Question - Chernobyl

[CJMooch]

Thanks for the chart, yer thinking now.

The past

The now

The helicopter pilots

Guess they are on the first day of the past. (All passed away now).

 

[CJMooch]

Lone Ranger, not use to thus forum just yet but thank you.

CJM

 

[Polominto73]

Thanks lone ranger the level of knowledge by people like yourself never ceases to amaze me and the photography skills of some are stunning well done to all

 

[Speed]

We went with Misha too. He was sound and understood what people wanted to do. I would strongly advise against going on a 'generic' trip tho. You need to get a group of explorers together and make it clear beforehand that you want to see everything and not just get off the bus at every tourist spot and snap a photo of the outside. I was quite suprised how touristy it has got now pipyat was like a coach park most of the day. 1000s of every day punters following the rules but to get to see most of the good stuff you need a proper multi day trip with a guide who's on side and 'knows people' so they can bend all the rules..

 

[stevepg56]

Wondering if anyone on here has been to Chernobyl. Looking at going soon, but I’ll be a female single traveller (unless one of you want to join me!!)
Just wondering how safe Ukraine is and anything I need to know?

Hi war x did Chernobyl in April this year with ex-lore as a single man there were 7 of us in total inc 2 single ladies, Must be honest I found Kiev very safe to go wandering on my own using the metro public transport. Inside the exclusion zo e you have to stay with the official guide but prypyat and the surrounding country side is awesome,also meeting the self settlers was fantastic. We had lunch inside the nuclear power plant with the workers and the food was foul!! Don’t have the misconception about everywhere in the zone being desert3d,it isn’t. There are many hundreds of workers at the plant and the nuclear waste receiving plant. But all in all a great experience.

 

[amfalconer]

Agreed about the generic trip, it's fine for a first foray, but knowing what I know now I'd do a private trip, as there's certain things I didn't see, and I would have preferred to spend most of my time in Pripyat - not that our generic trip didn't 'bend the rules' anyway.

To echo what Speed said, if you think it's eerily quiet, think again, you'll be constantly having to wait to get pics with no one else in - we shared our trip with a bunch of Americans, who were pretty decent, but stood in the way of my shots constantly! and there must have easily been another 5-6 parties at the fairground

 

[stevepg56]

We went with Misha too. He was sound and understood what people wanted to do. I would strongly advise against going on a 'generic' trip tho. You need to get a group of explorers together and make it clear beforehand that you want to see everything and not just get off the bus at every tourist spot and snap a photo of the outside. I was quite suprised how touristy it has got now pipyat was like a coach park most of the day. 1000s of every day punters following the rules but to get to see most of the good stuff you need a proper multi day trip with a guide who's on side and 'knows people' so they can bend all the rules..

Have to disagree about a lot of what you say, in the exclsi)n zone there were only one other small group at prypyat when we were there in April, and we were the only group who stayed in the hotel in the zone overnight. The guides will take you to places within prypyat if you specifically ask, bearing in mind that it is foolish to disregard radiation exposure, for instance we were able to enter the main area of the hospital as the readings were just below safe limits , but the basement areas were off limits due to higher readings. There is a difference between exploring and exploring with a death wish!

 

[WarFlower]

Have to disagree about a lot of what you say, in the exclsi)n zone there were only one other small group at prypyat when we were there in April, and we were the only group who stayed in the hotel in the zone overnight. The guides will take you to places within prypyat if you specifically ask, bearing in mind that it is foolish to disregard radiation exposure, for instance we were able to enter the main area of the hospital as the readings were just below safe limits , but the basement areas were off limits due to higher readings. There is a difference between exploring and exploring with a death wish!

It looks so intriguing, I can’t wait to go

 

[LeeOAW]

Hi war x did Chernobyl in April this year with ex-lore as a single man there were 7 of us in total inc 2 single ladies, Must be honest I found Kiev very safe to go wandering on my own using the metro public transport. Inside the exclusion zo e you have to stay with the official guide but prypyat and the surrounding country side is awesome,also meeting the self settlers was fantastic. We had lunch inside the nuclear power plant with the workers and the food was foul!! Don’t have the misconception about everywhere in the zone being desert3d,it isn’t. There are many hundreds of workers at the plant and the nuclear waste receiving plant. But all in all a great experience.

That last photo is in Kiev at the mother monument right?

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Have to disagree about a lot of what you say, in the exclsi)n zone there were only one other small group at prypyat when we were there in April, and we were the only group who stayed in the hotel in the zone overnight. The guides will take you to places within prypyat if you specifically ask, bearing in mind that it is foolish to disregard radiation exposure, for instance we were able to enter the main area of the hospital as the readings were just below safe limits , but the basement areas were off limits due to higher readings. There is a difference between exploring and exploring with a death wish!

I've been in May and September and it is getting busier. The last visit about 40 Eastern Europeans descended onto the funfair and spent the next 30 minutes spinning the ferris wheel, sitting on the dodgems and the other fairground attractions. It's not hard to get away from the 1 day tours as they generally only visit a few of the popular sites.

I've been to Hospital 126 twice now and never seen a reading above 1 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour; except for the fragment of firemans clothing on the counter. It's only when you get close, less than a meter away then the readings do increase to around 40 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour. The basement of the hospital has been filled with sand for many years now to prevent access, so it's not possible to go down there even if you wanted to. I suppose a guide could make things more dramatic if they wanted to, just to add to the trip.

Highest readings I saw were around 80 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour near the reactor 5 cooling tower, again this dropped back to normal background radiation (0.3 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour) about a meter away. The mosses and fungi also were quite high where we were allowed, 40 to 50 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour was not uncommon, but again only if you got very close.

 

[AnonyMouse]

Very Safe these days.

Part of my work I do industrial radiography, this uses a radioactive isotope. Usually Iridium 192 with a source strength of between 5 and 12 curie's.

At my barriers I'm allowed 7.5 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour and any member of the public could work all day there without it being a problem. I'm allowed 20 µSv (Microsieverts in a shift. If I put our meter next to our source when it's in it's protective housing it's not uncommon to see readings of around 220 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour which is stilled deemed safe as that's where we handle it.

Most of the time around Chernobyl we were seeing readings of 0.2 µSv (Microsieverts) and hour, odd area where it was around 2 or 3 µSv (Microsieverts) and had to actively be shown areas where the readings were higher by the guide, 80 µSv (Microsieverts) an hour was the highest I saw which is significantly less than what I get exposed to at work in the UK while working to the strict guidelines. After all safety is paramount

There are some nice hot spots to be found, but tours are unlikely to get anywhere near them, let alone allow anybody to dig around trying to find the source.

You can still find many pieces like this scattered around, this looks like some molten insulation, I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of the reactor 4 building. No idea which reading is correct one, GQ is rated up to 42.5mSv/h while Terra P likes to display a completely random number above 1000-2000uSv/h, so I wouldn't trust it too much. On the other hand my GQ takes forever to average the reading and I didn't feel like standing there for too long without gloves so I'd say it's somewhere in between those two. Free X-Ray, take that NHS!

Not to mention the powder in the flooded basement. Easily accessible in the winter as there should be thick ice on the, but I wouldn't get near that stuff without proper protection anyway, the powder gets airborne really easily and god knows what chemicals are in that laboratory room. Same goes for the hospital basement, I've seen people walking there without even some basic paper face mask, not the smartest idea if you ask me..

Again, nothing to worry about if you're going on a one or two day group tour, your'e likely to get higher dose flying to and from Kyiv than walking around Pripyat. I'd be more worried about stepping on a nail than radiation.

Enjoy your trip WarFlower!

 

[AnonyMouse]

The basement of the hospital has been filled with sand for many years now to prevent access, so it's not possible to go down there even if you wanted to.

Well, you just need to go with the right people. I've taken a friend who visited Chernobyl 4 times already, half of the places and things we did he hasn't seen before.

 

[Davie0606]

Wow thank you for a in-depth reply, too be honest the figure data us beyond my knowledge, I really want to do this trip as a new 'wonderet" I will go on a guided tour.

I want to go to Auschwitz but I don't want or think cameras are a good idea or if u could emotionally take ant pictures.

Guess it's a balance (shit hole humanity at its worst 'jurmanity' horrific)


The world will k8ll itself, were primitive...

Pictures are allowed in Auschwitz. I was there in Feb and it is one of the best tours iv ever done. However cant take pictures in gas chambers. Chernobyl next.