| A little over an hour's drive north (130km) of the city of | | | | that visitors will receive no more radiation during a visit |
| Kiev is one of the most talked about places, and | | | | to Chernobyl than that experienced whilst travelling on |
| probably the most controversial tourist attraction in the | | | | a transatlantic flight! The one thing all visitors are told to |
| Ukraine. Amidst an empty, stark, and abandoned | | | | avoid doing, however, is to avoid eating any food |
| landscape the site of Chernobyl sits here.Now that | | | | grown within the zone. Therefore, all tours supply lunch |
| radiation levels have decreased to allow guided tours, | | | | for their groups in the form of fresh food brought with |
| you can safely venture forth from the comfort of your | | | | them from Kiev. |
| rented Kiev apartment or hotel in Kiev to follow in the | | | | Each guide carries a Geiger counter, and they are |
| steps of the many thousands of visitors from all over | | | | intimately aware of exactly where they can and |
| the world who have visited the site since it was | | | | cannot take their tour groups, plus everyone visiting is |
| deemed safe to reopen in 2002. | | | | automatically screened for radiation levels before they |
| Protected by thick walls, the viewing area allows | | | | leave the zone. |
| visitors clear sight of the doomed sarcophagus. This | | | | Close by is the town of Pripyat, once home to 47,000 |
| has become a form of modern icon a little like the | | | | nuclear workers and their families, and now an |
| Empire State building or Windsor Castle, due in the | | | | atomic-era Pompeii. Trees thrust through the empty |
| main to having being seen by millions of people as | | | | shells of hotels, restaurants and bars, and the huge |
| portrayed in newspapers/ magazines, or when the | | | | football stadium is stark and overgrown. |
| terrifying news of the explosion was reported | | | | In the local school, classrooms lie with open books and |
| worldwide by television crews. | | | | the detritus of lives dramatically interrupted by |
| 20 years since reactor number 4 exploded, spending a | | | | evacuation - it reminds one of being aboard a large |
| few hours near Chernobyl is actually very safe. Much | | | | land-locked Maria Celeste. |
| of the region records only slightly elevated levels of | | | | There are still some people living in the exclusion zone. |
| radiation - about 22 micro-roentgens, as opposed to | | | | They number around 350, most of them elderly |
| the usual 14. | | | | residents. Many were moved out to Kiev |
| Around the actual reactor, the relative hot spots are | | | | accommodation after the accident, but all missed their |
| diligently monitored on a regular basis, and have posed | | | | homes and decided en-mass to return. They live a |
| no risk to human life. National Health Protection | | | | normal life growing their vegetables, and are seemingly |
| agencies from the UK, Europe, and USA all now agree | | | | unperturbed by the radiation. |