Chernobyl - Tšernobyl

Chernobyl (ukr. Чорнобиль) has abandoned the city in the northIn Ukraine near Belarus border. The city has been uninhabited since April 1986 due to a nuclear power plant accident there.

Self-travel in Chernobyl is prohibited by Ukrainian law, so only guided tours are organized there.

Understand

Nelonen nuclear power plant reactor building at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

On the morning of April 26, 1986, the most serious nuclear accident in history at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine. Nuclear reactor 4 exploded and released a very large amount of radioactive radiation into the air, seriously contaminating southern Belarus and the northwestern city of Pripyat, just three kilometers away. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the area.

The Chernobyl Shelter is a closed area within a 30-kilometer radius of a nuclear power plant. Moving there is forbidden, but some people have returned there, mainly the elderly. In addition, the area employs about 8,000 people daily. Tourist trips to the protection zone began in 2002.

Come

The nearest airport is In Kiev, which can be reached by direct flight from Helsinki operated by Ukraine International Airlines.

Tours

Tours usually leave Kiev by bus. It is a good idea to book a tour well in advance. Prices vary, but the cheapest is a 1-day trip for a large group of tourists, each costing around $ 100 and up. Longer trips can be several hundred.

• SoloEast Travel. 1 and 2 day tours. 
• Kiev Central Station Hostel. 
• Chornobyl Tour. Excursions of 1 and more days. 

See

The Chernobyl nuclear power complex, only a few kilometers away, dominates the landscape as you look southeast from any of the taller buildings in Pripyat.

• Nuclear reactors - The entire nuclear power plant complex can be viewed from a few hundred meters away. However, the main target is a four-reactor containment building that can be explored as close as 200 meters away. On the same site is the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl events erected in 2006.

Founded in 1970 as a nuclear power city, the city of Pripyat was home to 49,000 citizens, 15,000 of whom were employees of four nuclear power plants and the rest took care of the city’s infrastructure. The Ferris wheel belongs to an amusement park that never had time to open.

Pripyat Central Square. In 22 years, plants have begun to penetrate concrete.

The amusement park was scheduled to open in early May, but due to an accident, it was never used. The Ferris wheel, collision cars, swings and carousel are now rusting at the mercy of the seasons.

• The ghost town of Pripyat, where no one lives. There is a preserved Soviet-era school, kindergarten, cinema, agencies, cultural center, swimming pool, amusement park, hotel, militia station and residential houses. However, the buildings have deteriorated so much that not all travel agencies are counting tourists indoors.
• Cemetery of Abandoned Vehicles - The so-called cemetery, which brings together vehicles and helicopters that participated in the closure of the power plant. Much of the equipment has been sold as scrap, and apparently will no longer be available in 2008.
• Cemetery of Abandoned Ships located a few miles southeast of the power plants. There are contaminated ships that have rusted and mostly sunk over the decades.

Tea

Pripjat is a ghost town and there is no amusement on offer. In Pripyat you can look at deserted buildings and see how it all ended on April 28, 1986 in Pripyat so fast.

Buy

There is one Soviet-style grocery store in Chernobyl, where the smartest tourists buy themselves a couple of beers for their next meal. See the next section.

Eating

Tourist trips to the area include a three-course lunch at the end of the day. However, vodka is missing, even though it is otherwise an integral part of the Ukrainian dining table. However, the Chernobyl region is an exception. You must not be intoxicated there.

Drink liquid only if you know it is clean, as radioactive dust will not show, smell or taste anything. NEVER DRINK or WASH YOUR HANDS with water from the Chernobyl Shelter Zone as it is highly contaminated. Violation of the above prompt may result in serious illness.

Sleep

... elsewhere.

About radiation

High local radiation values ​​have been found in the Chernobyl Shelter Zone, and you are not allowed to travel there without a permit from the Ukrainian government.

The SI unit of radiation dose is Sievert (Sv), which reflects how much radiation there is absorbed to the body. 1 Sv = 1000 mSv (millisieverts) and 1 mSv = 1000μSv (microsievert).

During the Chernobyl trip, the radiation level is usually 0.1-10 μSv / h. But in some places the radiation can be orders of magnitude higher, e.g., in radioactive scrap burial sites. The radiation level 200 meters from the containment is 1.7 μSv / h.

The normal radiation level of the trip 0.1-10 μSv / h is not critically high compared to the radiation of the Finnish environment (0.04-0.30 µSv / h) or the radiation level of the flight (4 μSv / h)

Protection

Measurement of body radiation at the Chernobyl cycle

It is important to understand the difference between contamination and radiation. The radiation ceases at the same time as the person leaves the radiation source, making it impossible to get a dangerous dose from it during excursions. In contamination, radioactive particles remain in unwanted places: for example, in the lungs, skin or even shoes. For this reason, you should follow the guides' instructions for staying on asphalt, closed shoes, and not eating outdoors.

Follow the instructions in the guide and the disclaimer you received, even if your guide smokes non-stop and visits the bush in the mushroom forest. Leave the area with the guide. It is always a good idea to keep a radiation meter with you.

During the trip, the body's radiation is measured in device in case, for example, there is no dust containing radioactive isotopes left in the clothes. According to the guides, this rarely happens.

Take contact

GSM operates normally in the Chernobyl region. The connection to the GSM network at the Dityatk checkpoint was really difficult to achieve, at least in August 2012. You should be prepared for the call to be dropped continuously, at least in the direction of the checkpoint. Near the power plant was able to receive the call without any problems on the same day.