I have met a girl through the Internet who lives on a town named Ozyorsk or Ozersk (in Russian "ΞηΈπρκ"). Now I know that it is one of the 42 closed towns which still remain from the soviet era. It was known as Chelyabinsk-65, and even earlier, as Chelyabinsk-40. This is because there is also a Nuclear Plant close to the town called "Mayak", which even had a major accident in 1957.
The communication with this girl have been just fine, despite we speak mainly in Russian. She is learning my native tongue and every time we talk, she likes to show me the new words she has learnt. We are planning a meeting in the city of Chelyabinsk, 80 km. from her town.
Anyway, I have two questions:
1. I would like to meet her parents at certain point. Is it possible to get a permission to enter to the restricted area for this purpose? Is it very difficult? Which are the requirements?
2. I am concerned about the radioactive pollution in the area. According to the most part of what I have read, Ozyorsk is and have been safe for human life. But according to some other articles, the population there have health problems. Does someone has further information about the levels of pollution in this town?
Before you, we really only had to keep our eyes peeled for scammers. Oh how we've had it easy all this time.
Entering restricted towns with possible radioactive nuclear pollution to pluck a girl from is taking the search for an FSU partner to a whole new level !
Of all the thousands of FSU girls on countless dating websites, was she really the only one suitable for you ? !
Happy travels, and don't forget your Geiger counter !
1. Permission to enter -- It seems very difficult to answer such questions outside of Russia. Your friend will be in the best position to find out this information, so I recommend asking her. Maybe she already knows something about this, but if not, she certainly will know whom to ask.
The required permit may be very difficult, or practically impossible to obtain. Probably, the roads into town have guarded checkpoints where identity papers are verified.
If you and you friend become serious, and it is not possible for you to go to Ozersk, I think it likely that her parents will be willing to make some travel in order to meet you.
2. Health risk -- It appears that Ozersk is very near the site of the 1957 accident, and site of the 1967 accident is only 6 or 7 km outside of the town. The area was heavily contaminated. It is probably not possible to find any authoritative answers on health risks in the area today. Personally, I would not worry about visiting there -- it is the residents who are endangered. For some background information from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, see:
hi ya Azul,
interesting post, and quite the adventurer..
i don't think my post will be any help to you, you should know this already.
if you are American i reckon you would not have a shit show getting to such a city looking at your visa application:)
when i first started my search in Ukraine and Russia i tried my best to get as much info on these fallout areas and its problems to ones health, particularly girls health issues from these areas..
one thing i found was any girl who was a fetus in their mother in these areas of very high rads have possible major health problems,, what was even more scary was the problems with the girls offspring again..
scary stuff, i made a point finding out where all the girls i visited were born and the parents background to be sure any of these girls were not to closely linked to such, its something i do regardless.
its surprising how many have links to such places.
Russians are quite the travelers.
its actually a bit of a mine field of contamination over there, either chemical, asbestos or nuclear..
some chemical dump sizes are kilometer's long and in good reason of been closed areas.
just a few months ago i was watching these guys with their children fishing not far from a line of rusty hot hot subs leaching in a far western harbour,, just craziness..
most people there will swim in any water if they can see the bottom, not caring about a different time in its past..
walking through graveyards over there has a few things in common, they are massive, there's just to many young people in them, its breath taking, they die so early in their lives, and I'm not including the ones by bullet.
a question i got a lot,, whats our average age of death here in New Zealand, then their sad storeys..
this in itself makes me appreciate my country so much..
good luck Azul
I will share that when I visited Chernobyl in June it was required that they had my passport information two weeks in advance. And even my travel partner from Russia had to supply same info. There were two checkpoints along the way. I needed advance reservations and at the checkpoint they took the passport and compared it to a list - they gave the travelling Brits a real hard time and made a phone call. We were all given the once over and then let through with our government tour guide. The funniest part is when we were leaving. We all had to get out of the van and go through a radiation detector. Enter building on one side and leave on the other. I think it was for show only. Maybe they worked - it was a whole body frisker. When I got home I quaranteened my shoes and clothing until I got a frisker from work and checked everything out myself. It all came up clean. But I heard a story of a guy who visited Chernobyl years ago and set off the detectors at work one day. Seems he had a pebble wedged in the tread of his shoe. Carried it all the way from Chernobyl to Three Mile Island!
I would not be so worried about radiation for the most part. Just don't eat the grass. Don't drink the water. And do not take the path less travelled.
there is plenty of information availble on the web concerning this subject. I had read many interesting stories of the Russian nuclear debacle. Search and you will find plenty of information.
It is actually spooky. Russia is coming around. But still there are serious questions that need to be answered. Mant folks are still suffering the ill effects from radioactive contamination and exposure in that area.
An old friend and I visited a plant where we had worked together years before, which by then had closed and been classified as a contaminated toxic clean-up site. It was strange to see the offices and labs, once so busy, empty of everything but a little rubbish.
After we finished our little tour, my friend advised, "don't lick your shoes!"
I know one friend who used to live in Ozyorsk. I've never heard from her any concerns regarding her health. Besides that she looks like a top model, happily married with AM and has a very healthy child 2.y.o. So, you overreacted to that rummors. I wish everyone would look like her.
By the way, since I know someone personally from that town, you can address your questions here and perhaps she can tell you more about that. I will give her a link to that forum.
The danger in Chernobyl is limited by time and distance. Staying on paved roads and sidewalks should keep you from picking up "Flees" losse irradiated particles. They can still be in the soil and on vegetation as well as being blown onto the roads. The check as you leave is real and the only risk is continued exposure or ingestion. The heavily irradiated equipment used to fight the fires and encapsulate the reactor is probably not accesible. It is my plan to bere witness as I was in the industry before it was in effect discontinued in this country. The risk to the population was real especially to the female gender and their offspring during the time of widespread fallout. At the time most was directed westward, but the river was surely contaminated as well. There are I am sure many hundreds of graves of men that died fighting the fires and dumping boron on the the reactor to stop the chain reaction that go unvisited. They are however honored men that knew they would not survive more than a few weeks, days or hours. They made the ladies we all court save and well and deserve our greatest respect. It will be hundreds of years before nature will render this area safe for habitation and constant maintanence of the reactor for even a greater period.
More "closed city" information: I just read a post on another online forum about the closed city of Seversk, home to numerous large chemical and nuclear facilities. According to the poster (a non-Russian with an old friend in Seversk), it is practically impossible even for Russian citizens to get permission to enter Seversk, unless they are residents or have business there (an invitation from an institution in the city).
If the restrictions in Ozersk are similar to those described in Seversk, then there would seem to be no hope for a foreigner to get permission to enter for the purpose of making a personal visit.
I was corresponding (email and Skype) with a lady from Seversk for a while last year. She works in Tomsk, which is about 30-35 minutes away by bus. Seversk (pop 120,000 or so) is surrounded by a fence, and on both the outwards and inwards trips all passengers must go through a checkpoint (basically a border crossing) and show their papers, as all residents have a special permit. People without this permit are removed from the bus and taken away by the Police.
Looking at the city's website, however, it does appear possible that a foreigner may be able to get a permit to visit, as these are approved by the Mayor (or his office). I would think, though, that it's far easier to simply meet your lady friend in Tomsk itself - easy access via air, plenty of hotels, and supposedly the most beautiful city in Siberia anyway!
Well, I spoke with friend of mine from Ozyorsk and she admitted the same info: that town is closed for outsiders. They have a chekpoint for entering that town, where they need to show their personal ID along with permit for living there. But.... there is no need to enter this particular town, because tourists can comfortably stay somewhere around.
Tango Mango? It reminds me of a Ted Nugent song...
Fleas? from RT... interesting that while on the tour (Chernobyl) folks wanted to stop and take a photo of the 'sign'. So we stopped. Everyone got out of the van and started to walk around and take photos. My gf said to me, 'get back to the van' because she overheard the driver talking in russian to the guide why they do not stop here. It was near the "RED FOREST" and there was still a considerable amount of contaminants in the area. 2009. Maybe true, maybe conjecture, but I didn't care. It was cool to be there.
The laugh of the having to go through a raditation monitor was because in comparison, it looked like a model-T compared to a BMW. And of course, there was no-one there to monitor how or if people did it correctly. So from a stand point of someone in the know, it was just a show - tourist gimmick.
It is not at all surprising, The "Red Forrest" is not the original name of the foreest or a political term. It is the color the trees became after becoming irradiated and as they died.
Hello to everyone,
Thank you all for all you comments. They have been very useful for me. Now I told this girl when I will be able to visit Chelyabinsk. She is going to ask for permission at her job, and if she gets that permission, she is going to stay in Chelyabinsk with a sister of her who is living in that city.
To Tango Mango: Thank you very much for you comments. It has very interesting to know about someone who lived in Ozyorsk. I would be very glad to know more information about this place as well. Please, ask your friend if she know the family Abakumov (Abakumova. Well, when I started searching information about Chelyabinsk and Ozyorsk I found information like this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z21On24m4Lc
(Chelyabinsk: The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet)
Obviously, after watching this video I started being concerned about the pollution, because Ozyorsk is very close to Mayak, the nuclar plant. But it is very good to know that there are people who lived there and are perfectly healthy. I think that information in the web is exaggerated. In fact, in the official site of the city everything seems to be perfectly normal.
To Durak: (I know what does that words mean in Russian, hehehe) Regarding to the permission to enter, now we are going to meet in Chelyabinsk. If this become more serious, maybe her parents could travel to Chelyabinsk. Now I know that it is very, very difficult to enter. But anyway I will try to find out if it is possible to get to her town. I think no one from my country have been in such place :P
To Aucklander: I would be glad to visit Tomsk, but it is pretty far. This girl lives in Ozyorsk, which is another closed town next to the city of Chelyabinsk.
To SirDaniel: Geiger counter ??? Hahahahahahaha. Your post really made me laugh :D
Thanks to everyone once again and I will tell you how this story continues.
I spoke with my friend over a phone. Unfortunately, she does not know Abakumov's family. Sorry, but according to what she said, there are over 100.000 of people live there.
I worked in the nuclear power industry (in the USA) for over 22 years, and from my experience if you can't simply look at someone today and judge if they have been irradiated and suffer from a genetic disorder due to their genes being distroyed by neutron or gamma radiation... you are mistaken. I suggest you wait a couple of generations and see what happens to these people and their offspring... do be careful!