Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
KIEV, Ukraine – Want a better understanding of the world’s worst nuclear disaster? Come tour the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.
Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people were resettled from areas contaminated with radiation fallout in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Related health problems still persist.
The so-called exclusion zone, a highly contaminated area within a 30-mile (48-kilometer) radius of the exploded reactor, was evacuated and sealed off in the aftermath of the explosion. All visits were prohibited.
The government will come up with tour routes that would be both safe for the tourists and be educational for them. Apparently, much of the exclusion zone, from what I have read, has seen radiation levels drop to within safe levels. Don’t expect to get up close with the Sarcophagus, as it’s cracked, leaking dangerous levels of radiation, deteriorated beyond repair and threatening to collapse. A New Safe Confinement has been planned for completion around 2015 or so.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind touring the area, but not without one of those protective suits on!