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Crowds? Did you consider this?
Travel agents offer intrepid tourists a
trip to Chernobyl
By Nick Holdsworth
CHERNOBYL, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident, is back in
business - as a tourist attraction.
Ukrainian travel agents are promoting trips to the devastated zone around the
nuclear power complex where a reactor exploded 13 years ago, sending a
radioactive cloud over a large area of northern Europe. Last year, more than
1,200 people - mostly scientists, government delegations or journalists -
braved radiation levels up to five times higher than accepted safety limits to
see for themselves the legacy of the disaster.
Now, Kiev-based agents are offering trips to tourists "interested in ecological
problems". Group tours to the official visitors' centre - only 100 yards from
the concrete sarcophagus built to contain contamination from the reactor - can
be bought for as little as £30. Visitors can also tour the ghost town of Pripyat,
next to the power station, and the crumbling villages nearby - all being
reclaimed by the forest birches and firs.
More than 90,000 people were evacuated from a 20-mile zone in April 1986
after Reactor No 4 exploded. Thirty-one people were killed initially, but more
than 2,500 are thought to have died since then from illnesses linked to
radiation. A huge clean-up operation was launched, and Chernobyl was then
left to the team brave enough to continue operating the remaining working
reactor, which was deemed essential to Ukraine's energy needs.
To visit Chernobyl now is a strangely unnerving experience. The birds sing
and the vegetation grows thick. But, inside the restricted zone, the silence and
lack of all human activity gives the atmosphere a chill. The travel agent had
told me that strict visiting procedures would be in force and that I would be
entering the zone at my own risk. But the workers there seemed less
concerned. At the control post, I was told that radiation levels no longer
posed any dangers for a brief visit. On the way back later, I had to insist on
being checked over to get a radiation all-clear before leaving.
Yuri Tatarchyuk, 26, an official guide, said: "I've worked here for a year and
feel fine. There are some areas around the nuclear power plant where the
radioactive dose is five times the safe level, so we don't stop there when
driving through. Apart from that, it's fine."
The true tragedy of Chernobyl becomes apparent when you see Pripyat. It
was evacuated in such panic that personal belongings still lie scattered. Faded
signs extolling the virtues of Lenin and the heroic role of the workers adorn
high-rises. The streets are deserted and waist-high grass covers the old school
playing fields.
In Terekhi, a village vanishing under vegetation, Maria Golub, 87, has moved
back to her old house. She has no family and was miserable in the
resettlement town. She lives in poverty, relying on gifts from Chernobyl
workers. "I have no one and cannot live anywhere else," she said. "What can
I do at my age? There's no one here in the village any more, but it's the only
home I know." |
