Everyone is familiar with what happened on 26th April 1986 in reactor no.4 of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant near the city of Prypiat in Ukraine. A fatal accident occured during a safety test, the soviet reactor overheated and exploded with steam and radioactive elements, bursting into fire that was very hard to extinguish. I am not a scientist to explain how the reaction itself happened, but it outbursted with a deadly amout of radiation to the area near Chernobyl, and what's more - generated a radioactive cloud that was carried with the wind to other countries.
The day after the explosion the city of Prypiat was evacuated, it was inhabited by 50,000 people and the danger of radiation-related illnes was inevitable for them, just 3 kilometers from the reactor. Days later, an exclusion zone was set in the radius of 30km around the reactor, all the area was evacuated as well. Many people died directly in the explosion and during the cleanup of the catastrophy, the sources are contradicting in the amount of casualties varying from 30 people up to 16,000. It is truly hard to estimate, because thousands of people worked on the site for many years, securing the radioactive core of the nuclear plant. A few years ago the second, upgraded and super-safe and super-expensive sarcofagus was completed to asure maximum protection.
There is a number of agencies that offer guided tours of Chernobyl and Prypiat. Getting yourself on a tour is the only legal way to enter the zone, and they don't come very cheap in general. Everyone has to be registerd with their passport, and the agency takes care of all the formalities. The other way is to bribe a security guard and run around illegaly without any limits and apparently this is a very common procedure. Of course, we behaved like righteous citizens and went with the first option.
Well, to clear that one last thing up. When we made the decision to go to Chernobyl I had no idea that the TV series was being made. Seriously. I have learned about its existence literally a week or two after our return from Ukraine. I did binge-watch it afterwards, obviously, and to be honest the visual images in the series were so strong, that I would be much more reluctant to go there If I saw it before. But it is safe now. There was no graphite on the roof.
The first stop was one of the rural villages in the outer exclusion zone. There are two zones - 30km and 10km radius from the main reactor. I don't really remember the name of the village, but this was our first encounter with zone. The village consisted mostly of houses, a store and a cultural centre with a beautifully decorated theatrical stage. This stage was one of my favourite sights from this trip.
So now, behold the Chernobyl itself. What was surprising was that the village was... perfectly alive. There are operating hotels and restaurants, mostly serving the tourists who wish to explore the zone in more than one day. We were told that many people that were evacuated after the explosion recently demanded on returning to Chernobyl because it was a good place to grow old, all quiet and slow, believing that if they don't see the radiation it possibly doesn't exist. Well.
Next, an abandoned preschool. It would be very cool, but you could easily figure out that it was a little staged, instead of leaving the place exactly as it was during evacuation. Specially with the creepy-looking dolls in obviously photogenic places.
Now we are approaching the infamous reactor number 4. A mindblowing fact is that for many years after the disaster, the other three reactors were still operating. They shut down within next years, one by one. Two more reactions, numbers 5 and 6 were under construction but due to the disaster they were never completed.
We drove to the gate of the reactor, our guide let us out of the bus to take some quick pictures, and took us back to the van quickly.
Now, probably the most interesting sight. Prypiat.
Prypiat lies in close vicinity to the nuclear plant. The city was evacuated as the first one in the zone, so ever since it was basically left untouched for over 30 years. It is located in the inner exclusion zone, so even right now nobody is allowed to work there permanently, unlike in Chernobyl that I have mentioned before.
So this is a grand example of how our planet would look like if all the humanity moved out, or just died off. Nature is slowly taking its land back. Some plants are visibly mutated, though. Do you see this small street in the middle of a forest? This was the main avenue of Prypiat. No kidding. The stadium is completely grown with plants too. I want to point out, that Prypiat was a model modern city of the Soviet Union in its time - raised from scratch for the workers of the power plant. Just find the photos of how it looked like during its golden age, just before the disaster, and then compare them to the shots that I have taken now.
Mindblowing.
Mindblowing.
The amusement park in Prypiat is exceptionally famous. It's one of the most commonly known landmarks of the zone, the yellowish ferris wheel in a state of deep decay might be even widely recognised than the sarcofagus on the reactor 4.
It was assembled for the celebration of the Labor Day on the 1st May 1986. Prypiat was evacuated on April 27th 1986, so it never even operated.
In the buildings in central Prypiat we could see other posters and decorations that were prepared for the labour day celebrations.
Last but not least, we were taken to see the Eye Of Moscow - a gigantic soviet radar. The union intended to build a few radars like that worldwide to be able to transmit signals all over the globe. As far as I can recall there are three of those.
This trip was something.
However, after the boom of the HBO's Chernobyl series I doubt that the experience would be the same, since it is reported that tourists are flocking in an outrageous number to the exclusion zone and behave... inappropriately. If you plan a trip there maybe it is better to wait until some tv fans lose interest? Or maybe it is better to go now, before the interest grows even more? It is hard to tell. Anyway, it was mindblowing.
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