Chernobyl
From World travel guide
Chernobyl (Ukranian: Chornobyl) is a city in Ukraine.
It was close to the site of the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. On April 26, 1986, reactor number four suffered a steam explosion and fire, contaminating areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Slavutych (Prypyat') the town closest to the reactor, was home to the 45,000 workers and their family before the disaster; now no one lives there. The city of Chornobyl is 20 kilometers to the south of the reactor. High radiation levels forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from Chornobyl, but today about 700 residents have returned to live in their hometown.
Slavutych is a freeze-frame of 1980s Soviet life. Propaganda slogans still hang on walls, and childrens' toys and other items remain as there were. But, buildings are rotting, paint is peeling and looters have taken away anything that might have been of value. Trees and grass are eerily reclaiming the land. Now the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is a tourist destination. In 2002 it opened for tourism, and in 2004 there were 870 visitors.
Contents |
Get in
Pripyat is located 110 kilometers from Kiev and about 16 kilometers from the border with Belarus.
Do
Visitors to the exclusion zone must come as part of a tour group. One-day packages which include transportation and food cost $200 to $400.
Buy
Eat
Drink
Stay Safe
A lethal dose of radiation is in the range of 300 to 500 roentgens an hour. Levels on the tour reportedly range from 15 to several hundred microroentgens an hour. A microroentgen is one-millionth of a roentgen. Stay on roads, the radiation levels on areas covered by vegetation is signficantly higher.
External links
Chornobyl Nuclear Disaster Zone Administration
chernobyl.info Contact Maryna Poliakova at the partner agency Chornobylinterinform for information about tours
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