At 1:23am on 26th April 1986, an explosion at the number 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant blew the roof wide open and sent a cloud of radioactive particles into the sky.
In recent times, companies began operating excursions to the area around Chernobyl. The full day tours depart Kiev at 9am and these have to be reserved in advance. Details of passengers on the trip have to be submitted and you must take your passport. If you are not on the list or you don’t have your passports, the guards at the edge of the exclusion zone will not let you inside as two passengers on our bus found to their shock and had to jump off the bus. The checkpoint is about 78km (49 miles) from Kiev and there is absolutely nothing to do there. From here the bus makes its way into the exclusion zone and does not return for between 5-6 hours.
At the time of the tragedy, Chernobyl was home to 14,000 people and today, a few hundred people still live in the exclusion zone and quite a few people construction in the town for as many as 4 days a week. The trip began in Chernobyl for a traditional Ukraine lunch. First stop is the fire station where there is a memorial to the bold fireman who battled to contain the radiation several of whom were to die of radiation sickness.
Next stop is the Chernobyl power plant and it is here you find your first view of the empty architectural structures. There are a couple of stops close to the plant and you get to within a couple of hundred metres of the reactor. Today, its difficult to imagine 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 vicinity.
The very last stop is at the ghost town of Pripyat which is situated less than two miles from the power plant. At the time of the tragedy it was a much bigger metropolis than Chernobyl with a population of close to 50,000. Yet, police evacuated the populace with not much notice and it is an eerie place to visit. Books lie all over the class rooms, the fun fair which was due to be opened on 1st May 1986, is slowly rusting away and nature has started to reclaim the pavements, town square and structures.
The trip departs Pripyat and returns to the edge of the exclusion zone where all visitors must pass through a scanner to confirm they haven’t been exposed to extreme quantities of radiation. When everyone is back on the bus has been given the all clear, it travels back to Kiev.
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