It’s hard to believe if you lived through the 1980s, or if you watched the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, but the site of the worst nuclear power plant accident in history has become a tourist attraction.
Here’s a little history for you, courtesy of Wikipedia: on April 26, 1986, a safety test designed to help engineers learn how to maintain water flow into the reactor’s core turned into an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction that led to the explosion of a reactor and a fire that burned out of control for nine days. Although the Soviet Union, as it was known then, did its best to hide the disaster, once European monitoring stations downwind of Chernobyl began detecting increased radiation levels, the world finally found out. The city of Pripyat, and many other towns and villages inside an “exclusion zone,” were evacuated.
Although the total number of deaths caused by the Chernobyl disaster can’t be determined with true accuracy, it’s predicted that between 9,000 and 16,000 people will have died as a result of radioactive contamination from the facility.
With that in mind, and with the understanding that Pripyat is still a ghost town due to long-term contamination, we can’t imagine why anyone would actually want to visit the site of the Chernobyl disaster. But apparently “dark tourism” is a thing, and this most likely forms the basis of the attraction to visiting areas close to the reactor site.
Since the airing of the HBO miniseries we mentioned at the beginning of this post, Pripyat has actually received an increase in tourist numbers. Last year the town received about 70,000 visitors, and some reports say 2019 bookings in the town are up by around 40 percent.
You can take authorized tours into the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around Chernobyl and into the former reactor complex, where you can see the ruins for yourself. Day trips and multi-day tours are available. As you might suspect, radiation levels in Pripyat are still higher than normal, but tour operators insist that they’re safe for short-term visitors.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, unveiled the new plans for the Chernobyl site nine years ago when he had a huge structure built to confine radioactive debris in reactor No. 4. The “New Safe Confinement” took almost a decade to complete and was built to prevent the reactor from further contaminating the environment.
President Zelensky said walking trails, waterways, and checkpoints will be implemented for visitors, mobile phone reception will be enhanced, and restrictions on filming at the site will be lifted. In an effort to stave off the corruption that seems to be a fact of life in the former Soviet Union, he plans to introduce an electronic ticket system for visitors.
“Chernobyl has been a negative part of Ukraine’s brand,” Zelensky said. “The time has come to change this. We will create a green corridor for tourists. Chernobyl is a unique place on the planet where nature has been reborn after a huge man-made disaster. We have to show this place to the world: to scientists, ecologists, historians, and tourists.”
What do you think? Would you go on a trip to Chernobyl? Let us know in the comments.
Photo: Two tourists at a Chernobyl souvenir shop inside the 30km exclusion zone. Credit: viewimage / Shutterstock.com