http://www.r-nox.com https://www.facebook.com/rnoxsafety Top Documentary Films: What Happened to Chernobyl After The Explosion - Full Documentary A little over an hour's drive north (130km) of the city of Kiev is one of the most talked about places, and probably the most controversial tourist attraction in the Ukraine. Amidst an empty, stark, and abandoned landscape the site of Chernobyl sits here.Now that radiation levels have decreased to allow guided tours, you can safely venture forth from the comfort of your rented Kiev apartment or hotel in Kiev to follow in the steps of the many thousands of visitors from all over the world who have visited the site since it was deemed safe to reopen in 2002. Protected by thick walls, the viewing area allows visitors clear sight of the doomed sarcophagus. This has become a form of modern icon a little like the Empire State building or Windsor Castle, due in the main to having being seen by millions of people as portrayed in newspapers/ magazines, or when the terrifying news of the explosion was reported worldwide by television crews. 20 years since reactor number 4 exploded, spending a few hours near Chernobyl is actually very safe. Much of the region records only slightly elevated levels of radiation - about 22 micro-roentgens, as opposed to the usual 14. Around the actual reactor, the relative hot spots are diligently monitored on a regular basis, and have posed no risk to human life. National Health Protection agencies from the UK, Europe, and USA all now agree that visitors will receive no more radiation during a visit to Chernobyl than that experienced whilst travelling on a transatlantic flight! The one thing all visitors are told to avoid doing, however, is to avoid eating any food grown within the zone. Therefore, all tours supply lunch for their groups in the form of fresh food brought with them from Kiev. Each guide carries a Geiger counter, and they are intimately aware of exactly where they can and cannot take their tour groups, plus everyone visiting is automatically screened for radiation levels before they leave the zone. Close by is the town of Pripyat, once home to 47,000 nuclear workers and their families, and now an atomic-era Pompeii. Trees thrust through the empty shells of hotels, restaurants and bars, and the huge football stadium is stark and overgrown. In the local school, classrooms lie with open books and the detritus of lives dramatically interrupted by evacuation - it reminds one of being aboard a large land-locked Maria Celeste. There are still some people living in the exclusion zone. They number around 350, most of them elderly residents. Many were moved out to Kiev accommodation after the accident, but all missed their homes and decided en-mass to return. They live a normal life growing their vegetables, and are seemingly unperturbed by the radiation. As you climb back into your tour bus ready to return to the warmth of your cosy Kiev apartment, the absolute guarantee has to be that your trip to Chernobyl will have been a truly unique and fascinating experience, one you can tell friends and family about for many years to come. www.r-nox.com https://www.facebook.com/rnoxsafety

• published: 13 Aug 2014
• views: 54