Chernobyl

---

Chernobyl. an infamous word connected with the fateful explosion at reactor no. 4 in Northern Ukraine. now the whole area is abandoned and still radioactive. until i visited i didn't realize the shear scope of the disaster and the true heroics and selflessness of those entrusted to contain the reactor and clean up the area.

It took the USSR 2 days to admit the reactor explosion in 1986, in which time many people had already received deadly doses of radiation in the nearby city of Prypyat. Initially firefighters and pilots who flew over the site throwing sand into the fire controlled the fire which nearly caused a second explosion would have been powerful enough to make most of Europe uninhabitable.

in the next year over 500,000 people were called up contain the lethal radiation and clean up some of the contaminated land - all of whom were subject to extreme radiation levels. some could only work minutes or seconds at a time before receiving critical amounts of radiation. an estimated 300,000 people died of radiation poisoning within 14 years in Ukraine alone. yet not a single conclusive scientific report about the effects has been published.

i have to admit i was quite nervous making a tour of the area. Although the tour was very safe and we were assured we would only be exposed to a very minimal amount of radiation, many on the tour were overreacting - the American i was talking with said he would throw away his 'contaminated' clothes after the tour.

After our guide assured us of our safety and gave a whole list of rules (e.g. don't touch anything, don't walk on the grass, don't smoke outside...) and 2 military checkpoints, we were deep in the exclusion zone. we went to the ghostly city of Prypyat, where nature had overrun, and were able to explore freely around a few buildings. it was all very eerie.

we then went to the nuclear reactor itself, within 100m of reactor no.4. it was abit scary at a few points in the trip when the alarm started sounding on everyone's Geiger counters simultaneously - a reminder of just how much radiation is still present.

before we left we had to enter a machine which measured our radiation levels. the guide said its always fine, but his face when someone went through and a siren went off were priceless. the guy was told he would have to destroy his shoes as they were too highly contaminated.

---