I was looking for information on a soon upcoming trip that will likely include the Carpathians - when I came across this little vacation trip offered by a Ukrainian tour company. Sounds like FUN (and it soulds HEALTHY TOO!)
(This is for real.)
"Just 100 km north of Kyiv, Chernobyl is the site of the worst atomic energy disaster in human history. It may be sick but at least until beginning 2000 it was possible to arrange a visit through the tourist office in Kyiv. You take a bus to a checkpoint about 20 km from the power plant, where you change to another bus which never leaves the contaminated zone. Among the "major attractions" are the villages of Kopachi, which has ?partially encased? houses, and Pripiat, a ghost town left exactly as it was when the residents were evacuated. The culmination of the tour is the cement- and lead-encased nuclear reactor, known as the Sarcophagus. The casing is so corroded now that you could actually put an arm through the lead and concrete at some points. After a final radiation check, visitors switch back to their original buses for the return to Kiev."
didn't do the tour, they wanted 300 350us from memory.
met up with some Americans at memorial museum who did it.
it seems they are still using old gadget's to check you out to see if you have been burnt.
like stepping back in time.
sad but, did i tour watching the diff steps in museum of disaster.
jesus they did some dumb stuff.
when i asked about these diff stupidity's they would not answer me.
i felt they were embarrassed and still to emotional to speak honestly of such.
or maybe just out of there league.
it seems we know more about it then they do.
and still a lot today don't realise it was about to go bang again if it wasn't for those guys tunneling underneath, race against time.
There is some very interesting reading on http://www.kiddofspeed.com/. It is written by a lady who seems to like two things, big motorcycles and touring Chernobyl. It is a very informative site.
I have a friend who is an engineer and works for Nuke power plant here. He said he remembers when it happened that our satellites picked up the problem long before the soviet government would admit it. He said when we ask about it they said there is no problem. Guess they told the militia the same thing when they sent bus loads of them to contain it.
I've mentioned that before Jet, I'd visit that place. Safe enough also, really it is. Find all the info you need on kiddofspeed.com , Elena's quite knowledgeable.
Old gadgets? Geigercounters work, nothing wrong with them kiwi - got any idea HOW they work? Completely out of context here, but let me assure you that has not changed a bit! But talking of which, you better bring one when you eat any fresh produce in that region. That's more of a problem than a quick visit to that sarcophagus.
Bang again kiwi, and tunneling? I don't think so. That 'elephant's foot' will be there for a long time, stable but for eventual leakage.
from what i understand the slab was needed at that time when core was melting through the floor, if they didn't tunnel down underneath pump water out from the massive mistake of hosing and replace it with cement. they believed if core melted through to water Hiroshima would have looked very little.
well rumour had it, it seems the molten core explodes like molten lead if touches water.
hosing didn't get near it because of heat but it pooled underneath.
yeah old gadgets, yes they work sweet just looked prehistoric.
sad to see a place and people having to deal with it with bugger all help.
i think there's a Swiss outfit trying to organise a recovering.
it is also possible this disaster stopped the cold war, bankrupt Russian gold reserves.
i think a number of 295 billion USA dollars was its instant cost to Russia.
so all rumour has it, might be all bollocks.
Jet I had to laugh, when I was looking for information early on, I got on the Ukrainian embassy website in Chicago and they had tour information about Chernobyl. Then again I would probably feel safer in Chernobyl then in some places in Newark.
I told Larissa I wanted to go, she would have nothing to do with it!LOL