Multimedia

Radioactive Excursion: Tourists Explore Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Sputnik

Every day, several hundred tourists visit the abandoned Ukrainian city of Pripyat and Chernobyl, where shift workers serving the station live. Every person is given an individual dosimeter and taught to use it during the tour.

For several years, the tourists who came to the area were only allowed to visit the abandoned schoolyards, amusement parks, and classrooms outside the nuclear plant. Since 2019, the infamous Reactor 4, where the explosion happened and the reactor's control room, where decisions were made that ultimately contributed to the disaster, have been included in the list of tourist attractions.

The explosion at the Chernobyl NPP in the early hours of 26 April 1986, and the resulting fallout remain humanity’s closest brush with the dangers of nuclear power.

Nearly 600,000 people were involved in liquidating the consequences and nearly 2 million were forced to relocate as a result. Nearly 3,000 square miles of territory in northern Ukraine and parts of Belarus have been depopulated, with 1,000 square miles considered off-limits as an exclusion zone due to elevated levels of radiation.

1 / 21
Tourists at the Duga over-the-horizon radar system in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Ukraine.
2 / 21
A tourist is photographed at the "Pripyat" stele. Pripyat, where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was located, and a 1,000-mile area around it was cleared of people, locked down, and left for nature to reclaim following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP.
3 / 21
A radiation sign in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.
4 / 21
Tourists at the Museum of Technology in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.
5 / 21
Tourists at the Ferris wheel in Pripyat, Ukraine. Pripyat, where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was located, a 1,000-mile area around it was cleared of people, locked down, and left for nature to reclaim following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP.
6 / 21
A mural on the wall of one of the buildings in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exclusion zone in Ukraine.
7 / 21
Tourists at the Museum of Technology in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.
8 / 21
Tourists at an abandoned stadium in Pripyat, Ukraine. Pripyat, where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was located, and a 1,000-mile area around it was cleared of people, locked down, and left for nature to reclaim following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP.
9 / 21
A tourist standing by the bust of Russian revolutionary politician Vladimir Lenin in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.
10 / 21
Tourists at the former Palace of Culture Energetik in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine. The palace was built during the 1970s.
11 / 21
Measuring radiation levels in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.
12 / 21
A tourist taking a selfie against the backdrop of the sarcophagus in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
13 / 21
An abandoned kindergarten in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
14 / 21
An abandoned kindergarten in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
15 / 21
A metal plaque "Stop, Exclusion Zone" in a souvenir shop in front of the Dityatki checkpoint in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP.
16 / 21
A tourist at the Museum of Technology in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
17 / 21
Tourists taking pictures at the sarcophagus in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
18 / 21
A tourist by a swing in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
19 / 21
A tourist at the Museum of Technology in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine.
20 / 21
The former Palace of Culture Energetik in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine. The palace was built during the 1970s.
21 / 21
Tourists at a souvenir shop in front of the Dityatki checkpoint in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP.
Discuss