Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Jo,

I appreciate your sentiments in your posting and I think its great that you have taken the time to research the accident and its effects for yourself. however let me clear up some thing as im not sure where you’re getting some of your information.

Having spent almost week there myself I can assure you that the dangers were very much played up for American Television. I visited the zone in May this year for two days straight and the same the year before both times staying in the zone overnight for both my trips in Chernobyl city.

You are NOT required to wear radiation suits while in Pripyat, the two times Ive been there we were both in jeans and a sweater and visited all the areas that the show did and some even more radioactive than where they went. We could even take our clothes home if we wanted to.

Ive walked around the palace of culture, the hospital and the school that they visited myself with a dosimeter and I can tell you that they are very low level areas. Them telling the viewer that they had to be out of there in 10 hours played up. And the thyroid medicine they took while in the canteen is downright laughable at best.

Ive spoken with Yuri Tatchkatev their guide before and I can assure you that they were not alone the whole evening they spent there. The Chernobylinterinform does not permit anyone to go into the zone without a guide with them at all times and certainly does not permit ANYONE to go into any area that would be hazardous to their heath. Yuri (for good reason) is very knowledgeable of the danger areas in both Pripyat and the zone as a whole.

The suits I can also assure you were put on for effect, to put a suit on after you reach the center of the zone and after you have visited the outside of the reactor itself is redundant, as by this time you would have already been contaminated thus rendering the suit totally pointless

The half-life of the main contaminant Cesium-133 is 700 years, plutonium which has also polluted the area has a half-life of 24,000 years, but is dropping in the soil at a rate of 1cm per year. so any estimates to as and when this area will be inhabitable right now and purely that.

I wholeheartedly agree that the state of some of the children and adults who were there both born and unborn at the time is appalling, the Russian and Ukrainian governments both do the very minimum for these people and there are charities out there that help the kids more – http://www.focc.org.uk is one of them. The most effected areas where in fact in the country of Bellarussia which is north on the reactor and Pripyat.

While im not saying it was a completely safe place to visit, what I am saying is that it is safe for a human to spend more than 10 hours in there as they were making out in the show to be the limit. My friend Maxim works for the administration and is in the zone two weeks on and two weeks off. There are also some areas in Kiev that have higher levels than Chernobyl.

I think it best that people visit the link that Veronica is talking about above and read the follow up about the show to get someone elses opinion on what they aired last night.

Graham
http://www.firesuite.com

Hi Everyone,

I’m the person who wrote the original article Veronica referred to in her post.

Like Graham, I have spent time in Chernobyl and Pripyat. Besides visiting the locations shown in the Destination Truth episode, I have also been inside the Reactor 4 control room at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant (Reactor 4 is the one that exploded). That’s right, I have been inside one of the safer areas inside the Sarcophagus.

As Graham said, radiation suits are not necessary. I did not even have to use one inside the Chernobyl Plant. The only extra protection I had inside the Reactor 4 control room was plastic coverings for my shoes and a cloth respirator (we were provided clothing, which is the same as all workers at the plant, and provide no more protection than regular street clothes).

I know people who spend up to two weeks straight in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, sometimes in areas with higher radiation levels than one can experience in the locations seen on Destination Truth.

The amount of radiation exposure received during a typical one-day visit to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is the same anyone would get from a trans-Atlantic flight.

You need to remember that the accident occurred 23 years ago and radiation levels have decreased over that time. In the first 10 years after the accident, very few people besides scientists and liquidators were allowed into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone due to high levels of radiation. The levels are still high today, but safe enough for short visits, which is why tourists are allowed into the Zone now.

So yes, Chernobyl is not a safe place for long visits, but it is certainly not as dangerous as portrayed on Destination Truth. Unfortunately, they attempted to exploit people’s fears of radiation to gain a larger audience for the show. That’s really unfortunate, because the truthful situation in Chernobyl and Pripyat is amazing enough on its own. That alone can help build a larger audience without going through all the shenanigans we saw last night.

As far as the girl’s overreaction to being grabbed, it reminded me of the fake reaction the African-American wrestler had on the live Ghost Hunters Halloween episode from 1 or 2 years ago. It was something that was completely unnecessary.