Excursion to Chernobyl and the Exclusion Zone

At 1:23am on 26th April 1986, an explosion at the number 4 reactor of the Chernobyl

nuclear power plant blew the roof off and sent a cloud of radioactive particles into the area.In recent times, firms started leading trips to the area in and around Chernobyl. The full day visits set out from Kiev at 9am and these have to be booked in advance. Details of people on the excursion have to be submitted and you must take your passport. If your name is not on the list or you don't have your passports, the guards at the edge of the exclusion zone will not let you through as 2 people on our bus found to their horror and had to get off the bus. The checkpoint is in the region of 78km (49 miles) from Kiev and there is absolutely nothing to do there. From here the bus goes into the exclusion zone and does not come back for several hours.

At the moment of the catastrophe, Chernobyl was home to 14,000 citizens and right now, several people still live inside the exclusion zone and plenty of people work in the town for around 4 days a week. The tour commenced in Chernobyl for a conventional Ukraine meal. First stop is the fire station where there is a monument to the brave fireman who struggled to contain the radiation many of whom were to die of radiation sickness.

Next stop is the Chernobyl power plant and it is here you get your first experience of the disused properties. There are a handful of stops in the vicinity of the plant and you get to within two or three hundred metres of the reactor. Now, its difficult to visualize what took place here but the guides Geiger counter leaves you under no illusions that there is still a significant amount of background radiation in the place.

The final stop is at the ghost town of Pripyat which lies less than a couple of miles from the power plant. At the time of the tragedy it was a bigger urban centre than Chernobyl with a population of about 50,000. Yet, police evacuated everyone with no notice and it is an eerie place to check out. Books lie all over the class rooms, the fun fair which was due to be opened on 1st May 1986, is little by little rusting away and nature has started to reclaim the pavements, town square and buildings.

The excursion leaves Pripyat and heads back to the edge of the exclusion zone where all visitors need to pass through a scanner to ensure they haven't been exposed to abnormal quantities of radiation. When everyone is back on the bus has been given the all clear, it heads back to Kiev.

Excursion to Chernobyl and the Exclusion Zone

By: Rob

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