What is the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant?
The "Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone" is the officially designated exclusion area around the site of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Scientists believe that the release of radioactive substances accelerated the growth of some individuals, and since catfish are long-lived with age, their size reaches unprecedented levels.
More than thirty years have passed since the accident and the animals are already descendants of their irradiated ancestors, but it is still dangerous to eat such fish.
In Chernobyl, you can visit St. Elijah's Church and the castle from the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In Pripyat, the main square is of particular interest.
Interest in it is due to the fact that the amusement park in which the wheel is located never opened.
Its opening was timed to coincide with Labor Day celebrations on May 1, 1986, and the accident occurred five days before the scheduled opening date. All the attractions of the park remained untouched.
It is not possible to dismantle and install them in other parks. They still emit background radiation exceeding the norm by dozens of times.
Pollution of the exclusion zone
The level of radiation (cesium-137, strontium-90, americium-241 and plutonium-239) at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Pripyat is 2-2.5 times higher than the established norms.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant pollution zone map The Chernobyl exclusion zone is controlled by State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations, while the power plant itself and its sarcophagus (and replacement) are handled separately.
Due to the fact that most of the contaminated territories were still outside the 30-km zone, in the 1990s, settlements gradually began to be resettled (94 in total), since the permissible norms were still exceeded there.
For 6 years, most of the villages were finally resettled. In 1997, this territory was included in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and transferred under the control of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and, accordingly, began to be protected.
Exclusion zone today
There are working shops in the city, there is a hostel and a canteen. Also in the exclusion zone live local residents from among the returnees (up to 500 people).
They are located in several villages of the territory and lead a secluded lifestyle, although there is no other way.
There is no electricity on the territory, as well as no food supply. People who have made the decision to return to their homes are engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing.
If animals have a lower radiation background and eating them is at least somehow possible, then the soil is very polluted.
Soil pollution is so strong that it takes several thousand years to clean it up. For this reason, growing food in the exclusion zone is a bad idea.
The exclusion zone is a fairly visited object by tourists, people come here from all over the world.
tourist exclusion zone
There are agencies through which you can get to, to Chernobyl or Pripyat, the Rusty Forest and a number of other objects in the exclusion zone.
Rusty or red forest
This is an area of 10 square kilometers adjacent to the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The radioactive substances released into the atmosphere were partially absorbed by the trees, which led to their death, as well as turning them brown-red.
Staining occurred within 30 minutes of the explosion. Some argue that at night there is a glow of dead trees.
As part of the work to clean up the area from radiation contamination, the forest was cut down and buried.
Now the forest is being restored naturally. Radiation loads on pine as a result of the Chernobyl accident occurred during the period of tree growth.
During such a period, the radiosensitivity of plants increases by 1.5-3 times compared with other periods.
The crown of pine trees is quite dense and is an effective filter, which contributed to the retention of a significant amount of radioactive dust and aerosols in the crowns of these trees.
Pine does not shed needles for 2-3 years, which leads to slow natural cleaning of crowns compared to hardwood trees.
This factor increased the radiation damage of conifers in comparison with other types of trees.
As a result of the release of radioactive substances and the degree of their impact on trees, the climb was divided into several zones:
- The zone of complete destruction of coniferous species with partial damage to deciduous species (the so-called "Red Forest"). The levels of absorbed doses (according to scientists' calculations) from external gamma irradiation in 1986-1987 amounted to 8000-10000 rad with a maximum exposure dose rate of 500 mR/h and more. The area of this zone is about 4.5 thousand hectares. In this zone, the above-ground organs of the pine died completely, and the needles acquired a brick color. The entire forest practically “burned down”, accumulating significant amounts of radioactive emissions.
- The zone of sublethal lesions of the forest in which from 25 to 40% of trees died, and most of the forest undergrowth (1-2.5 m in height) also died. In 90-95% of the trees, young shoots and buds are severely damaged and have died. The absorbed dose is 1000-8000 rad, the exposure dose rate is 200-250 mR/hour. The area of the zone was 12.5 thousand hectares, including pine forests - 3.8 thousand hectares.
- A zone of medium damage to a pine forest. For this zone, the defeat of mainly young shoots was characteristic, and the needles turned yellow only in certain parts of the branches. There were also slight morphological deviations in the growth of pine, but these plants retained their viability. The absorbed dose is 400-500 rad, the exposure dose rate is 50-200 mR/hour. The area of the third zone was 43.3 thousand hectares, including pine forests - 11.9 thousand hectares.
- A zone of weak damage, where individual anomalies in growth processes were noted. No visible damage was found in the pines. All trees retained normal growth and needle color. The absorbed dose was 50-120 rad, the exposure dose rate was 20 mR/hour.
More recently, they were built for visitors, so there are already places for hundreds of tourists to relax.
Which was the central object of the city of Pripyat. It had several sections, a hall where concerts were held and film screenings were held. Not long ago, a sign was lit on it.
A complex of buildings located on a large area. There were three buildings in the complex, the tallest was the administrative building, its height was eight floors.
The plant is a secret facility, what its employees were doing is still unknown.
for a day it costs from $79, but it is better to take a group tour, it will cost a couple of times cheaper, you can also rent a personal dosimeter for $10.
Having paid for the tour, you can visit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the “city that does not exist” and some villages, and if the tour is multi-day, then there are other sights.
Staying in the exclusion zone, the tourist will receive a dose of radiation comparable to an hour-long flight on an airplane.
However, a longer stay is contraindicated, the longer a person is in contact with the radiation background, the greater the effect on the body.
What is the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant? This is an area that has been closed to free access since 1986. The forbidden zone includes the northern part of one of the districts of the Kyiv region. There was once a power station located here, where the most terrible accident of the 20th century occurred. Read more about the disaster, its consequences and the rules for visiting the 30-kilometer zone in this article.
Accident
It is impossible to talk about what the exclusion zone is without providing a chronology of the events that occurred on April 26, 1986. On this day, an explosion occurred in the fourth power unit, which destroyed the reactor. The building collapsed. At the time of the explosion, 2 people died - employees of the power plant. The body of one of them was never found.
On that day, the employees were supposed to shut down the fourth power unit. This was required for the next scheduled repair. During such events, specialists usually test the equipment. This time it was required to check the "Turbine generator rotor run-out" mode. This was the fourth test of this type.
The experiment began at 01:23. At the first stage of testing, the behavior of power did not cause any concern. The emergency protection signal was recorded forty seconds after the start of the experiment. According to various testimonies, several powerful blows occurred at that moment.
Causes of the accident
There are two official versions. The State Commission placed responsibility on the personnel and management of the power plant. During the investigation, it was found that the accident was the result of gross violations of operating rules. In particular, the employees were not supposed to conduct the experiment at any cost - a change in the state of the reactor was observed that day. There is another version, voiced later, in the early nineties: the cause of the accident was the unsatisfactory state of the reactor design.
What is an exclusion zone? This is a territory with a special status. A city or several settlements in which there are no conditions for normal living. The evacuation of residents from Pripyat began only on April 28. That is, it was possible to make an assessment of the scale of pollution only after 2 days. However, even when it was made, Soviet television, unlike the Western media, broadcast programs dedicated to the May Day demonstration.
Initially, residents of the ten-kilometer zone were evacuated. In the following days, the settlements located near Pripyat were empty. An exclusion zone was formed. Chernobyl throughout the world is now associated with an accident that claimed thousands of human lives. Moreover, among the dead as a result of the disaster, not only nuclear power plant employees and firefighters. People who received radiation died gradually, sometimes after a few days, sometimes after years. In terms of the number of victims, the Chernobyl disaster is several times greater than the bombing of Hiroshima.
Exclusion zone (Chernobyl)
So, the forbidden territory was determined shortly after the disaster. It is divided into 3 parts. The first is a special zone. Here is a dilapidated building of the power plant. The second territory is a 10 km zone. The third is 30 km.
The population was evacuated. There were workers who serve the power plant. For them, dosimetric control is organized, decontamination points are installed - a method of disinfection. At the borders, employees transfer from one car to another. This reduces the risk of carrying radioactive substances.
In the nineties, a gradual resettlement of residents from territories located outside the thirty-kilometer zone began. The settlements of the Polessky region were deserted. What is the exclusion zone? This is an area that is dangerous to be in. It included the settlements of the Polessky district. Now the villages of Vilcha, Dibrova, Novy Mir have become part of the exclusion zone. The level of radiation at the entrance to the thirty-kilometer zone is 12 mcr/hour. The degree of risk of exposure today is certainly not as high as it was 30 years ago.
Thrill-seekers are increasingly striving to get into the ghost town, the territory of which even in the photo is terrifying. What attracts them to the "dead zone"?
Objects of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
Within the contaminated territory, work is being carried out to prevent the spread of radioactive substances beyond its borders and their entry into the water bodies of Ukraine. The center of the "dead zone" is Chernobyl. It, like Pripyat, is called a ghost town. There is an Administration on the territory, which is a department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The staff of the AZO enterprise is also located here. Who lives in the exclusion zone? The so-called self-settlers. This term originated in the eighties.
Inhabitants of the "dead zone"
In 1986, a complete evacuation of the population was carried out. Ukrainian legislation today provides for limited residence in the exclusion zone. Despite this, some returned to their homes. In 1986, about 1,200 people lived here. For comparison: after the disaster, about a hundred thousand residents were evacuated. According to 2007 data, the population in the exclusion zone is just over three hundred people. Among them, elderly people predominate. The average age of self-settlers is 63 years.
How is the life of the inhabitants of these godforsaken places arranged? The main source of livelihood for them is household plots. Sometimes employees of the enterprises of the Chernobyl exclusion zone help. For example, they repair buildings, conduct medical examinations. From time to time, residents of the "dead zone" receive humanitarian aid. One of the reasons for returning to their native places is poor-quality housing provided by the state. Often several families from Pripyat and Chernobyl lived in one apartment.
nature reserves
Chernobyl landscapes look absolutely dead. It seems that all living things die here. Oddly enough, several objects of the country's natural reserve fund are located on the territory of the zone. These deserted places are gradually turning into a reserve for rare animals. Bear, badger, otter, muskrat, deer, lynx live here. Wolves, elk, roe deer, hares, foxes and wild boars are found in huge numbers. The body of a wild animal is capable of coping with the increased background and chemical pollution on its own, says one of the employees of the Center for Nuclear Safety Problems.
Tourism
The "Dead Zone" has long been the center of prohibited tourism. In the nineties, a set of measures was taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident. After that, the level of radiation significantly decreased not only in the surrounding areas, but also in the area of the power plant. Since then, the exclusion zone has been very popular among tourists. Tours are both legal and illegal.
In the late eighties there were a lot of marauders here. The first tourists appeared after the level of radiation dropped. In the mid-90s, the state enterprise "Chernobylinterinform" was created. One of his tasks is to organize trips to the exclusion zone. Subsequently, many small firms appeared that also assisted in solving such issues. Agencies that carried out legal activities cooperated with the Chernobylinterinform enterprise.
According to a UN report, since 2002, most places in the Chernobyl zone can be visited without much harm to health. The annual number of tourists visiting the area around the former power plant is growing. True, in 2011 access was closed again, although not for long. In 2013, Chernobylinterinform was liquidated. Today, the organization of trips is handled by the Chernobyl Special Combine.
Visiting Rules
There is a checkpoint regime on the territory of the zone. All visitors must carry documents with them. It is strictly forbidden to move independently, only accompanied by a guide. Photography is allowed but limited. On the territory it is not recommended to eat, smoke, touch plants and structures, sit on the ground. It is forbidden to take any items outside the zone.
Illegal entry is a criminal offense. However, nothing stops the stalkers. They still continue to penetrate the territory of the exclusion zone. Law enforcement agencies detain here every day an average of 5-6 stalkers, among which, as a rule, residents of nearby settlements.
The terrible catastrophe in Chernobyl became an unprecedented event in the historical chronicle of nuclear energy. In the first days after the accident, it was not possible to assess the real scale of the incident, and only some time later, within a radius of 30 km, the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was created. What happened and is still happening in the closed area? The world is full of various rumors, some of which are the fruit of an inflamed fantasy, and some are the true truth. And far from always the most obvious and realistic things turn out to be reality. After all, we are talking about Chernobyl - one of the most dangerous and mysterious territories of Ukraine.
History of Chernobyl construction
A plot of land 4 km from the village of Kopachi and 15 km from the city of Chernobyl was chosen in 1967 for the construction of a new nuclear power plant, designed to compensate for the energy shortage in the Central Energy Region. The future station was named Chernobyl.
The first 4 power units were built and put into operation by 1983, in 1981 the construction of power units 5 and 6 began, which lasted until the infamous 1986. Near the station, a town of power engineers arose in a few years - Pripyat.
The first accident covered the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1982 - after a scheduled repair, an explosion occurred at the 1st power unit. The consequences of the breakdown were eliminated within three months, after which additional security measures were introduced to prevent similar cases in the future.
But, apparently, fate decided to finish what it started, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not supposed to work. So on the night of April 25-26, 1986 Another explosion thundered at the 4th power unit. This time, the incident turned into a catastrophe on a global scale. No one can still say for sure what exactly caused the explosion of the reactor, which led to thousands of broken destinies, twisted lives and premature deaths. The catastrophe, Chernobyl, the exclusion zone - the history of this incident is controversial to this day, although the time of the accident itself is set to within seconds.
A few minutes before the explosion of the 4th power unit
On the night of April 25-26, 1986, an experimental test of the 8th turbogenerator was scheduled. The experiment started at 1:23:10 on April 26, and after 30 seconds, a powerful explosion thundered as a result of pressure drop.
Chernobyl accident
Unit 4 was engulfed in flames, firefighters managed to completely extinguish the fire by 5 o'clock in the morning. And a few hours later it became known how powerful the emission of radiation into the environment had been. A couple of weeks later, the authorities decided to cover the destroyed power unit with a concrete sarcophagus, but it was too late. The radioactive cloud spread over a fairly large distance.
The Chernobyl disaster brought a big disaster: the exclusion zone, created shortly after the event, forbade free access to the vast territory belonging to Ukraine and Belarus.
The area of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
Within a radius of 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the accident - abandonment and silence. It was these territories that the Soviet authorities considered dangerous for permanent residence of people. All residents of the exclusion zone were evacuated to other settlements. Several more zones were additionally defined in the restricted area:
- a special zone, which was directly occupied by the NPP itself and the construction site of power units 5 and 6;
- zone 10 km;
- zone 30 km.
The borders of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were surrounded by a fence, installing warning signs about an increased level of radiation. The Ukrainian lands that fell into the forbidden territory are directly Pripyat, the village of Severovka in the Zhytomyr region, the villages of the Kyiv region Novoshepelevichi, Polesskoe, Vilcha, Yanov, Kopachi.
The village of Kopachi is located at a distance of 3800 meters from the 4th power unit. It was so badly damaged by radioactive substances that the authorities decided to physically destroy it. The most massive rural buildings were destroyed and buried underground. Previously prosperous Kopachi were simply wiped off the face of the earth. At present, there are not even self-settlers here.
The accident also affected a large area of Belarusian lands. A significant part of the Gomel region fell under the ban, about 90 settlements fell into the radius of the exclusion zone and were abandoned by local residents.
Mutants of Chernobyl
The territories abandoned by people were soon chosen by wild animals. And people, in turn, launched into lengthy discussions about monsters, in which radiation turned the entire animal world of the exclusion zone. There were rumors of mice with five legs, three-eyed hares, glowing boars, and many other fantastic transformations. Some rumors were reinforced by others, multiplied, spread and gained new fans. It got to the point that some "storytellers" spread rumors about the existence of a museum of mutant animals in the closed area. Of course, no one managed to find this amazing museum. Yes, and with fantastic animals turned out to be a complete bummer.
Animals in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are indeed exposed to radiation. The radioactive vapors are deposited on plants that some species feed on. The exclusion zone is inhabited by wolves, foxes, bears, wild boars, hares, otters, lynxes, deer, badgers, bats. Their organisms successfully cope with pollution and increased radioactive background. Therefore, involuntarily, the restricted area has become something of a reserve for many species of rare animals living on the territory of Ukraine.
And yet, there were mutants in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This term can be applied to plants. Radiation has become a kind of fertilizer for the flora, and in the first years after the accident, the size of the plants was amazing. Both wild and commercial crops grew huge. The forest 2 km from the nuclear power plant was particularly affected. The trees are the only ones that couldn't escape the radioactive explosion, so they completely absorbed all the fumes and turned red. The red forest could turn into an even more terrible tragedy if it caught fire. Fortunately, this did not happen.
The Red Forest is the most dangerous forest on the planet, and at the same time, the most resistant. Radiation, as it were, preserved it, slowing down all natural processes. So, the Red Forest plunges into some kind of parallel reality, where the measure of everything is eternity.
Residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
After the accident, only the station workers and rescuers remained on the territory of the exclusion zone, eliminating the consequences of the accident. The entire civilian population was evacuated. But years passed, and a significant number of people returned to their homes in the exclusion zone, despite the prohibitions of the law. These desperate guys began to be called self-settlers. Back in 1986, the number of inhabitants of the Chernobyl exclusion zone numbered 1,200 people. What is most interesting, many of them were already at retirement age and lived longer than those who left the radioactive zone.
Now the number of self-settlers in Ukraine does not exceed 200 people. All of them are dispersed over 11 settlements located in the exclusion zone. In Belarus, the stronghold of the inhabitants of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is the village of Zaelitsa, an academic town in the Mogilev region.
Basically, self-settlers are elderly people who could not come to terms with the loss of their home and all property acquired by overwork. They returned to the infected dwellings to live out their short lives. Since there is no economy and any infrastructure in the exclusion zone, people living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone are engaged in household farming, gathering, and sometimes hunting. In general, they were engaged in their usual kind of activity in their native walls. So no radiation is terrible. This is how life goes in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Chernobyl exclusion zone today
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant finally stopped working only in 2000. Since then, the exclusion zone has become very quiet and gloomy. The abandoned cities of the village cause chills on the skin and a desire to run away from here as far as possible. But there are also brave daredevils for whom the dead zone is the abode of exciting adventures. Despite all the physical and legal prohibitions, stalkers-adventurers constantly explore the abandoned settlements of the zone, and find a lot of interesting things there.
Today there is even a special direction in tourism - Pripyat and the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Excursions to the dead city arouse great curiosity not only among the inhabitants of Ukraine, but also among guests from abroad. Tours to Chernobyl last up to 5 days - this is how much one person is officially allowed to stay in the contaminated area. But usually hikes are limited to one day. A group led by experienced guides walks along a specially designed route that does not cause harm to health.
When to visit
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Virtual tour of Pripyat
And for those curious who do not dare to get acquainted with Pripyat with their own eyes, there is a virtual walk through the Chernobyl exclusion zone - exciting and certainly absolutely safe!
Chernobyl exclusion zone: satellite map
For those who are still not afraid to go on a trip, a detailed map of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be very useful. It marks the boundaries of the 30-kilometer zone, indicating settlements, station buildings and other local attractions. With such a guide, it is not scary to get lost.
How many years have passed since the tragedy. The very course of the accident, its causes and consequences are already completely determined and known to everyone. As far as I know, there is not even any kind of double interpretation, except in small things. Yes, you know everything. Let me tell you better some seemingly ordinary moments, but perhaps you have not thought about them.
Myth one: the remoteness of Chernobyl from big cities.
In fact, in the case of the Chernobyl disaster, only an accident did not lead to the evacuation of Kyiv, for example. Chernobyl is located 14 km from the nuclear power plant, and Kyiv is only 151 km from Chernobyl (according to other sources, 131 km) by road. And in a straight line, which is preferable for a radiation cloud and 100 km will not be - 93.912 km. And Wikipedia generally gives the following data - the distance to Kyiv is physical - 83 km, by road - 115 km.
By the way, here is the complete map for the sake of completeness.
Clickable 2000 px
AT the first days of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the battle with radiation was also fought on the outskirts of Kyiv. The threat of infection came not only from the Chernobyl wind, but also from the wheels of vehicles moving from Pripyat to the capital. The problem of purification of radioactive water formed after the decontamination of cars was solved by scientists from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
AT In April-May 1986, eight points of radioactive control of vehicles were organized around the capital. Cars heading for Kyiv were simply poured with hoses. And all the water went into the soil. As a fire order, tanks were built to collect used radioactive water. Literally in a matter of days they were filled to the brim. The radioactive shield of the capital could turn into its nuclear sword.
And only then the leadership of Kyiv and the headquarters of civil defense agreed to consider the proposal of polytechnic chemists to purify polluted water. Moreover, there have already been developments in this regard. Long before the accident, a laboratory for the development of reagents for wastewater treatment was created at KPI, led by Professor Alexander Petrovich Shutko.
P The technology proposed by Shutko's group for decontaminating water from radionuclides did not require the construction of complex treatment facilities. Decontamination was carried out directly in the storage tanks. Already two hours after water treatment with special coagulants, radioactive substances settled at the bottom, and the purified water corresponded to the maximum permissible standards. After that, only radioactive fallout was buried in the 30-kilometer zone. Can you imagine if the problem of water purification had not been solved? Then a lot of eternal burial grounds with radioactive water would be built around Kyiv!
To Unfortunately Professor A.P. Shutko. left us in his incomplete 57 years, not having lived only 20 days before the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. And the chemical scientists who worked side by side with him in the Chernobyl zone for their selfless work managed to get the “title of liquidators”, free travel in transport and a bunch of diseases associated with radioactive exposure. Among them is Anatoly Krysenko, Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Ecology of the National Polytechnic University. It was to him that Professor Shutko was the first to suggest testing reagents for the purification of radioactive water. Together with him in Shutko's group worked Associate Professor of KPI Vitaly Basov and Associate Professor of the Institute of Civil Air Fleet Lev Malakhov.
Why is the accident Chernobyl, and the dead city is PRIPYAT?
There are several evacuated settlements on the territory of the exclusion zone:
Pripyat
Chernobyl
Novoshepelichi
Polisske
Vilcha
Severovka
Yanov
Kopachi
Chernobyl-2
Visual distance between Pripyat and Chernobyl
Why is only Pripyat so famous? This is simply the largest city in the exclusion zone and the closest to it - according to the last census conducted before the evacuation (in November 1985), the population was 47 thousand 500 people, more than 25 nationalities. For example, only 12 thousand people lived in Chernobyl itself before the accident.
By the way, after the accident, Chernobyl was not abandoned and completely evacuated like Pripyat. 
People live in the city. These are the Ministry of Emergency Situations, policemen, cooks, janitors, plumbers. There are about 1500 of them. The streets are mostly men. In camouflage. This is the local fashion. Some apartment buildings are inhabited, but they do not live there permanently: the curtains have faded, the paint on the windows has peeled off, the vents are closed.
People here temporarily stop, work on a rotational basis, live in hostels. A couple of thousand more people work at the nuclear power plant, they mostly live in Slavutych and commute to work by train.
Most of them work in the zone on a rotational basis, 15 days here, 15 - "in the wild". Locals say that the average salary in Chernobyl is only 1,700 UAH, but this is very average, some have more. True, there is nothing special to spend money on here: you do not need to pay for utilities, housing, food (everyone is fed three times a day for free, and not bad). There is one store, but there is little choice. There are no beer stalls or any entertainment at the restricted facility. By the way, Chernobyl is also a return to the past. In the center of the city stands Lenin in full growth, a monument to the Komsomol, all the names of the streets are from that era. In the city, the background is about 30-50 micro-roentgens - the maximum allowable for a person.
And now let's turn to the materials of the blogger vit_au_lit :
Myth two: non-attendance.
Many probably think that only some kind of radiation seekers, stalkers, etc. go to the accident zone, and normal people will not approach this zone closer than 30 km. How else to fit!
The first checkpoint on the road to the station is zone III: a 30-kilometer perimeter around the nuclear power plant. At the entrance to the checkpoint, such a line of cars lined up that I could not even imagine: despite the fact that the cars were passed through the control in 3 rows, we stood for about an hour, waiting for our turn. 
The reason for this is the active visits by former residents of Chernobyl and Pripyat from April 26 to the May holidays. All of them go either to their former places of residence, or to cemeteries, or “to graves,” as they say here.
Myth three: closeness.
Were you sure that all the entrances to the nuclear power plant are carefully guarded, and no one, except for the serving staff, is allowed in there, and you can only get inside the zone by letting the guards in the paw? Nothing like this. Of course, you can’t just pass through the checkpoint, but the millionaires only write out a pass for each car, indicating the number of passengers, and go yourself, get irradiated. 
They say that earlier they also asked for passports. By the way, children under 18 are not allowed into the zone.
The road to Chernobyl is surrounded on both sides by a wall of trees, but if you look closely, you can see the abandoned half-ruins of private houses among the rough vegetation. Nobody will come back to them.
Myth four: uninhabited.
Chernobyl, located between the 30- and 10-kilometer perimeters around the nuclear power plant, is quite habitable. The staff of the station and the districts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and those who returned to their original places live in it. The city has shops, bars, and some other benefits of civilization, but no children.
To enter the 10 km perimeter, it is enough to show the pass issued at the first checkpoint. Another 15 minutes by car, and we drive up to the nuclear power plant. 
It's time to get a dosimeter, which madam carefully provided me with, having begged this device from her grandfather, who was obsessed with such lotions. Before leaving vit_au_lit I measured the readings in the courtyard of my house: 14 microR/h - typical indicators for an uncontaminated environment.
We put the dosimeter on the grass, and while we are taking a couple of shots against the background of a flower bed, the device quietly calculates for itself. What did he intend there? 
Heh, 63 microR/hour - 4.5 times more than the average city norm ... after that we get advice from our guides: to walk only on a concrete road, because. the slabs are more or less cleaned, but do not climb into the grass.
Myth five: the impregnability of nuclear power plants.
For some reason, it always seemed to me that the nuclear power plant itself was surrounded by some kilometer-long perimeter of barbed wire, so that, God forbid, some adventurer would not come closer to the station than a few hundred meters and would not receive a dose of radiation.
The road leads us straight to the central entrance, where regular buses drive up from time to time, transporting the workers of the station - people continue to work at the nuclear power plant to this day. According to our guides - several thousand people, although this figure seemed to me too high, because all the reactors had long been stopped. Behind the shop one can see the pipe of the destroyed 4th reactor.
The square in front of the central administrative building was rebuilt into one large memorial to those who died during the liquidation of the accident.
The names of those who died in the first hours after the explosion are carved on the marble slabs.
Pripyat: the same dead city. Its construction began simultaneously with the construction of the nuclear power plant, and it was intended for plant workers and their families. It is located some 2 kilometers from the station, so he got the most.
There is a stele at the entrance to the city. In this part of the road, the background radiation is the most dangerous: 
257 μR/hour, which is almost 18 times higher than the average city rate. In other words, the dose of radiation that we receive in 18 hours in the city, here we will receive in an hour.
A few more minutes, and we reach the Pripyat checkpoint. The road goes not far from the railway line: in the old days, the most ordinary passenger trains ran along it, for example, Moscow-Khmelnitsky. Passengers who traveled this route on April 26, 1986 were then issued a Chernobyl certificate.
They only let us into the city on foot, we never managed to get permission to travel, although the escorts had certificates.
Speaking of the myth of non-attendance. Here is a photo taken from the roof of one of the skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city, near the checkpoint: cars and buses parked along the road leading to Pripyat are visible among the trees. 
And this is what the road looked like before the accident, in the days of the “living” city. 
The previous photo was taken from the roof of the rightmost of the 3 nineteenths in the foreground.
Myth six: the Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not work after the accident.
On May 22, 1986, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 583 set the deadline for commissioning power units No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl NPP - October 1986. In the premises of the power units of the first stage, decontamination was carried out; on July 15, 1986, its first stage was completed.
In August, at the second stage of the Chernobyl NPP, the communications common to the 3rd and 4th units were cut, and a concrete dividing wall was erected in the engine room.
After the work on the modernization of the plant systems, provided for by the measures approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy on June 27, 1986 and aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors, on September 18, permission was received to start the physical start-up of the reactor of the first power unit. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched and at 16:47 it was connected to the grid. On November 5, power unit No. 2 was launched.
On November 24, 1987, the physical start-up of the reactor of the third power unit began, the power start-up took place on December 4. On December 31, 1987, by the decision of the Government Commission No. 473, the act of acceptance into operation of the 3rd power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was approved after repair and restoration work.
The third stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished 5 and 6 power units, 2008. The construction of the 5th and 6th blocks was stopped at a high degree of readiness of the facilities.
However, as you remember, there were many complaints from foreign countries about the operating Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 22, 1997, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 1, stopped on November 30, 1996.
By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 15, 1999, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 2, stopped after the accident in 1991.
From December 5, 2000, the reactor power was gradually reduced in preparation for shutdown. On December 14, the reactor operated at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony and December 15, 2000 at 13:17 By order of the President of Ukraine, during the broadcast of the teleconference Chernobyl NPP - National Palace "Ukraine", by turning the key of emergency protection of the fifth level (AZ-5), the reactor of power unit No. 3 of the Chernobyl NPP was stopped forever, and the station stopped generating electricity.
Let's honor the memory of the heroes-liquidators who saved other people without sparing their lives.
Since we are talking about tragedies, let's remember The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -This zone attracts not only tourists who come here for short excursions, but also stalkers who spend a lot of time here and travel through abandoned cities and villages.
How stalkers spend their time in the exclusion zone, will tell the photo report with the story of one of the stalkers.
Under the waning moon, we walked through the thick summer air, filled with the aromas of field herbs. Walks easily in the cool of the night. Periodically, a variety of night creatures proboscis in the bushes strive.
After a short halt and replenishment of water supplies from the nearest swamp, we crossed the Uzh River ford. 
After winding in the fields, we came to the ruins of the church and decided to spend the night in an abandoned village, the forces after the night fields were running out. 
We found a well-preserved hut in the village and decided that it would shelter us. In the morning we laid out the luggage and began to have breakfast under a peacefully crackling dosimeter. 
It was impossible to walk during daylight hours. We used the day to have a good rest and replenish our water supplies. We had plenty of walks through the beautiful nature and the abandoned village. There are ruins of an Orthodox church in the village, local priests look after it and put metal-plastic windows in the room with the altar (!), It looks wild in these parts. 
The night was a long and difficult journey. We broke through the forests along the paths of wild animals, scratched under high-voltage lines, and by dawn we reached the outskirts of Pripyat. 
Checkpoint of an abandoned city with traces of a stalker parking lot. The forest between the checkpoint and the Jupiter plant made a very depressing impression on me. The remains of radioactive equipment are scattered among the trees, which glow so much that even marauders did not cut them into metal. 
We have breakfast on the roof with a view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and go to bed. During the day it is not safe to walk, you can run into a police patrol. 
In the morning and at night we saw another stalker group and later we met friends with whom we periodically crossed paths until the very exit from the zone. We met, drank moonshine with bacon and garlic in luxurious apartments and drove for a walk around the city at night.
Stained-glass window of the cafe "Pripyat" near the pond. 
On the far bank of the pond there are huge 30-meter-high abandoned port cranes. Against the backdrop of the starry sky, they looked like Star Wars vehicles. 
In the rays of dawn, we quietly made our way through some radioactive burial grounds to the oil depot in order to photograph the ISU-152 - a self-propelled artillery installation from the last world war, which rests behind the fence of the residential part of the oil depot. I can't confuse the smell of radioactive dumps with anything now. 
126 medical unit in the basement of which is one of the dirtiest places in the zone. In a small room are the things of firefighters who received doses of radiation several times higher than the lethal ones and are still glowing wildly. More than once I thought about the dedication of people who raked up the consequences of a radioactive catastrophe. I watched a lot of old videos, and there people really realized what they were doing, that they were sacrificing themselves for the sake of others - this is very ... It is important when the conditions in which people grew up make them capable of such actions for the sake of others. 
Abortion Journal. There was no sex in the Soviet Union, but there were abortions. 
Shoes on the shelf in kindergarten. It's hard to imagine a darker place. 
Traditional sunset on the roof of a 16-storey building with a hookah and our new friends. From here you have a beautiful view of the city. 
View of the fifth microdistrict at night. The ghostly nine-story panel buildings, like the gnawed bones of an animal, reflect the pale moonlight. 
One of the most powerful places is two chairs on the roof, which one of the stalkers took out there. We stuck there for many hours, smoked a hookah, looked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, into the density of the starry sky and at the ghost town along the overgrown streets of which nocturnal animals roam. 
Ferris wheel in an amusement park. 
Ferris wheel in the center of Pripyat. Against the background of the starry sky, it can only be seen illegally. 
We met dawn on the roof of a sixteen-story building with a coat of arms. I was very interested in the coat of arms, I have not seen anything like it anywhere else. 
I fell asleep without waiting for dawn. 
They say that sometimes these letters on the roof of the building are rearranged by stalkers and the local police organize a wild search of the whole city on this occasion. 
Swimming pool of school number 3. 
Some places in the city are specially furnished with very high quality for sightseeing photo work, like this room with gas masks. 
A fresco at the post office, we went to take a couple of shots, we have a long road ahead through the night forests. 
Having entered the dark strip after the red forest, somewhere very close we heard the many-voiced howl of a large pack of wolves. It was scary, because they howled right on the course, having collected a point in a fist and getting ready to break through, we moved forward. I kept firecrackers with me - in the hope that in an emergency, loud pops would scare away predators. Everything worked out and closer to the morning we came to a trolleybus abandoned by someone in the middle of the field. This is a popular stalker base, here we drank tea and had a snack. This place seemed to me somewhat similar to the bus from the movie "Into the Wild", where the main character spent his last days. 
Stalker lodge. We caught up with our friends not far from Chernobyl-2. 
A long and gloomy corridor between the antennas and the military camp. 
Closer to sunset, we climbed the Duga-1 air defense radar, an abandoned huge antenna, towering 150 meters above the forests of the zone. Obiwan climbed onto the resonator. There was a wind, it shook and staggered, but he just gathered the eggs into a fist and walked along the pipe at a height of one hundred meters. 
The higher we climbed, the stronger the wind became, and with it a special almost ultrasonic "Ring". The wind whistled through millions of steel cables and antenna resonators, singing a brain-burning song. 
From the top, we watched the setting sun and watched the columns of smoke. Somewhere in the distance, a forest burned. The stalkers say that the current authorities are deliberately burning forests, pushing through some kind of bill to tear up the zone and shrink it from 30 to 10 kilometers next year. 
Another creepy story. There is a room with dead wolves in the abandoned military town. It is not clear how they got there, but the walls of the room are scratched from the inside by paws and two mummies lie on the floor. 
And then there was a long road home. The zone for me is an endless starry sky, open space. 
Passing under the power line, we saw that a tree had fallen on the wires. It smoldered, pulled wires and could start a fire. Having entered the foresters' house, we drank tea and left them a note with the exact coordinates of the accident. 
