other countries (for instance EU) for help to prevent another disaster.
Kopachi
Now we are already in the 10 km zone of Chernobyl exclusion zone, this place has a lot of “hot spot” on the soil. We were warned by the guide that we shouldn’t step on the off road soil, and if we locate our geiger counter a few centimeters above the soil, it easily reached 20 times higher than the air.
I did not want to get off the bus and going inside to visit the kindergarden, but I got some pictures from internet.
This picture reminded me a lot of my primary school.
Red forest
One of the most contaminated area in the whole exclusion zone!
The name was given because after the explosion, the wind blew west and radiation was largely absorbed by the trees in this area. As a consequence, the leaves of the trees became red and they were heavily contaminated and radioactive. The soviets do not have experience with such circumstances, so they cut down the trees and buried them down the ground.
It worked, until next year when the nature took over and new trees grew, which also revealed the buried radiation. When we drove through this area, everyone’s geiger
counter started to beep like crazy.
The nuclear power plant
This the view of the nuclear power plants built in soviet union, the Chernobyl accidents happened on power plant unit 4. In 2017, EU donated 2 billion euros to build a bigger cover prevent radioactivity leaking, it is said that it can operate for 100 years.
There are still people working on those power plants due to the following 2 projects:
1. To seal of the cover of power plant unit 4
2. To decommision the plants 1, 2, and 3 which is scheduled to completion in 2065
“It’s hard to say ‘NO’ to power”
Do you know that after the accident of unit 4, the three remaining reactor units continued to operate until after soviet union were collapsed? however, were vital to Ukraine’s electricity needs and continued to operate for some years. Unit 2 shut down in 1991, unit 1 in 1996 and unit 3 in 2000.
Lunch in the power plant canteen
The touristic guides took us to the power plant canteen where the workers eat daily, when we were introduced about the food, the guide emphasised more than once, that “The food is focused on the nutritious (not taste)”, “Don’t mind the grumpy ladies who serve you the food, they might not have their best day..”
Before entering, everyone had to pass the radioactivity detector to make sure we are not contaminated.
The canteen looked still soviet style, the ladies were indeed not happy, but who would be happy working here?
Surprisingly, the food was OK, I guess we were too hungry…
All the food were brought from outside the exclusion zone.
Lost in translation, again …
Pripyat
Pripyat was a city built especially for supporting the nuclear power plant business, the most talented engineers were relocated to this new city with their young families. Located only 3 km away from the power plant, by the time of evacuation, there were a bit less than 50,000 citizens.
This was the most privileged soviet city at the time, judging on the infrastructure: 75 primary schools for about 100,000 children, 19 secondary schools, 7 professional schools, government did have big plans for this city.
According to the guide, at that time, when the foreigners visited soviet union, they were taken directly to Pripyat to demonstrate the high quality of life in Soviet Union. The super market in this town had all the exclusive goods that people drove 100 km from Kiev to come here for shopping.
Unfortunately, it took the government 36 hours to inform the citizens about the accident and started evacuation.
The hospital
Apartment building after evacuation (liquidators clean up all contaminated objects)
Supermarket with privileged goods
This picture gave me a hard feeling, coffee machine with an unfinished coffee, time froze at 1986..
This picture was from someone else, years before the tourists could climb in the buildings to visit, but now due to the no maintenances of the constructions, it is forbidden to enter.
People who play “Call of Duty” will find this picture familiar.
Ironically this amusement park was never put in commercial, it was supposed to open to public on the labor day 1st May 1986, sadly due to the nuclear accident on 26th April, completely abandoned before it ever made any money from the clients.
During the accident, this park was used as the temporary airport for the rescuing aircraft.
What happened to the liquidators?
The liquidators were the ones who helped to clean the buildings after the accident.
One of the stories
BioRobotics
Right after the explosion, before installing the first cover of the unit 4, they found that there were radioactive objects on the roof of unit 3 which should be also thrown under the cover. There were some robots built to do this task, however, radioactivity kills instantly the German gifted robot, eventually people had to manually went up to the floor and perform this task, they were called “boirobots”
Due to the high intensity of the dose, they could only be exposed there for max 90 seconds, then other people should take over.
In the end
It was an unforgettable day, not the same as other trips, seeing the contradictory of Pripyat really made one think about the fragility of life and how dramatic things can turn out to be. Despite all the dark political stories behind Soviet Union, I am quite moved by all the people who gave their lives to save this very disaster.
After the visit, what I had to tell myself and others is: Strive for what you want as you only have one life, while also cherish what you have today.
Related TV serious:
An HBO 5 episodes mini series with the same name was released in May 2019, it took me a while to decide to watch it, because I expected – and it is actually – very heartbreaking.
But it is a must watch mini series, I recommend it but prepare to have some wine reserved as you will need it after watching.
Oh wow, how interesting, I didn’t know it could be visited. The place looks super eerie!
haha hi Marta,
Yes indeed, it is really really creepy and depressing , but a complete different trip compared to others. 🙂
Lin