Kiev is the best place to start a Chernobyl trip.
One day tour is more than enough to visit Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone.
Chernobyl is a the most famous Nuclear Power Plant in the world because of an explosion of Reactor No 4 on 26 April 1986.
30 people died due to the explosion and lethal radiation exposure, many suffered from radiation sickness in the following years.
More than 100 thousand people had to be relocated, mostly from closest town of Prypiat. Ukraine had to spend billions of dollars trying to lower direct and collateral damage of the Chernobyl disaster. A large area of land by the Belarusian border will be no man’s land for the next hundreds of years, that means no agriculture either.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone is a 30 km radius area around the power plant. You can access it with a special permit, with a guided tour. I really don’t like travelling where are many tourists and compulsory guided tours, but in this case… there was no other legal option.
The TOUR
Most tours cost around 70-80$ and consist of visiting the Reactor No. 4 area, Prypiat tour – school, playground, hospital, swimming pool, some might take you to the roof of concrete blocks, Ship graveyard or Duga-the Russian Woodpecker. After that you will be radiologically checked and return to Kiev by 19-20PM.
We booked our tour on the internet about 2-3 weeks before our Chernobyl trip in Ukraine in 2010.
Our guide picked us up around 7AM from a hotel near Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). The 180km drive up north took us less than 3 hours.
Entering the ZONA we had to cross 2 checkpoints where all of us were checked by name.
First you get a history tour, when the Plant was built, then you realize Chernobyl was the enriching the plutonium Plant and generation of electric energy was the side-effect… After the tragedy in 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Plant was in operation for 14 more years, till 2000. Plant workers were taking shifts and did not sleep in the ZONA.
After the history introduction and some safety rules its time for the Chernobyl trip itself.
We start with measurement of a radiation level in a field where heavy equipment from an explosion debris removal is. The Geiger counter was showing elevated readings by the wheels and tracks.
Ship graveyard
Ships and barges were also contaminated and had to be abandoned at a site.
Monument of firefighters who died in Chernobyl
Measuring 0.94msV by unfinished reactor No 5
flower planting in the ZONA?
4.18 mSv by the Sarcophagus – Reactor No. 4
Prypiat – the Ghost town
Prypiat was a 50 thousand people town situated 4km from the Nuclear Plant built in 1970. On 27 April 1986 all citizens were evacuated, and could never return to their homes.
Imagine seeing the whole town in one day, empty…thus a Ghost town.
Nowadays we can visit this place, the radiation levels are very low, and it’s safe to stay there for a short time. You can see in Prypiat that people left everything behind…
the Gym
Bumper cars – Amusement Park in Prypiat
A Ferris Wheel in Prypiat Amusement Park.
The Amusement Park in Prypiat was ready for a grand opening on 1 May 1986. The Plant disaster ruined those plans…
Is it Safe?
I was worried myself. Why do you want to go to Radiologically contaminated area to risk exposure, furthermore pay for it?
As stupid as it sounds it’s a place on Earth like no other it’s one in a lifetime experience and it’s safe. Just stay with your long sleeve clothes and follow your guide instructions. Doses you may get are less than one or two X-Rays.
Is it worth it?
Definitely YES. It is a HUGE DISASTER SITE and going on a Chernobyl Trip gives you a direct picture how big influence on our planet people have. How can we destroy Nature. It is so tragic and depressing and at the same time remarkable and overwhelming.
