chornobyl (чорнобил)

Chornobyl...it's a name that means something to a lot of people...when you hear the name, you tend to have some sort of reaction...the world's worst nuclear disaster, repercussions are still being felt today...the worst part is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place, the entire incident was man made, and completely avoidable...

chornobyl is/was a nuclear power plant in northern ukraine, so named because when the plant was built the town of chornobyl was the closest town of any real size...not long after the plant was built, the town of pripyat was built nearby, basically in order to house all the workers and their families...pripyat became a wealthy city, home to 40,000-50,000 people...in terms of material goods, it was said that if you couldn't get it in pripyat, you couldn't get it anywhere in ukraine...

on 26 april 1986 workers at the nuclear plant decided to run an emergency procedure, and while doing so, ignore all safety precautions...to make a long, technical story short, one of the four functioning reactors (reactors #5 and #6 were still being built) had a melt down, and was on fire for a while...the meltdown and fire released a LOT of radiation into the air, with the winds blowing mostly west and north...firefightors (the initial firefighters in were called liquidators) rushed in to put out the fire...all of them died within two weeks, from fire injuries or radiation poisoning...people who stood on a bridge that has a view of the reactors to watch the fire died as well, as they were exposed to radiation as well...back in those days, not much was known about the specific dangers of radiation exposure...

it was the day after the accident when the residents of chornobyl, pripyat, and heaps of villages in the area were forced to evacuate...they were only given two hours notice, and not told that they wouldn't ever be coming back to their homes...they were only told two hours ahead of time, and only told to pack enough for 2-3 days...the rest of their belongings stayed in their homes...those belongings are still in those homes...

initially, the ukrainian/soviet governments stayed quiet, not mentioning anything about the accident in the news of any country...2-3 days later, the government of sweden said hey, we're noticing a lot more radiation than normal in the air, what's going on? It was only then that the ukrainian/soviet governments were forced to acknowledge (to the rest of the world) what had happened...but to their own people, the severity of the accident wasn't acknowledged for quite a while...

more than half the radioactive material fell on belorussian land...another great amount fell on ukrainian land...russia got some as well, though not quite as much...much of the radiation is still there, it doesn't exactly dissipate quickly...cement holds radiation for a long time, so do trees...one particular area of pine forest downwind of the accident turned red and died just after the accident, it's still called the 'red forest'...no one wants to eat any kind of food grown in the chernobyl region, it still isn't completely understood how radiation transfers, or what long term effects of radiation ingestion might be...people in northern ukraine are still tested regularly for cancer, thyroid cancer in particular...there are arguments now, and have been since the accident as to whether radiation exposure is linked to increases in cancer...

it's not legal to go to chornobyl by yourself...everyone has to be part of a tour...to sign up for a tour, you need to think ahead, as you have to book the tour at least two weeks in advance...signing up for the tour involves giving your passport number, date of birth, etc...your information is given to the government, and your name is put on a list...and it isn't cheap...i'm not going to write the exact cost, as it will likely change, (and there might be some variety in different companies that do the tour) but i'm pretty sure it's the most expensive thing possible to do in ukraine...

we got into our minivan around 0900, and started driving north...our tour group consisted of an american who had taken german citizenship, two brits in kyiv for a long weekend, cloe, dad, and myself...as we got to the first checkpoint, our van joined another van with a large group of swedes, and a czechs...our tour guide did the entire tour in english...as we were waiting for the swedish van (as we came to think of them) our tour guide said she knew why men take the tour, she was curious to know why we (as women) were taking the tour...it never occurred to cloe and i that most of the people taking the tour would be men...for me it's a matter of curiosity, and an interest in history...cloe felt the same way...while waiting we also took a few photos of the signs in front of the checkpoint...the english wasn't exactly, uh, correct...

after joining up with the swedish van, we passed through our first checkpoint...i think this was a 30km checkpoint...the officers manning the checkpoint checked our passports against a list they had...i'm guessing they get a new list each day with the names of those signed up for the tours of the day...our first stop was in front of the town sign for chornobyl, where our guide explained that chornobyl was older than pripyat, and had existed before the nuclear plant was built...

our first stop was in a building, i'm not entirely sure what the whole thing was called...our purpose was to go in a room with maps and photos all relating to the accident...one of the maps showed the areas where the wind had blown radiation...the photos showed the plant before and after the explosion/meltdown...it was in this room that we all signed waivers acknowledging that we would take precautions during our tour, and i think signing away any rights to sue if something were to go horribly wrong during the tour...

in chornobyl itself we stopped at a museum that has great murals on the outside walls...too bad it isn't open, no one knows when it will open, and what is currently inside...our guide explained the murals, i thought they were beautiful...and tragic...people have come back to the town of chornobyl, but not many...not nearly as many as the town once had...the number is in the low thousands, i think...everyone who now lives in chornobyl is somehow associated with the remains of the plant, or the power plant (not nuclear) built years after the accident...i think american money was involved in this, though i don't remember the details of what we were told...will anyone tell me?

we saw a memorial to nuclear disasters, which included mention of the japanese incidents at hiroshima and fukushima...according to our guide, the japanese don't like this memorial, as it lumps in hiroshima (which was deliberate) with chornobyl (which was not)...we saw the post office, which still functions...we saw a memorial to the firefighters (which was paid for with private donations, the government hasn't ever really acknowledged these people) who were the first responders, they attempted to put out the fire...they all died within approximately 3 weeks of the incident...this memorial is next to the chornobyl fire station...which is still active...our guide said they don't get a lot of business, thank goodness...

we saw a memorial to the towns which were abandoned after the accident...this one was probably the most moving for me...when entering towns in europe, there is usually a sign with the town name on the main road going into town...when you leave the town, you'll see that same sign, but the name usually has a red line going through it, or something along those lines...if i remember correctly, 90+ towns/villages had to be abandoned after the accident...in this particular memorial there is now a town sign for each of those towns/villages...one side has the name as if you were entering the town, the other side of the sign has the name crossed out in red...in the middle of it all is the postal memorial...if you send mail to any of these towns/villages, it ends up in the post boxes in the middle of these signs...

we saw the woods around an abandoned kindergarden, our guide wouldn't let us go too far in the woods...we could see some of the toys on the ground...dolls...a toy truck...there is something about seeing those toys, and knowing they haven't been touched in a very long time...i would've liked to go in the kindergarden, i don't know how often that happens...

we stopped at another checkpoint, i think this was the 10km checkpoint...the same as before, we all handed our passports to the officer, he checked our information against his list...how often does someone get that close to this area who isn't on that list? what would happen to that person? why would someone want to try this on their own?

we drove closer to the old plant, stopping on the road at one point for more information and a photo opportunity...our guide pointed out to us where we could see each reactor, including #5 and #6, which were never finished...we drove around to what i think of as the back side of the reactors, which was the closest we got to the reactors...on the back side there is another memorial, though for the life of me i cant' remember what it's for...

i talk about seeing the reactors, but you don't actually get to see the reactors...if i understand correctly, you wouldn't get to see much that is identifiable under the sarcophagus anywho...the heat of the explosion and fire 'melted' just about everything...even cement turned into a lava tube of sorts...it's still incredibly dangerous in there, and no one goes in...i don't know if plans have been made (or even thought about) as to cleaning up the actual sight...ever...

you only get to see the sarcophagus that now covers the reactors...i think it looks like a rusted tin shack...at the time it was built, it was expected to last 30 years...it's now been 25+ years, the government is in the process of building a newer sarcophagus that will last 100 years...from what i could see of the new sarcophagus, it'll look more like a giant airplane hanger...they're building it on tracks, and the idea is to slide it over the existing reactor and sarcophagus...i don't remember when the expected date of completion is...

after this stop, we had to go through radiation detector machines...think of it this way, an ancient version of a metal detector in an airport...you put your hands on either side of the machine, and wait for it to show that you're "clean"...when that happens, you exit the other side of the machine...at this stop, one member of our group beeped "dirty" which didn't thrill our tour guide...she had him do it again, and he still beeped 'dirty'...there wasn't anyone official around, so she ushered him through...

lunch was next...we ate in a cafeteria, i think it serves the workers as well as the tourists...everyone had the same meal, everyone goes through the same line...the lunch experience sortof matches the communist mindset that i associate with old ukraine...

after lunch we drove to the river that goes through the area...the carp in the river are HUGE...they no longer have any natural predators, they've become HUGE...part of the tour involves throwing bread bits into the water and watching the fish come up and eat...to get the attention you have to throw larger chunks pretty hard into the water...cloe loved this...

then another memorial, again i don't remember what it was for...from there we all piled back into the vans, and drove out again...another radiation detector checkpoint...another member of our group beeped dirty, though not the same one as before...again, our guide ushered the man through, as there was no one official looking into the room...i don't know what happens if someone official notices someone beeping dirty...

then the town of pripyat...the ghost city...it's hard to describe the feeling you get while wandering around...giant apartment buildings, completely deserted...cold winds blowing out the doors...when i was close to the entrance to some of the buildings (you're not allowed to go all the way in) i got the heebie jeebies...our guide had photos as to what the city used to look like, the difference between then and now is amazing...there are trees and bushes pushing up through the concrete, graffiti on some of the outside walls...the graffiti wasn't everywhere, just a few 'pictures' in various places...nothing grandiose...

we saw what used to be a supermarket...just outside was an overturned shopping cart...you could see all the shelves, all the lighting that no longer works...the wires hanging down into the aisles...i wonder what happened to everything that was left behind...

we saw an amusement park that had either just opened, or was supposed to open just after the accident...bumper cars being overgrown with weeds...a big ferris wheel...this ferris wheel is one of the iconic photos of pripyat...we didn't get to see the swimming pool, though i've seen photos of that online...we saw street signs that were hardly identifiable anymore, they're almost entirely overgrown...most of the buildings have some vines growing up the sides...or vines hanging over the entrances...nearly all of the wide open areas have weeds and such pushing up through the concrete...

the germanized american in our group said the government should tear down all of these buildings...i suspect that hasn't been done and won't be done until it's known how much radiation is still in them, and how much of it could be released into the air if this happens...it's crazy to walk down the streets of pripyat, and feel as though you're walking on a path through a wooded area...it's peaceful, for all the wrong reasons...
this guy also suggested that if the government really wanted to repopulate the area they should give the apartments away for free to people who are low income...he didn't want to accept that almost no one would accept that kind of an offer, no matter how well intended...first of all, there isn't much industry, or employment opportunity in this area...second, the name chornobyl will always have some sort of catch...people won't forget...

after pripyat, we stopped at a souvenir shop...t-shirts, magnets, coffee mugs, etc...none of them spectacular, and most importantly for me, NO POSTCARDS!!! what kind of souvenir shop doesn't have postcards?

The ride back to kyiv was uneventful...the driver dropped us off pretty close to our flat, which was great...much more convenient than going all the way into the city, then having to go all the way back out...