My trip to the Chernobyl Radiation Exclusion Zone

[Bluez]

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My trip to the Chernobyl Radiation Exclusion Zone w/ PICS
« on: May 20, 2016, 04:06:45 PM »
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Sorry been gone so long. been on travels..

About the "Zone":
There are 2 zones.

the 30 km control zone which rarely has significant radiation levels and IMO could/should be opened back up to human habitation.


I had my dose rate meter with me and it read above 0.30 micro Sieverts only once in the 30km zone (that's the Ukr Gov't limit for public access settlement, that is rated safe for lifetime human habitation and IMO conservatively so)

Background in Kiev (capital of Ukraine) is 0.10 micro Sieverts.

This zone still has some very interesting post apocalyptic views .

And the center is the the 10km zone....:

This zone does have some noticeable hot spots and my dose rate meter ("Geiger counter") saw several hot spots..

Most of all the former "red Forest" (so named due to discoloration from the release).

There you cna find as much as 120 micro Sieverts or about 1200 times natural background for the region.

While not safe for lifetime habitation or even long term occupancy it is still safe to walk through and in a tactical situation I would not hesitate to use an area like this as a cache location, or even for a patrol lay up position especially since most would figure no one would be there.

Luckily my physical shape has just been exploding in the last 4 weeks after going downhill ever since I left the Army..
Been getting back into shape and it showed.

Needed upper body to pull myself up ladders and core/legs/agility for running up 16 and more floors of rain soaked steps w/o railings..

And I do mean running .....everyone else in our small group was a 20 or 30 something and we were in a hurry to get thru everything before darkness .. I am happy to say I was able to keep up and that my Russian was (barely) good enough for very basic communication..

2 months ago I might not have kept up...

...there is a lesson learned there somewhere...

And now to the pics!

PS: I own all the copyrights to these pics

 

[Bluez]

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[Bluez]

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[The War Wagon]

Now I GOTTA ask...

WHY were you there?!

And what happend to ALL the glass is ALL those buildings?! The vandals can't have been THAT plentiful & busy!

Storms, or... ???

 

[Bluez]

Now I GOTTA ask...

WHY were you there?!

And what happend to ALL the glass is ALL those buildings?! The vandals can't have been THAT plentiful & busy!

Storms, or... ???

It was a personal trip.
Also it was mostly looters trying to break out the metal frames who caused the glass to break everywhere.

 

[The War Wagon]

It was a personal trip.
Also it was mostly looters trying to break out the metal frames who caused the glass to break everywhere.

Those radioactive looters have been BUSY! :boxed:

 

[kwo51]

To me it is amazing how the foliage has recovered so well. Were there any inhabitants ? dogs,squirrels or any other non human residents? Thanks for the info and when are you heading to Fukashema ? Do you think a smaller nuke unit would have been a better idea for the power industry there. Big units cause big problems. Smaller units I think would be easer to contain.JMO

 

[Bluez]

To me it is amazing how the foliage has recovered so well. Were there any inhabitants ? dogs,squirrels or any other non human residents? Thanks for the info and when are you heading to Fukashema ? Do you think a smaller nuke unit would have been a better idea for the power industry there. Big units cause big problems. Smaller units I think would be easer to contain.JMO

Dogs, squirrels, carp and even 1 Bear live in the exclusion zone.

The 30km zone does have some older folks who went back to their oil farms but they do so unofficially.
But in the 30km zone officialdom has decided not to hassle them.

The 10km zone is completely uninhabited.

 

[kwo51]

So ground zero is more toxic than in Japans WW 2 ground zeros ? Welcome back !

 

[SilvrSRT10]

So does the exclusion zone circle ground zero or is it more in line with the prevailing winds that carried the radiation? Did you run into anyone else on holiday there checking things out? How in the world did you get near there? I'm sure it's not part of the Russian travel brochure. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm always amazed at areas that have been abandoned like that.

 

[Bluez]

So does the exclusion zone circle ground zero or is it more in line with the prevailing winds that carried the radiation? Did you run into anyone else on holiday there checking things out? How in the world did you get near there? I'm sure it's not part of the Russian travel brochure. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm always amazed at areas that have been abandoned like that.

Both exclusion zones are orginally circular in Ukraine and not the direct result of modleing or ground measurements.
However there are exclusion zones in Belarus that are not tied to the circles around the NPP.

While no one lives there folks getting permission and entering via minibus is fairly common these days.