Good morning all, today we wake up and get into a black van that will take us to Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in humanity. We will be spending 2 days in the area, visiting the city, power plant and the town of Chernobyl itself where we stayed in a hotel. everything glowed… just kidding.
A brief history:
On April 26th 1986 reactor 4 suffered a meltdown causing the core to explode which sent radiation into the air and covering the surround areas. The area has been locked down for years but now tourism is allowed as of 2019, but due to the now Russian war, I doubt it will be reopened for a long time to follow.
The plant is still in operation today as a sub station for Ukraine, and reactor 3 was not shut off until the end of 2000. The area is considered safe to visit for short periods if you take precautions to ensure you stay contamination free.
You can legally fly drones there with permission(must be granted prior to arrival), all photos require review prior to leaving by the military. It’s a painless process that took me maybe 10 minutes as I had nothing they considered illegal. The main focus is you avoid photos of the actual plant from closer than 1km. everything else is free range it seems.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
these blogs are sort of in order of how we did the trip but I have broken them up into general locations.
Part 1 – Outside the town and surrounding area
Part 4 – Around the Chernobyl power plant
Part 5 – Inside the Chernobyl power plant
