Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Ukraine

Location: Chornobyl, Ukraine

Helena Burson

Wow!  Here’s a history lesson you can’t get in class.  Tour the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone of Ukraine for a first-hand experience into what really happened 30 years ago and see the relics left behind.  1 to 3 day tours are now available from multiple tour companies.

Take a 1.5 hour trip on a tour bus from the capital city Kiev with other fellow curious travellers to gain access to the gated and guarded exclusion zone.  Along the ride, you’ll watch a documentary of the incident, listen to factual news reports and eye witness accounts, and view images of what it once was before you witness what remains…

You will discover how the incident at Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26,1986 wasn't just a man-made disaster and a government cover-up scandal... It was a battle... a battle against the clock to prevent the imminent threat of a second explosion... anticipated to release more radioactive substances than both Hiroshima & Nagasaki combined, to raise the ground as far as Minsk, Belarus, and render all of Europe uninhabitable.

The death toll and the number impacted will never be known, as they were significantly under-reported by The Former Soviet Union, in attempts to maintain a favorable international reputation during the Cold War era.

I doubt you’ve ever seen this before… a village graveyard.  It contains all the names of villages that no longer exist.  Their structures were bulldozed and buried underneath the ground as part of the cleanup process.  All of the trees that you see in these images have sprouted up and grown since the incident.  All of the preexisting trees were found to be hazardous, as wood absorbs and emits radiation.  Therefore all trees and buildings with wood frames were torn down and put under the ground during the cleanup.

View of the city Pripyat, rooftop of a residential apartment building.  The small city of Pripyat is where you will spend the bulk of your tour.  Construction of the town broke ground in 1970 and was only 16 years old when the incident occurred.  Still you will find it was well developed by then.  As part of the 1 day tour, you’ll be escorted through the post office, a furniture store, a residential apartment building, a community rec center, gymnasium, a public school, amusement park, race track, and preschool.  You can see images of what the town once looked like at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLhHE6m937I

The mailroom, inside the post office….  Mail, postcards, and pamphlets can be found scattered all about the floor.

Inside the music room of the elementary school.  Here you’ll find text books and papers of students and remnants of what appears to be a science lab, mathematics class, gymnasium, and more.

The little girl’s room, inside the public school.  There was lots of memorabilia to be found in this building.  Like detectives, we were stumbling over debris in a frantic search to find signs of former life, fingers lingered over the snap buttons of our cameras.  ‘Oh!  There’s a gas mask.’  Snap!  “Look here, a headless babydoll…. CREEPY.” Snap snap snap.

The community rec center pool

The amusement park that never opened… It serves only as a playground for the curious tourists. I watched fellow explorers hop in bumper cars and carts. You can touch anything you like on this tour.

Theater inside of the community rec center

You’ll hear the Geiger counters sound off as you stand outside of Unit 4 of the nuclear plant where a newly constructed confinement cell was being built at the time over the original sarcophagus. Financed by a culmination of European countries, it’s guaranteed to sustain for the next 100 years.  It makes you wonder…  when will the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone be habitable again?  Now THAT is the multi-billion dollar question.

Bonus!  Just when you think it’s the end of the tour, you get to sweep this top secret Former Soviet Union military compound.  So confidential, even the locals of surrounding villages didn’t know it existed then.  If you hurry and visit soon, the “covert” missile radar detector will still be part of the tour before it’s scrapped for metal!

Hands down, your guided experience on the 1 day tour will be well worth the 100 euro investment and a small dose of radiation.  This is a history lesson you will never forget and as the mother of all ghost towns, it will haunt you.