How many years have passed since the tragedy? The course of the accident itself, its causes and consequences have already been completely determined and are known to everyone. As far as I know, there is not even any double interpretation here, except in small things. Yes, you know everything yourself. Let me tell you some seemingly ordinary moments, but perhaps you haven’t thought about them.
Myth one: Chernobyl is remote from big cities.
In fact, in the case of the Chernobyl disaster, only an accident did not lead to the evacuation of Kyiv, for example. Chernobyl is located 14 km from the nuclear power plant, and Kyiv is located only 151 km from Chernobyl (according to other sources 131 km) by road. And in a straight line, which is preferable for a radiation cloud and 100 km will not be - 93.912 km. And Wikipedia generally gives the following data - the physical distance to Kyiv is 83 km, along roads - 115 km.
By the way, here's a complete map to complete the picture
Clickable 2000 px
IN the first days of the accident Chernobyl nuclear power plant The battle against radiation was also waged on the outskirts of Kyiv. The threat of infection came not only from the Chernobyl wind, but also from the wheels of vehicles traveling from Pripyat to the capital. The problem of purifying radioactive water formed after the decontamination of cars was solved by scientists from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
IN In April-May 1986, eight radioactive control points for vehicles were organized around the capital. Cars heading to Kyiv were simply sprayed with hoses. And all the water went into the soil. Reservoirs were built in a fire emergency to collect used radioactive water. In just a matter of days they were filled to the brim. The capital's radioactive shield could turn into its nuclear sword.
AND Only then did the leadership of Kyiv and the civil defense headquarters agree to consider the proposal of polytechnic chemists to purify contaminated water. Moreover, there have already been developments in this regard. Long before the accident, a laboratory was created at KPI for the development of reagents for wastewater treatment, headed by Professor Alexander Petrovich Shutko.
P The technology proposed by Shutko’s group for disinfecting water from radionuclides did not require the construction of complex treatment facilities. Decontamination was carried out directly in the storage tanks. Within two hours after treating the water with special coagulants, radioactive substances settled at the bottom, and the purified water met the maximum permissible standards. After that, only radioactive fallout was buried in a 30-kilometer zone. Can you imagine if the problem of water purification had not been solved? Then many eternal burial grounds with radioactive water would be built around Kyiv!
TO Unfortunately, Professor A.P. Shutko. He left us at just 57 years old, just 20 days short of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. And the chemist scientists who worked with him side by side in the Chernobyl zone, for their dedicated work, managed to receive the “title of liquidators”, free travel in transport and a bunch of diseases associated with radiation exposure. Among them is Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Ecology of the National Polytechnic University Anatoly Krysenko. It was to him that Professor Shutko was the first to suggest testing reagents for purifying radioactive waters. Working with him in Shutko’s group were KPI Associate Professor Vitaly Basov and Lev Malakhov, Associate Professor at the Civil Air Fleet Institute.
Why is the Chernobyl accident, and the dead city is PRIPYAT?
There are several evacuated settlements located on the territory of the exclusion zone:
Pripyat
Chernobyl
Novoshepelichi
Polesskoe
Vilcha
Severovka
Yanov
Kopachi
Chernobyl-2
Visual distance between Pripyat and Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Why is only Pripyat so famous? It's just the most Big City in the exclusion zone and the closest to it - according to the last census conducted before the evacuation (in November 1985), the population was 47 thousand 500 people, more than 25 nationalities. For example, only 12 thousand people lived in Chernobyl itself before the accident.
By the way, after the accident Chernobyl was not abandoned and completely evacuated like Pripyat. 
People live in the city. These are EMERCOM officers, police officers, cooks, janitors, and plumbers. There are about 1500 of them. It's mostly men on the streets. In camouflage. This is the local fashion. Some apartment buildings are inhabited, but people do not live there permanently: the curtains are faded, the paint on the windows is peeling, the windows are closed.
People stay here temporarily, work on shifts, and live in dormitories. Another couple of thousand people work at the nuclear power plant; they mostly live in Slavutich and go to work by train.
Most work in the zone on a rotational basis, 15 days here, 15 days outside. Locals say the average salary in Chernobyl is only 1,700 UAH, but this is very average, some have more. True, there is nothing special to spend money on here: you don’t need to pay for public utilities, housing, food (everyone is fed three times a day for free, and not bad). There is one store, but the choice there is small. There are no beer stalls or any entertainment at the sensitive facility. By the way, Chernobyl is also a return to the past. In the center of the city stands Lenin in full height, a monument to the Komsomol, all the street names are from that era. In the city, the background is about 30-50 microroentgen - the maximum permissible for humans.
Now let’s turn to the blogger’s materials vit_au_lit :
Myth two: lack of attendance.
Many people probably think that the only people who go to the accident zone are radiation seekers, stalkers, etc., but normal people They will not approach this zone closer than 30 km. How fitting they are!
The first checkpoint on the road to the plant is Zone III: a 30-kilometer perimeter around the nuclear power plant. At the entrance to the checkpoint, such a line of cars lined up that I couldn’t even imagine: despite the fact that the cars were allowed through the control in 3 rows, we stood for about an hour, waiting for our turn. 
The reason for this is active attendance former residents Chernobyl and Pripyat from April 26 to the May holidays. They all go either to old places residence, or to cemeteries, or “tombs,” as they also say here.
Myth three: closedness.
Were you sure that all entrances to the nuclear power plant are carefully guarded, and no one except maintenance personnel is allowed in, and you can only get inside the zone by stepping on the guards’ paw? Nothing like this. Of course, you can’t just drive through the checkpoint, but the police just issue a pass for each car, indicating the number of passengers, and go ahead and get exposed. 
They say that before they also asked for passports. By the way, children under 18 years old are not allowed into the zone.
The road to Chernobyl is surrounded on both sides by a wall of trees, but if you look closely, you can see the abandoned dilapidated ruins of private houses among the lush vegetation. No one will return to them.
Myth four: uninhabitable.
Chernobyl, located between the 30- and 10-kilometer perimeters around the nuclear power plant, is quite inhabitable. The service personnel of the station and surrounding areas, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and those who returned to their former places live in it. The city has shops, bars, and some other amenities of civilization, but no children.
To enter the 10-kilometer perimeter, it is enough to show the pass issued at the first checkpoint. Another 15 minutes by car and we arrive at the nuclear power plant. 
It's time to get a dosimeter, which my madam carefully provided me with, having begged this device from her grandfather, who was obsessed with this kind of gadgets. Before leaving vit_au_lit I took readings in the courtyard of my house: 14 microR/hour - typical indicators for an uninfected environment.
We put the dosimeter on the grass, and while we take a couple of shots against the backdrop of the flowerbed, the device quietly calculates itself. What did he intend there? 
Heh, 63 microR/hour - 4.5 times more than the average city norm... after that we get advice from our guides: walk only on the concrete road, because... The slabs are more or less cleared, but don’t get into the grass.
Myth five: the inaccessibility of nuclear power plants.
For some reason, it always seemed to me that the nuclear power plant itself was surrounded by some kilometer-long perimeter of barbed wire, so that God forbid some adventurer would come closer to the station than a few hundred meters and receive a dose of radiation.
The road leads us straight to the central entrance, where regular buses arrive from time to time, transporting plant workers - people continue to work at the nuclear power plant to this day. According to our guides, several thousand people, although this figure seemed too high to me, because all the reactors had long been shut down. Behind the workshop you can see the pipe of the destroyed reactor 4.
The area in front of the central administrative building has been converted into one large memorial to those killed during the liquidation of the accident.
The names of those who died in the first hours after the explosion are carved on the marble slabs.
Pripyat: that same dead city. Its construction began simultaneously with the construction of the nuclear power plant, and it was intended for plant workers and their families. It is located some 2 kilometers from the station, so it suffered the most.
There is a stele at the entrance to the city. In this part of the road the radiation background is the most dangerous: 
257 microR/hour, which is almost 18 times higher than the city average. In other words, the dose of radiation that we receive in 18 hours in the city, here we will receive in an hour.
A few more minutes and we reach the Pripyat checkpoint. The road goes close to the railway line: in old times The most ordinary passenger trains ran along it, for example Moscow-Khmelnitsky. Passengers traveling this route on April 26, 1986 were then issued a Chernobyl certificate.
People are allowed into the city only on foot; we were never able to get permission to travel, although the guides had IDs.
Speaking of the myth of non-attendance. Here is a photo taken from the roof of one of the high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city, near the checkpoint: among the trees you can see cars and buses parked along the road leading to Pripyat. 
And this is what the road looked like before the accident, during the time of the “living” city. 
The previous photo was taken from the roof of the rightmost of the 3 nine areas in the foreground.
Myth six: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not work after the accident.
On May 22, 1986, by resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 583, the commissioning date for power units No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl NPP was set as October 1986. Decontamination was carried out in the premises of the power units of the first stage; on July 15, 1986, its first stage was completed.
In August, at the second stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, communications common to the 3rd and 4th units were cut, and a concrete dividing wall was erected in the turbine room.
After the work was completed to modernize the plant's systems, provided for by the measures approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy on June 27, 1986 and aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors, on September 18, permission was received to begin the physical start-up of the reactor of the first power unit. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched and at 16:47 it was connected to the network. On November 5, power unit No. 2 was launched.
On November 24, 1987, the physical start-up of the reactor of the third power unit began; the power start-up took place on December 4. On December 31, 1987, by decision of the Government Commission No. 473, the act of acceptance into operation of the 3rd power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after repair and restoration work was approved.
The third stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished power units 5 and 6, 2008. Construction of the 5th and 6th blocks was stopped with a high degree of readiness of the facilities.
However, as you remember, there were many complaints foreign countries regarding the operating Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 22, 1997, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 1, shut down on November 30, 1996.
By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 15, 1999, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 2, shut down after an accident in 1991.
From December 5, 2000, the reactor's power was gradually reduced in preparation for shutdown. On December 14, the reactor was operated at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony and December 15, 2000 at 13:17 By order of the President of Ukraine, during the broadcast of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - National Palace "Ukraine" teleconference, by turning the fifth level emergency protection key (AZ-5), the reactor of power unit No. 3 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was stopped forever, and the station stopped generating electricity.
Let's honor the memory of the heroic liquidators who, without sparing their lives, saved other people.
Since we're talking about tragedies, let's remember The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -Vladimir Yavorivsky, people's deputy, head of the Temporary Deputy Commission to investigate the causes and consequences of the Chernobyl accident:
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains dangerous, even very dangerous. I'll explain why. Firstly, in Chernobyl zone There are still about 800 unburied temporary storage facilities that have already existed for 28 years. This is equipment contaminated with high levels of radiation, abandoned sand or swamp pits. They radiate high level radiation.
Second. There is a problem with the so-called “red forest” that grew near the reactor itself. It is called red because all these pines changed color due to radiation after the disaster.
The new confinement will solve the problem of radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but it will remain for posterity
Well, the third problem is the confinement itself, which closes the fourth reactor. It is designed for a period that has long ended. The second casing around this hidden reactor is now being prepared. It is very heavy, it is a colossal weight, thousands of tons of concrete, and the nuclear power plant itself was built in an extremely criminal place, on the marshy soils of Polesie, very close to groundwater. And this possible subsidence is very dangerous, because surface water can penetrate into the main underground water layers.
I'm not even talking about the self-settlers who live there, about this thirty-kilometer zone itself with polluted meadows and waters.
Of course, danger remains. You know that the reactor was even accelerated. Little was said about him back then; it was back in Soviet times. That is, a chain reaction began in the fourth reactor when water got there. This sarcophagus itself is not airtight. Water, snow, etc. got there, and the acceleration began chain reaction. It’s good that they noticed it in time and simply extinguished it.
Well, the sarcophagus itself is dangerous; it still emits radiation. And the amount of nuclear fuel that remains has not been established.
The new confinement will solve the problem of radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but it will remain for posterity.
I am not an expert in the nuclear industry, but it seems to me that building a waste storage facility would be the most the best option. We have already lost Pripyat, no one will return there in the coming centuries. Therefore, it is logical to build a storage facility there, and not pollute some other place. But let the scientists decide that.
But storage is a must. We have so much nuclear waste! All those capsules with fuel that were in the fourth reactor and that remained were taken from there and placed in a nuclear waste storage facility. In the same way from other reactors, all this needs to be hidden somewhere.
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Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 accident
Chernobyl occupies a small area of territory on the map, but its area is about 250 square kilometers. In addition, this city is considered the oldest in the entire exclusion zone, because it was founded back in 1193.
From the very beginning, the Chernobyl region recorded its history, meeting both the Principality of Lithuania and Russian Empire, as well as the Kingdom of Poland. Despite the fact that Chernobyl, one way or another, was under someone’s influence, it lived its own life, uniting many nationalities and religions. Therefore, one cannot fail to mention the interculturality of the city here.
Illegal trail to the exclusion zone
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 made significant adjustments to the usual life of the city. In addition to the fact that people were evacuated, Chernobyl received a special mark on the map of Ukraine, as well as the entire USSR. Now this place is designated as a contaminated area with severe radioactive contamination.
According to research data, the exclusion zone in 1986 was the most dangerous and dirty. Speaking of 2018, radiation has significantly dropped, but this territory does not become safe enough to live there. The half-lives of cesium and strontium had already ended by 2018. But plutonium is firmly entrenched in the Chernobyl soil, which will not leave the earth for more than six thousand years.
Radiation pollution map
The map of the Chernobyl exclusion zone extends over thirty kilometers. Scientists who have spent years studying this area believe that the ten-kilometer zone remains the most radioactive, but the rest is slowly being rehabilitated.
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Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Winding lines, rounded relief peninsulas in a vast red spot... This is exactly what the exclusion zone and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant look like on the map today. Going back several decades, you can become an unwitting witness to the tragic events that captured not a single kilometer of fertile lands in their destructive whirlwind. It was the tragedy of 1986 nuclear power plant became the culprit that the map of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is today considered as a territory contaminated with radiation.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on Google map
On the wide and deep Pripyat River, flowing into the cool waters of the Dnieper, rises the energy treasury of the USSR. We are talking about the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant began its history in 1970, with the start of construction. The authorities planned to turn this station into a great power that could put the USSR in first place in this industry among other states. Therefore, enormous efforts and labor reserves were expended to implement the project. They even erected a modern city European, by those standards, model. For many, this city has become their home.
The city where the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located
However, the map of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which soon appeared in the Soviet Union, can only indicate that not everything in the state was perfect. Young Pripyat, a strong nuclear city, like many other settlements, fell into the territorial outlines of the map of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. After all, the design and layout of the station did not live up to expectations. And a modern reactor of a new type became a death sentence for Ukraine and its neighboring states.
Exclusion zone on the Yandex map
Map of contamination of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Not a single century of human existence on Earth has been without mistakes, which, unfortunately, are not always possible to correct. Every now and then, taking the wrong steps, a person imperceptibly replenishes the treasury of his failures. When there is absolutely no space left, the irreparable happens - something that sobers you up again, makes you stop and look back.
READ: Sarcophagus of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Deathproof design
In the case of the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the same thing happened. Year after year, the station workers made mistakes and at the same time believed that everything would work out. However, the moment came when the great power could not stand it and fell.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant, reactor 4
The explosion of the fourth reactor and the radiation surge gave rise to a new concept for that time - a map of contamination of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The first time after the explosion, radiation actively spread over wide areas. Speaking about Ukraine and studying in detail the map of Chernobyl nuclear power plant contamination in 1986, it is worth emphasizing that the Kiev and Zhytomyr regions were mainly affected. However, in those days the winds moved away from the borders of our state. Thus, the winds drove clouds filled with radioactive elements to Belarus, Russia, and Poland.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the map, zooming in
Radioactive rain fell in many places. After all, the accident in the fourth power unit released tons of radioactive fuel. The content of nuclear power plant fuel is elements such as cesium, strontium, iodine-131, americium, etc.
The shortest half-life of some elements is up to 30 years, and the longest is about 24,000 years. In other words, we will never witness a complete cleansing of the exclusion zone from the radiation burden.
At the same time, studying the Chernobyl NPP at Google map, as well as the radius of affected areas, it is impossible not to notice that the boundaries of contamination with radioactive substances are shrinking.
View of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from a satellite
Modern technologies of the new century make it possible not only to view the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its map from a satellite. It has also become possible to obtain the exact coordinates of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Even in the last century, this might have seemed impossible. But today, progressive scientific achievements never cease to amaze people.
If you started Scientific research or you are just a curious tourist who is preparing to embark on a historical adventure, a map of Ukraine and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be a serious assistant in exploring the station. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Yandex and Google maps is especially amenable to consideration. Anyone can surprise themselves detailed description nuclear power plant, and also have a good look at it and the infrastructure around it. It is enough to simply zoom in on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the map in the right places.
Call for safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Modern Chernobyl and nuclear power plants on the map
Nothing changed. The roads still lead to the native threshold. Road markings decorate the asphalt. Trees sway over city squares, and houses await their families. Today, many settlements in the exclusion zone look like this. Many people did not agree that they would no longer see their apartments or walk along the streets of the city dear to their hearts. And they returned here. Indeed, Chernobyl continues to be part of the alienated territory. However, stubborn and devoted self-settlers successfully develop its territory.
The terrible disaster in Chernobyl became an unprecedented event in the historical chronicle of nuclear energy. In the first days after the accident, it was not possible to assess the real scale of the incident, and only after some time an exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was created within a radius of 30 km. What happened and is still happening in the closed area? The world is full of various rumors, some of which are the fruit of an inflamed imagination, and some of which are the true truth. And the most obvious and realistic things do not always turn out to be reality. After all, we are talking about Chernobyl - one of the most dangerous and mysterious territories Ukraine.
History of the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
A plot of land 4 km from the village of Kopachi and 15 km from the city of Chernobyl was chosen in 1967 for the construction of a new nuclear power plant, designed to compensate for the energy shortage in the Central Energy Region. The future station was named Chernobyl.
The first 4 power units were built and put into operation by 1983; in 1981, construction began on power units 5 and 6, which lasted until the infamous 1986. Over the course of several years, a town of power engineers emerged near the station - Pripyat.
The first accident hit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1982 - after scheduled repairs, an explosion occurred at power unit 1. The consequences of the breakdown were eliminated within three months, after which additional safety measures were introduced to prevent similar incidents in the future.
But, apparently, fate decided to finish what it started; the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not supposed to work. That's why on the night of April 25-26, 1986 Another explosion occurred at power unit 4. This time the incident resulted in a global disaster. No one can still say for sure what exactly caused the reactor explosion, which resulted in thousands of broken destinies, twisted lives and premature deaths. The disaster, Chernobyl, the exclusion zone - the history of this incident is controversial to this day, although the time of the accident itself has been established with an accuracy of seconds.
A few minutes before the explosion of the 4th power unit
On the night of April 25-26, 1986, an experimental test of turbogenerator 8 was scheduled. The experiment started at 1:23:10 on April 26, and 30 seconds later a powerful explosion occurred as a result of a drop in pressure.
Chernobyl accident
The 4th power unit was mired in fire, firefighters managed to completely extinguish the fire by 5 o’clock in the morning. And a few hours later it became known how powerful the radiation emission was in environment. A couple of weeks later, the authorities decided to cover the destroyed power unit with a concrete sarcophagus, but it was too late. The radioactive cloud spread over a fairly large distance.
Brought great trouble Chernobyl disaster: The exclusion zone created shortly after the event prohibited free access to the vast territory belonging to Ukraine and Belarus.
Area of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
Within a radius of 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the accident there is abandonment and silence. It was these territories that the Soviet authorities considered dangerous for permanent residence of people. All residents of the exclusion zone were evacuated to other populated areas. Several more zones were additionally defined in the restricted area:
- a special zone occupied directly by the nuclear power plant itself and the construction site of power units 5 and 6;
- zone 10 km;
- zone 30 km.
The boundaries of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were surrounded by a fence, warning signs were installed about elevated level radiation. Ukrainian lands that fell into the forbidden territory are Pripyat itself, the village of Severovka in the Zhitomir region, the villages of the Kyiv region of Novoshepelevichi, Polesskoye, Vilcha, Yanov, Kopachi.
The village of Kopachi is located at a distance of 3800 meters from the 4th power unit. It was so badly damaged by radioactive substances that the authorities decided to physically destroy it. The most massive rural buildings were destroyed and buried underground. The previously prosperous Kopachi were simply wiped off the face of the earth. Currently there are not even self-settlers here.
The accident also affected a large area of Belarusian lands. A significant part of the Gomel region was banned, about 90 settlements fell within the radius of the exclusion zone and were abandoned by local residents.
Mutants of Chernobyl
Territories abandoned by people were soon taken over by wild animals. And people, in turn, launched into lengthy discussions about the monsters into which radiation had transformed the entire animal world of the exclusion zone. There were rumors about mice with five legs, three-eyed hares, glowing boars and many other fantastic transformations. Some rumors were reinforced by others, multiplied, spread and gained new fans. It got to the point that some “storytellers” started rumors about the existence of mutant animals in the closed area of the museum. Of course, no one managed to find this amazing museum. And with fantastic animals it turned out to be a complete bummer.
Animals in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are indeed exposed to radiation. Radioactive vapors settle on plants that some species feed on. The exclusion zone is inhabited by wolves, foxes, bears, wild boars, hares, otters, lynxes, deer, badgers, the bats. Their bodies successfully cope with pollution and increased radioactive background. Therefore, the forbidden zone unwittingly became something of a reserve for many species of rare animals living on the territory of Ukraine.
And yet, there were mutants in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This term can be applied to plants. Radiation became a kind of fertilizer for flora, and in the first years after the accident, the size of the plants amazed the imagination. Both wild and commercial crops grew huge. The forest 2 km from the nuclear power plant was particularly damaged. The trees are the only ones who could not escape from the radioactive explosion, so they completely absorbed all the fumes and turned red. The red forest could have turned into an even worse tragedy if it had caught fire. Fortunately, this did not happen.
The red forest is the most dangerous forest on the planet, and at the same time, the most resilient. Radiation seemed to preserve it, slowing down all natural processes. So, the Red Forest immerses you in some kind of parallel reality, where eternity is the measure of everything.
Residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
After the accident, only station workers and rescuers were left in the exclusion zone to eliminate the consequences of the accident. All civilian population was evacuated. But as the years passed, a significant number of people returned to their homes in the exclusion zone, despite legal prohibitions. These desperate guys began to be called self-settlers. Back in 1986, the number of residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone numbered 1,200 people. What is most interesting is that many of them were already at retirement age and lived longer than those who left the radioactive zone.
Now the number of self-settlers in Ukraine does not exceed 200 people. All of them are dispersed across 11 settlements located in the exclusion zone. In Belarus, the stronghold of the inhabitants of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is the village of Zaelitsa, an academic town in the Mogilev region.
Basically, self-settlers are elderly people who could not come to terms with the loss of their home and all the property acquired through back-breaking labor. They returned to their contaminated homes to live out their short lives. Since there is no economy or any infrastructure in the exclusion zone, people living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone are engaged in homestead farming, gathering, and sometimes hunting. In general, they were engaged in their usual type of activity within their own walls. So no radiation is scary. This is how life goes in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Chernobyl exclusion zone today
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant finally ceased operation only in 2000. Since then, the exclusion zone has become completely quiet and gloomy. Abandoned towns and villages make your skin crawl and make you want to run away from here as far as possible. But there are also brave daredevils for whom the dead zone is the abode of exciting adventures. Despite all the physical and legal prohibitions, stalker-adventurers constantly explore the abandoned settlements of the zone and find a lot of interesting things there.
Today there is even a special direction in tourism - Pripyat and the surrounding area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Excursions to the dead city arouse great curiosity not only among residents of Ukraine, but also among guests from abroad. Tours to Chernobyl last up to 5 days - this is how long one person is officially allowed to stay in the contaminated area. But usually trips are limited to one day. The group, led by experienced guides, walks along a specially designed route that does not cause harm to health.
When to visit
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Virtual walk around Pripyat
And for those curious who don’t dare get to know Pripyat in person, there is a virtual walk through the Chernobyl exclusion zone - exciting and certainly absolutely safe!
Chernobyl exclusion zone: satellite map
For those who are not afraid to travel, it will be very useful detailed map exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It marks the boundaries of a 30-kilometer zone, indicating settlements, station buildings and other local attractions. With such a guide, you won't be afraid to get lost.
