It is known that Chernobyl tourism occupies the first position in the list of unique places and exotic excursions. And therefore, the farther we move from the date of the Chernobyl tragedy, the more tourists come to see the place that has become the apotheosis of human trials, misfortunes, pain and, ultimately, the death caused by the tests of a peaceful atom.
They seek to Chernobyl from everywhere, but primarily tourists and scientists from France, Germany, Poland, and Japan come here. Many travel with the goal of looking at a possible model of the future of human civilization, to feel the emotions of an abandoned house. And to understand what happens when a person enters the struggle of cheap electricity gains or state secrets.
The scale of the exclusion zone is commensurate with almost three sizes of Kiev. These are huge forests, meadow expanses, abandoned villages, long ago captured by its majesty – nature. These are hundreds of people with unique, and sometimes distorted, fates.
According to experienced guides, being in the zone for a little more than a few days, but subject to unconditional observance of the rules, is not much more dangerous than taking an X-ray of a dislocated finger, a bad tooth, or flying to Egypt.
It is well-known that the permissible radiation rate for humans is not more than 25 micro roentgen per hour. It is kept at about 15 μR / h in Kiev, and in an airplane flying in the sky it reaches up to 300 μR / h. Objectively speaking, the dosimeter’s parameters show only 15 to 25 μR / h even at some objects of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
At the same time, there are territories where the device squeaks nervously and piercingly, without stopping. Radiation activity in such places is under 2000 μR / h and higher. This is primarily an amusement park in the center of Pripyat, the area around the exploded reactor, and the place of radioactive waste disposed of in the ground.
The screech of the dosimeter in these places not only gets on your nerves, it flips the mind. Being inside the remains of the fourth power unit, the emotions of fear are struggling with the desire to reach the most terrible point: the crater of the exploded reactor. It is strictly forbidden to be here without special uniforms.
Radiation sickness affects organs when a dose of 150 to 200 x-rays is received. It should be reminded that 1 x-ray is equal to 1 million micro-roentgen. And for comparison – the level of radiation emission was thousands of X-rays per hour at the time of the disaster, even at a distance of 100 meters from the wreckage of the destroyed reactor, the technological structures created a radiation field of 600-700 R / h.
What is included in the responsibilities of those who continue to work at the Chernobyl nuclear power station today?
As early as 2000, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant left the list of facilities for the production of electricity. But it is not possible to instantly take a magic wand and turn off the reactor safely: it is not an iron, not a kettle, and not a washing machine.
The term for its gradual withdrawal is about 50 years from the moment of shutdown. Therefore, only by 2065 it will have been possible to talk about the complete liquidation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In the meantime, in order to stop the emission of radiation, back in the fall of 1986, the fourth reactor with a five-ton stockpile of radioactive waste was covered with a sarcophagus. 90,000 volunteers did this in just a record 210 days. The life of the first shelter expired after 25 years. Therefore, this summer it has already been replaced by a modern confidential, the shelf life of which is at least 100 years.confinement
Its construction was led by a French company, and work was carried out by domestic construction organizations, helped, including Germans, Turks, Italians, and many others. It became a kind of radioactive Mecca, around which the most progressive people in the field of construction and operation were gathered.
Today, the civil society of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is about 160 people. Basically, these are those who, from their point of view, for objective reasons, decided to return to their native land. Some were not satisfied with the new living conditions, others were simply accustomed to rely only on their own strengths in everything. The vast majority are pensioners, they live off their own vegetable garden.
A grocery store comes to such a place once a week, and the villagers buy bread, cereals, dairy products for a week in advance. In a conversation with them, one can see whether wisdom, whether only hopelessness of people who have made the most important choice in their life. And it is scary and pathetic at the same time.
Pripyat is not on the modern map today
The former city of dreams is overgrown with impassable weed, and decommunization will not touch the main Lenin street. The overgrown paths of this once young and promising city pass through mossy trees and facades of dilapidated buildings, on which rusty burned out slogans still hang: “The health of the people is the country’s wealth”. Inscriptions, graffiti, and autographs made by illegal visitors are added to them now.
Metal structures, wood, mushrooms and berries are still being taken out of here, and even animals shot in the zone are shown by many poachers as the best hunting trophy. By the way, one can also periodically see carefully restored and prepared pipes for transportation and other scrap metal near the well-known radio engineering giant “Duga”, in the small settlement of Chernobyl-2.
Back in 1976, this object was erected in order to monitor the possible launch of enemy ballistic missiles from anywhere in the world, and on the strategic map of the country’s leadership it was recorded as a children’s boarding house. There is no doubt that in the near future the super-powerful giant radar antennas will be disassembled for spare parts.
Recently, a part of the building of one of the old schools in Pripyat has collapsed. Miraculously, there were no tourists or stalkers at the time of the blockage. The latter, not paying attention to the ban on illegal entry into the zone, are becoming more and more every year. The liquidators themselves, who survived the disaster, have their own, individual opinion on what is happening with the Chernobyl nuclear power station today.
Chernobyl and Pripyat were and will forever remain for them an unhealed wound, the phantom pain of which they will feel until the end of their lives. Pripyat has also died, and no one except the birds is likely to return to a dead city. But nature continues to demonstrate its greatness and miracles of survival. Today, the territory of the exclusion zone is teeming with wild and scared by human animals.
And if they were able to survive and prove to man that miracles do happen, now it’s people’s turn to do everything possible and impossible to recreate the environment and help themselves to develop in conditions that seemed incompatible with life 33 years ago.
To do this, for security purposes, the most advanced technologies must be undertaken in order to prevent a tragedy that would lead to the end of human civilization.