Douglas Easton Travel Blog - Douglas Easton Travel

April 02, 2009

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine

A trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone does not appear on most people's list of tourist destinations. However, it affords visitors the chance to see firsthand the devastating results of April 26, 1986, when the Number Four reactor exploded, releasing massive doses of radiation into the atmosphere. It remains the world's worst nuclear accident ever.

Visiting is relatively easy, requiring only a licensed operator and a passport. Though Chernobyl lies only a two-hour drive from Kiev, Ukraine's capital, it seems a world apart. Approximately thirty kilometers from the disaster, one arrives at the first military checkpoint, which marks the beginning of the ironically-named Exclusion Zone.

After carefully verifying our passports, the soldiers waved us through. Immediately, we noticed that the houses lining the road were now half-concealed by a screen of birch saplings... the woods have been slowly swallowing and retaking all signs of human habitation for the last 23 years. Still, we could discern their broken windows, sagging roofs and overgrown gardens.

At the 18-kilometer mark, we reached a second checkpoint, where we stopped to meet the military officer who would accompany us at all times during our visit.

We then drove the remaining stretch of road while constantly checking a Geiger counter which our guide had now switched on. For a while, it continued to beep at almost zero (which is good). Soon, the gargantuan complex appeared two hundred yards before us, its abandoned hulk disturbingly, hauntingly devoid of any human movement and its perimeter prominently demarcated by a massive barbed wore fence. Under a gray spring sky, it is unimaginably grim and ominous. The beeping on the Geiger sped up and grew more insistent. The LED numbers on its screen climbed slowly but steadily.

Chernobyl was only temporarily contained. Following the explosion, a concrete sarcophagus was constructed around the plant, designed to provide scientists with approximately a thirty-year window in which to devise a solution. Alarmingly, this window has been shortening, as the sarcophagus has developed cracks (the still superheated - 4000 degrees - radioactive stew below has accelerated the breakdown of the concrete). This has prompting many concerned (seriously frightened) nations to unite in raising US$1.3 billion to devise a more permanent casing to completely envelop the facility. The new cover is projected to afford scientists up to 100 years to find other solutions.

In the meantime, the land surrounding the plant - and more specifically, the land that lay in the path of the radiation cloud emitted by the meltdown - is essentially uninhabitable. The town of Pripyat, built when the Ukraine was still a member republic of the Soviet Union, housed the thousands of Chernobyl workers and their families. Within a few days of the explosion, all of the inhabitants of this town were evacuated.

Today, Pripyat is a ghost town. Depending upon the location, radiation here ranges from moderate to extreme. The school, recreational facilities, apartment buildings, amusement park and stores stand abandoned, the brick and concrete choked with weeds. Soviet newspapers dating from 1986 litter the floors of buildings vacated abruptly. Creepy and spooky are two adjectives that pop to mind.

We walked to Pripyat's amusement park, whose grand opening had been scheduled for three days after the reactor explosion. The Ferris wheel, whose bright yellow seats had never held a single child, sat rusting in the gentle breeze. As we approached, our guide pointed at a puddle from which spongy club moss was growing. Explaining that vegetation sucks the radiation from the ground and poses a serious health risk, he held the Geiger toward the puddle. The beeps accelerated from almost negligible to "berserk" in a flash. We assiduously avoided walking on the grass.

Before leaving the area, we were obliged to step up on a machine that looked like a large scale. It scanned us for radiation to make sure that we had not been exposed to high doses on clothes or body parts. Fortunately, the light showed green...

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