Ten kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Truth and myths about the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

In August, he shared his experience of four forays into the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

In addition to the facts, he presented many photographs. These and many other pictures, as well as more detailed stories about specific places, can be found in his Live Journal). Anews suggests taking a look.

When the wind blows from the sarcophagus

First, a clarification. Everyone knows about the “Ten” and “Thirty” - 10 and 30-kilometer security perimeters around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. However, in fact, “Thirty” is much wider, reminds Maxim - in some places more than twice as much. To the west, for example, it stretches for almost 90 km.

“The name “30-kilometer zone” is very arbitrary. Unlike the Ten, the Thirty is almost pure. In general, almost the norm in terms of exposure background. But you can’t live there - the whole earth is covered in radionuclides.”.

Specifically: in the city Chernobyl 12 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the background radiation does not exceed that of Kiev or Moscow - 10-15 microroentgen per hour.

IN Pripyat 3 km from the station the average background is 50-80 microR/h. “It’s absolutely safe for short stays.”, - explains the stalker.

But the closer you are to the nuclear power plant, the more “phonitis”. Near the unfinished 5th and 6th power units dosimeter shows in the air under 90 microR/h, however “on grass the level is noticeably higher”.

Compare: during the flight at cruising altitude the radioactive background averages 100-150 microR/h is 10 times higher than the usual norm. And sometimes dosimeters frighten with even higher values - up to 350 microR/h, that is, almost like near the Chernobyl sarcophagus. Does this mean that flying is dangerous? Not at all, unless, of course, you “live in the sky.”

"An unknown dead city"

“In the western part of the Zone there is an almost unknown dead city of Polesskoe. Stalkers rarely get here - the city is too far from their usual routes. There is a highway running through Polesskoe, but passengers are strictly prohibited from getting out of the car.”.

As Maxim explains in his blog, the well-known story of the urgent evacuation of Chernobyl and Pripyat gave rise to the myth that all residents of the Zone were taken out in the very first days after the explosion of the 4th power unit.

“In fact, there are villages and entire cities in the Zone that were not resettled either in the first days or even in the first years after the accident. The town of Poleskoye was resettled only in the early 90s - 7 years after the accident and 2 years after the end of the USSR. Until this time, people continued to live in the contaminated area.".

Pripyat: don’t believe popular photos

Many people still confuse Chernobyl and Pripyat, the blogger notes. So it’s worth considering that most of the “Chernobyl photographs” were actually taken in Pripyat.

“Modern photographers are more looking for “emotional” shots, for which they scatter dolls and gas masks everywhere - these are all staged photos, there were no dolls lying around on the street, and no one even unpacked children’s gas masks on April 26, 1986 - it was all done by journalists.”.

“Some even make such productions that they pass off as “photos of an abandoned, untouched city” - it’s like the children on April 26, 1986 had nothing else to do but put dolls in their beds.”.

“Pripyat passed the “point of no return” around 2000. At this time, a city study was carried out, which showed that it would never be possible to live in these houses - due to non-compliance with the operating conditions, irreversible changes began in the structures.".

“The average age of residents of the city of Pripyat was 26 years old - it was a city of youth and for youth. And it can still be felt there to this day.".

“Absolutely all public buildings (including schools and police stations) have glass doors and huge panoramic windows. Among the surrounding villages, Pripyat looked like a city from the future.".

“Even now Pripyat is not a completely dead city. Until 1998, the Lazurny swimming pool operated in Pripyat for Zone workers, and now there is a Pripyat special laundry where contaminated clothes are washed. The laundry room looks exactly the same as in the game S. T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat"".

“In the fall of 1986, disinfectants walked around the houses of Pripyat. They opened doors and threw full refrigerators out of windows to prevent an epidemic. Somewhat later, furniture also flew through the windows - it was thrown directly into the backs of cars and taken to burial grounds.".

“The most valuable things (pianos, household appliances) were taken to the Raduga store in the city center - it stood with an alarm system for almost the entire 90s. Now the store is open, but no one needs the things - time has destroyed them.".

“Here it must also be said that the ENTIRE Chernobyl zone was completely destroyed by looters. Everything was broken, broken and taken away; in the 90s, even the tiles were picked out. The rumors that somewhere in Pripyat there are apartments where everything remains “like in 1986” are absolute fairy tales.”.

“Scary place - don’t go there”

“The most terrible place in Pripyat was and remains the basement of MSCh-126 - the hospital, where firefighters and station workers were taken in the first hours after the accident. Firefighters' clothing and equipment, which had absorbed cesium, strontium, plutonium and americium from the nuclear fire, were taken to the hospital basement.".

“In some places on the floor there is a background light of 1-2 roentgens per hour, which is 100-200 thousand times higher than normal. Don't go there, don't".

“Despite the fact that Pripyat is now relatively clean, there are still several heavily polluted places in the city. Firstly, this is the site in the amusement park and the very cars of the autodrome - helicopters landed next to them and flew to put out the fire over the 4th block.".

“Secondly, this is this staircase that leads from the Pripyat cafe to the embankment. During the decontamination of the city, water flowed down the stairs, and a lot of all sorts of radioactive rubbish accumulated between the steps.”.

“And thirdly, this is such a thing, nicknamed the “bucket of death,” with the help of which nuclear debris was dismantled. Another big background is on the territory of the Pripyat Jupiter plant - the Western trace just passed there, and no one really decontaminated the plant.”.

“As Pripyat residents say, the last film in “Prometheus” was the Belarusian movie “Flight to the Land of Monsters,” in which people put on gas masks and ran away from unknown weapons of mass destruction.”.

(The unprepossessing building of the Prometheus cinema is one of the main “attractions” in the center of Pripyat, which are usually shown to tourists).

Unlike Polessky or Pripyat, the city of Chernobyl, which gave its name to the nuclear power plant, both lives and works.

“Now there is no civilian population in Chernobyl, but there are many workers of the Exclusion Zone - they live in the city on a rotational basis in dormitories. Dormitories are located in former residential buildings. There is water, electricity and heating. The furniture inside is all local, from pre-accident times, often brought from Pripyat. This is what the building looks like, which used to be a dormitory for employees who were building a new sarcophagus.”.

“The life of Chernobyl workers is quite modest. Two people live in each room of a small three-room apartment.”.

“And this is what a real Chernobyl kitchen looks like. All things are pre-accident, Soviet, with the exception of the obligatory water filter and a plastic tablecloth, which does not retain dust.”.

“Externally, Chernobyl resembles an ordinary provincial Ukrainian town - there are absolutely peaceful and quiet courtyards left over from “pre-war” life. The exception is that Chernobyl is very clean and people are constantly sweeping something (increased radiation safety requirements).”.

“In Chernobyl there are several quite ordinary shops that are a bit reminiscent of Soviet general stores”.

“And back in 2017, a quite decent hostel with Wi-Fi (no joke) opened in Chernobyl. True, only those who have permission to visit the Exclusion Zone can stay there.”.

Other experts on the area, however, claim that catfish ignore loaves of bread, and instead of them bread they eat huge, up to half a meter, rudd and bream.

On the Internet they love to say that these are mutant fish. In fact, the common catfish is the largest purely freshwater fish in Europe. The average length is 1.3-1.6 meters, but some individuals under certain conditions grow to almost 3 meters. The half-meter length of rudd is also within the normal range.

“In general, there are a lot of animals in the Chernobyl zone - Przewalski’s horses, wild boars, wolves, foxes, hares and so on, brought there, live well there. In the short life span of an animal, radiation does not have time to cause any significant harm to it.”.

“The red forest, which is in the game “S. T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky” is not a fairy tale, but an absolutely real object. The forest was located near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and turned red in the first hours after the accident - the needles quickly turn red and die from high radiation fields.”.

“With the start of work to eliminate the consequences of the accident, it was decided to destroy the Red Forest, or rather, to bury it in the ground in order to reduce the “side shots” of the road with radionuclides when approaching Pripyat. In 1987-88, liquidators cut the forest with chainsaws and laid it in trenches.”.

“Now there is nothing in place of the Red Forest, only tall grass grows. Here is my photo of these places - several dry trees in the background are the remains of that same Red Forest. When you step onto the side of the road from a clear road, the background radiation increases tens of times, and a little further, hundreds of times.”.

Of all the things that grow on earth, mushrooms have the greatest ability to accumulate radiation. Moreover, some of their species, even with a normal soil background, can “shine” above the permissible level. However, such mushrooms are not necessarily dangerous to health.

Conversely, some “innocent” things, far from Chernobyl, that surround us every day, can pose a threat.

This zone attracts not only tourists who come here for short excursions, but also stalkers who spend a lot of time here and travel through abandoned cities and villages.
A photo report with the story of one of the stalkers will tell you how stalkers spend their time in the exclusion zone.
Under the waning moon we walked through the thick summer air, infused with the aromas of field herbs. In the cool of the night he walks easily. Various night creatures scurrying in the bushes periodically stalk.
After a short stop and replenishing water supplies from a nearby swamp, we forded the Uzh River.

After meandering through the fields, we came to the ruins of a church and decided to spend the night in an abandoned village; our strength was running low after the night in the fields.

We found a perfectly preserved hut in the village and decided that it would shelter us. In the morning we laid out our belongings and began to have breakfast while the dosimeter peacefully crackled.

It was impossible to go during daylight hours. We used the day to have a good rest and replenish our water supplies. We had a lot of walks around the beautiful nature and abandoned village. In the village there are the ruins of an Orthodox church, local priests look after it and put metal-plastic windows in the room with the altar (!), it looks wild in these parts.

There was a long and difficult journey at night. We crashed through the forests along the paths of wild animals, scratched under high-voltage lines, and by dawn we reached the outskirts of Pripyat.

A checkpoint of an abandoned city with traces of a stalker's camp. The forest between the checkpoint and the Jupiter plant made a very depressing impression on me. Scattered among the trees are the remains of radioactive equipment, which glow so much that even the looters did not bother to cut them into metal.

We have breakfast on the roof overlooking the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and go to bed. It is not safe to walk during the day; you can run into a police patrol.

In the morning and at night we saw another stalker group and later met friends with whom we periodically crossed paths right up to the exit from the zone. We met, drank moonshine with lard and garlic in a luxurious apartment and went for a walk around the city at night.
Stained glass window of the Pripyat cafe near the pond.

On the far shore of the pond there are huge abandoned port cranes, 30 meters high. Against the background of the starry sky, they looked like equipment from Star Wars.

In the rays of dawn, we quietly made our way through some radioactive burial grounds to the oil depot to photograph the ISU-152 - a self-propelled artillery unit from the time of the last world war, which rests behind the fence of the residential part of the oil depot. Now I won’t confuse the smell of a radioactive garbage dump with anything else.

126 medical unit in the basement of which is one of the dirtiest places in the zone. In a small room lie the belongings of firefighters who received doses of radiation several times higher than lethal and are still glowing wildly. I have often thought about the dedication of the people who cleaned up the consequences of the radioactive disaster. I watched a lot of old videos, and there people really realized what they were doing, that they were sacrificing themselves for the sake of others - this is very... It is important when the conditions in which people grew up make them capable of such actions for the sake of others.

Abortion magazine. There was no sex in the Soviet Union, but there were abortions.

Shoes on a shelf in a kindergarten. It’s hard to imagine a darker place.

Traditional sunset on the roof of a 16-story building with a hookah and our new friends. From here you have a beautiful view of the city.

View of the fifth microdistrict at night. The ghostly nine-story panel buildings, like gnawed animal bones, reflect the pale moonlight.

One of the strongest places is the two chairs on the roof, which one of the stalkers brought there. We stuck there for many hours, smoking hookah, looking at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the density of the starry sky and the ghost town where nocturnal animals roamed around the overgrown streets.

Ferris wheel in an amusement park.

Ferris wheel in the center of Pripyat. Against the background of the starry sky, it can only be seen illegally.

We met the dawn on the roof of a sixteen-story building with a coat of arms. The coat of arms interested me very much; I had never seen anything like it anywhere else.

I fell asleep without waiting for dawn.

They say that sometimes these letters on the roof of the building are rearranged by stalkers and the local police organize a wild riot throughout the city about this.

Swimming pool of school No. 3.

Some places in the city are specially furnished with very high quality for excursion photography, like this room with gas masks.

A fresco at the post office, we went to take a couple of shots, a long road through the night forests awaits us.

Entering the dark zone after the red forest, somewhere very close we heard the polyphonic howl of a large pack of wolves. It was scary, because they were howling right on course, we gathered our point into a fist and, getting ready to break through, we moved forward. I kept firecrackers with me in the hope that in a critical situation the loud bangs would scare away predators. Everything worked out well and closer to morning we arrived at a trolleybus abandoned by someone in the middle of a field. This is a popular stalker base, here we drank tea and had a snack. This place seemed somewhat similar to the bus from the movie “Into the Wild”, where the main character spent his last days.

Stalker's shelter. We caught up with our friends not far from Chernobyl-2.

A long and gloomy corridor between the antennas and the military camp.

Closer to sunset, we climbed onto the Duga-1 radar station, an abandoned huge antenna, towering 150 meters above the forests of the zone. Obiwan reached for the resonator. There was a wind, he swayed and swayed, but he simply gathered his balls into his fist and walked along the pipe at a height of a hundred meters.

The higher we rose, the stronger the wind became and with it a special almost ultrasonic “Ringing”. The wind whistled through millions of steel cables and antenna resonators, singing a brain-burning song.

From the top we looked after the setting sun and observed columns of smoke. Somewhere far away the forest was burning. Stalkers say that the current authorities are deliberately burning forests, pushing through some kind of bill to divide the zone and shrink it next year from 30 to 10 kilometers.

Another creepy story. In an abandoned military town there is a room with dead wolves. It is not clear how they got there, but the walls of the room are scratched from the inside by paws and there are two mummies on the floor.

And then there was a long road home. The zone for me is an endless starry sky, open space.

While passing under the power lines, we saw that a tree had fallen on the wires. It smoldered, pulled the wires and could cause a fire. Going into the foresters’ house, we drank tea and left them a note with the exact coordinates of the accident.

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Findings in government institutions of Pripyat

After extinguishing the fire from the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, heroic liquidators worked for a very long time to eliminate the consequences of the accident. The radius of destruction from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant even reached North America and Japan.

Helicopter over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The primary tasks assigned to the professionals were the decontamination of Pripyat and the removal of radioactive dust that had settled on the roofs of houses and the intact nuclear power plant units.

After the accident, the people of Pripyat for the first time began to realize the danger of “radiation” - an enemy that cannot be seen.

Eliminating the consequences was quite difficult. After all, we had to look for special methods in the fight against radiation, deadly elements and dust that had settled throughout the area. Then the helicopters entered the battle.

Fire station of Pripyat

During each flight, and there were 5-6 of them per shift, it was necessary to pour tons of PVA glue onto the roofs of the power units. Such dust cannot be removed with a vacuum cleaner or a broom. That is why a helicopter with glue was urgently needed for the Chernobyl NPP workers. After hardening, the glue was cut, rolled up and sent for destruction.

An important mission to collect radiation dust was carried out by Mi-8, Mi-24, Mi-26 and Mi-6 helicopters.

Eliminating the consequences of what happened on April 26, people risked their lives. First of all, radiation sickness struck the Chernobyl liquidators. However, then none of these heroes thought about themselves when entering into battle with an invisible enemy.

The moment of a helicopter crash over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Helicopter crash at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Each of the liquidators took what they were doing very seriously. But no one even suspected that after the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, another one could happen.

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 During the first days of the accident at the 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? This is simply the largest 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 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 only radiation seekers, stalkers, etc. go to the accident zone, and normal people will not come closer than 30 km to this zone. 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 the active visits by former residents of Chernobyl and Pripyat in the period from April 26 to the May holidays. They all go either to their previous places of residence, or to cemeteries, or “to the graves,” 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 runs close to the railway line: in the old days, 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 from 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 -

What is the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant?

The "Chernobyl nuclear power plant exclusion zone" is the officially designated exclusion area around the site of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Scientists believe that the release of radioactive substances accelerated the growth of some individuals, and since catfish are long-lived, their size reaches unprecedented levels with age.

More than thirty years have passed since the accident and the animals are already descendants of their irradiated ancestors, but eating such fish is still dangerous.

In Chernobyl you can visit the St. Elias Church and the castle from the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In Pripyat, the main square is also of particular interest.

Interest in it is due to the fact that the amusement park in which the wheel is located never opened.

Its opening coincided with Labor Day on May 1, 1986, and the accident occurred five days before the scheduled opening date. All the park's attractions remained untouched.

It is not possible to dismantle and install them in other parks. They still emit background radiation tens of times higher than normal.

Pollution of the exclusion zone

The level of radiation (cesium-137, strontium-90, americium-241 and plutonium-239) at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Pripyat is 2-2.5 times higher than the established standards.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant contamination zone map

The Chernobyl exclusion zone is managed by State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations, while the power plant itself and its sarcophagus (and replacement) are carried out separately.

Due to the fact that the bulk of the contaminated areas were still outside the 30-km zone, in the 1990s they gradually began to resettle settlements (94 in total), since the permissible standards were still exceeded there.

Over the course of 6 years, most of the villages were finally resettled. In 1997, this territory was included in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and transferred under the management of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and, accordingly, began to be protected.

Exclusion zone today

In the city there are working shops, a “dorm” and a “canteen”. Also living in the exclusion zone are local residents from among the returnees (up to 500 people).

They are located in several villages of the territory and lead a secluded lifestyle, although there is no other way of life here.

There is no electricity in the territory, and there is also no food supply. People who have decided to return to their homes are engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing.

If animals have a lower radiation background and eating them is at least somehow possible, then the soil is very polluted.

The soil is so polluted that it takes several thousand years to clean it up. For this reason, growing food in the exclusion zone is a bad idea.

The exclusion zone is a fairly visited site by tourists; people come here from all over the world.

Tourist exclusion zone

There are agencies through which you can get to Chernobyl or Pripyat, the “Rusty Forest” and a number of other objects of the exclusion zone.

Rusty or red forest

This is an area of 10 square kilometers adjacent to the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The radioactive substances released into the atmosphere were partially absorbed by the trees, which led to their death, as well as turning them brown-red.

Coloring occurred within 30 minutes of the explosion. Some claim that dead trees glow at night.

As part of the work to clean up the area from radiation contamination, the forest was cut down and buried.

Now the forest is being restored naturally. Radiation loads on pine as a result of the Chernobyl accident occurred during the period of tree growth.

During this period, the radiosensitivity of plants increases by 1.5-3 times compared to other periods.

The crown of pine trees is quite dense and is an effective filter, which contributed to the retention of a significant amount of radioactive dust and aerosols in the crowns of these trees.

Pine does not shed its needles for 2-3 years, which causes slow natural cleaning of the crowns compared to deciduous trees.

This factor increased radiation damage to conifers compared to other tree species.

As a result of the release of radioactive substances and the degree of their impact on the trees, the forest was divided into several zones:

An area of complete death of coniferous trees with partial damage to deciduous trees (the so-called “Red Forest”). The levels of absorbed doses (according to scientists' calculations) for external gamma irradiation in 1986-1987 were 8000-10000 rad with a maximum exposure dose rate of 500 mR/hour and more. The area of this zone is about 4.5 thousand hectares. In this zone, the above-ground organs of the pine tree died completely, and the needles became brick-colored. The entire forest practically “burnt down”, accumulating significant volumes of radioactive emissions.
A zone of sublethal forest lesions in which from 25 to 40% of the trees died, and most of the forest undergrowth (1-2.5 m in height) also died. In 90-95% of trees, young shoots and buds are severely damaged and have died. The absorbed dose is 1000-8000 rad, the exposure dose rate is 200-250 mR/hour. The area of the zone was 12.5 thousand hectares, including pine forests - 3.8 thousand hectares.
Zone of moderate damage to the pine forest. This zone was characterized by damage mainly to young shoots, and the needles turned yellow only in certain areas of the branches. Slight morphological deviations in pine growth were also noted, but these plants retained their viability. The absorbed dose is 400-500 rad, the exposure dose rate is 50-200 mR/hour. The area of the third zone was 43.3 thousand hectares, including pine forests - 11.9 thousand hectares.
An area of mild damage, where individual anomalies in growth processes were noted. No visible damage was found on the pine trees. All trees retained normal growth and needle color. The absorbed dose was 50-120 rad, the exposure dose rate was 20 mR/hour.

Quite recently it was built for visitors, so there is already somewhere for hundreds of tourists to relax.

Which was the central object of the city of Pripyat. It had several sections, a hall where concerts were held and film shows were held. Not long ago a sign was lit on it.

A complex of buildings located over a large area. The complex had three buildings, the tallest being the administrative building, its height was eight floors.

The plant is a secret facility; what its employees were doing is still unknown.

for a day it costs from $79, but it is better to take a group tour, it will cost a couple of times cheaper, and you can also rent a personal dosimeter for $10.

By paying for the excursion, you will be able to visit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the “city that does not exist” and some villages, and if the tour is multi-day, then other attractions.

While staying in the exclusion zone, a tourist will receive a dose of radiation comparable to an hour-long plane flight.

However, a longer stay is contraindicated; the longer a person is in contact with background radiation, the greater the impact on the body.