Trip Ideas

Chernobyl: frozen in time

It makes for an unusual travel tale and one heck of a conversation starter. For the inquisitive, it’s a trip that quenches curiosity. For scientists, a visit can shed some light. For avid gamers, it’s like stepping into in-game graphics.  I think it takes a lot of courage to voluntarily step into the site of the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

So what goes into a trip to the Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant?

How to go?


For starters, visitors will have to get to Kiev. There, you’d need to get in touch with a tour operator that conducts day trips into Chernobyl. A one-day package is likely to cost you around USD160, and that includes transportation and food.

Since late 2011, the Ukrainian government increased the limitations and restrictions for visits to Chernobyl, enforcing the application of a Zone permit for at last 10 days prior to the visit.

The Danger Zone


The first instance of apprehension will hit you when you arrive at the “Zone of Alienation,” the 30-kilometre Exclusion Zone of the contaminated area surrounding the power plant. Before entering the restricted area, military guards will materialize to confirm your identity and ensure you are appropriately dressed. They will also pass you lengthy waiver forms to sign, making sure that you know what you’re getting into. The State is not responsible for your health should you suddenly turn ill, nor acknowledge any claim should your equipment gets contaminated.

Tip: to not be turned away at the entrance, make sure you leave as little exposed as possible. Wear long sleeve tops. Avoid Bermudas and open-toe shoes. The site is constantly leaking radiation, so why take the risk of exposed skin?

After the gantry check, the tour will take you to the “dead zone”- the highly radioactive 10-km radius of the plant. Very soon, your handheld Geiger counters would have let off escalating squeals, because you’d be almost right next to the Chernobyl reactor 4, the nuclear reactor that exploded 26 years ago.

The Power Plant


The closest you can get is 200 metres from the reactor sarcophagus. Despite the Geiger counter screeching off the charts as compared to outside the “alienation zone”, with more than 20 times the normal background radiation, it’s still not considered as dangerous. But it will set your heart thumping.

In all, there were six reactors in Chernobyl, four of which were functioning, while the remaining two were under construction at the time of the disaster. After the explosion, it was covered in concrete sarcophagus to contain the dangerous particles lurking below. Now, the sarcophagus is all cracked up, begging for repair.

The abandoned town


Just 3km from the reactor is the abandoned Pripyat, a city frozen in time. Once, it was home to almost 50,000 residents who had to drop everything that they were doing and hurriedly evacuate on that fateful day. Visitors to Chernobyl can get a glimpse of what life is like in the Soviet 80s at Pripyat.

The tour will bring you to the town centre, where you can still see the faded propaganda slogans painted on walls enveloped by creepers. Trees and shrubs have grown, peppering the untrodden grounds.

At the schools, tables and chairs are overturned, shoes and toys are strewn about. Tables and chairs are a decaying sight. The library is filled with overturned shelves and scores of yellowed dog-eared books on the floor, covered with shattered, scattered pieces of light bulbs.

But perhaps the most haunting and infamous sight of Pripyat is that of the bright yellow Ferris wheel at the amusement park scheduled to open four days after the accident. It never stood a chance. Now the Ferris wheel, bumper cars, swings and the merry-go-round are a rusting dilapidated mess.

Tip: when exploring Pripyat, bring along a flashlight. Some of the building interiors are dark and filled with debris in your path. Broken glass, collapsed roofs and gaping floors are a common sight. You definitely need to see where you are going.  

Wrapping up
After the tour, which can take up to five hours, there are a few restaurants in Chernobyl town where your guided tour will bring you to dine.  So you don’t have to worry about food. But if you do bring your own snacks and drinks, make sure you do not expose them within 10 km of the powerplant. Most importantly, you must clean your hands before touching any food item.

A trip to the Chernobyl is a surrealistic experience, it’s like stepping into a 80s movie set, where they’re just about to film a disaster scene. Except this is no make-believe, but a painful reminder of a blunder we wish never existed.

 

Getting to Chernobyl

There’s Lupine Travel from the UK that offers up to a 4-day Chernobyl tour that includes optional airport transfers and apartment stays in Kiev. But if you are already in the city, there’s Chernobylwel.com, where you’ll be given the opportunity to see places that usually stay unseen including cooling towers 5 and 6, and a meeting with local citizens.

At Pripyat.com, the tours are actually conducted by former residents near the plant, which means you are guaranteed great stories of the day that the plant exploded.

If you are looking for cheap lodgings, the Kiev lodging Hostel & Chernobyl Tours is the only hostel in Kiev that conduct tours to Chernobyl at an affordable price that include an English speaking guide, transportation and food and drinks.

 

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