Ukraine To Open Chernobyl Area To Tourists 207
Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago. Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova says experts are developing travel routes that will be both medically safe and informative. 'There are things to see there if one follows the official route and doesn't stray away from the group,' says Yershova. Though it is a very sad story.' The ministry also says it hopes to finish building a new safer shell for the exploded reactor by 2015 that will cover the original iron-and-concrete structure hastily built over the reactor that has been leaking radiation, cracking and threatening to collapse. About 2,500 employees maintain the remains of the now-closed nuclear plant, working in shifts to minimize their exposure to radiation and several hundred evacuees have returned to their villages in the area despite a government ban."
Re:What method of transport? (Score:2, Informative)
Wasn't that completely discredited as being entirely fake? From what I remember, the girl never went there in a motorcycle, couldn't have gotten one of those passes to enter the area, her father isn't a scientist, and it's quite likely she never took any of those pictures.
RE: Already Open (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the area is already open to a plethora of tourists and buses. You pay your $50USD, and you get taken through the exclusion zone(s), stopping at the monuments, reactor, and Pripryat.
Some snaps from my trip, for the interested:
http://ninjito.com/2008-08-16 [ninjito.com]
The reactor: ;)]
http://ninjito.com/2008-08-16/qx-ch-6.jpg [ninjito.com]
'The' hotel in Pripryat
http://ninjito.com/2008-09-12-PANO/qx-pano-pripyat-1.jpg [ninjito.com]
Roof of the hotel, with the reactor in the background [Note, this was seen by 'straying from the group
http://ninjito.com/2008-09-12-PANO/qx-pano-pripyat-2.jpg [ninjito.com]
Neat shot of some of the hidden murels
http://ninjito.com/2008-08-16/qx-pripyat-1.jpg [ninjito.com]
It's already been open to tourists for years (Score:5, Informative)
Some friends of mine did a tour through there - to within ~200 metres of the reactor 'sarcophagus' a few months ago. These tours have been running for years now form several different operators. Look up any travel website or just google 'chernobyl tours' and you'll find plenty about this.
I read the article but still can't understand WTF it's about when you consider these tours have been going on for years.
Interesting... (Score:5, Informative)
AFAIK, the zone is already open for tourists. In guided tours, with authorized guides, the tour takes at most a day, visitors are screened for radiation levels upon entering and exitting and the guide has an active geiger counter at all times (which is one of major attractions too). At least a few travel agencies in Poland and Ukraine offer these tours (e.g. link [bispol.com])
The route, time and organization of these tours really minimizes all radiation-related danger to bare minimum and as long as you follow the guide, there is no risk of overexposure whatsoever. (still, the free-roaming of Pripyat part of the tour, on the other hand, has a considerable risk of getting hurt by parts of ruined buildings.)
The zone is in major part uncontaminated and totally harmless (save for rabid wolves, collapsing roofs of houses, getting lost and freezing to death, wild boars and the likes) but there are still many smaller or bigger patches of more radioactive areas - not radioactive enough to harm you if you cross in a car or even walking at a fast pace, but enough to mean somewhat heightened cancer risk if you camp there for a night. Generally, if you have a geiger counter and an inch of brain to follow what it says, radiation is not a danger - the count rises, you turn around. If you are an experienced hiker and have some rudimentary means of defense from wild animals, you can spend weeks in the zone just fine.
Generally, obtaining permission to enter the zone is not very hard. Many Airsoft groups organize their games there for example. Which areas you are allowed to enter and for how long, is a different matter. You get day permissions at most for Pripyat, but for example, the far west of the zone is pretty open and accessible - the standard 30km perimeter around the power plant has been extended about 30km more to the east-north-east where one of two major clouds of contamination struck. That cloud was long, wide, but more stretched, so the levels near that border of the zone have already dropped to entirely safe levels by now and getting a prolonged permit for that area is not a problem at all.
Re:It's already been open to tourists for years (Score:4, Informative)
The way it works is that all those companies funnel you to the same location and same tour. You are picked up in Kyiv and watch movies for the drive. Once there you pick up some local government people who are your tour guides.
After your 5 hours there they leave and you are driven back to Kyiv.
Do it quickly, with this action the tours are going to probably going to become more disneyfied. Also some european football tournament is taking place there next year or 2012 and that will bring lots of people.
I stayed at Hotel Ukraine(in independece square) get a junior suite and facing the square. One of the most interesting trips I have ever done. The place is not tourist friendly, lack of signs pointing to major sites, lack of "tourist" events, etc.
Re:What method of transport? (Score:2, Informative)
She went on the tour bus with everyone else. She just took a motorcycle helmet.
The admission is on her site. She said it was more about telling the story than her going on an adventure. That's her justification, anyway.
Re:What method of transport? (Score:3, Informative)
Especially for you:
http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread_archive.asp?threadid=8951 [www.uer.ca]
Re:wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, they are safe from that brand of faulty design. No reactor used anywhere else in the world has a large positive void coefficient and nothing else uses that insane design of control rods. Then add in other stuff like a containment building.
Even the 11 remaining reactors of that same design had those flaws fixed.
Re:wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
A good point, except that incidence of cancer or birth deformities did not sky-rocket. On any time scale. Your information has come from environmentalists who exaggerate the figures by a factor of ten.
The reality is more people die each year on the road outside my window (the A14, in the UK) than due to all the after-effects of Chernobyl put together.
Ironically, the reason the A14 is so dangerous is that car-hating enviroists keep diverting the funds to improve it onto stupid "alternative" transportation schemes.
The WHO appears to disagree:
source [who.int]
I'm sick of people on both sides of this debate exaggerating. No, it didn't mean "instant radioactive death for ten thousand years", but pretending like it was a minor mix up and no one got hurt is simply silly and irresponsible.
Re:What method of transport? (Score:4, Informative)
Here's the relevant post for those who don't wish to brave the horrors of that site's design: