Photo taken on April 19, 2016 shows deserted house in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Chernobyl, a place replete with horrific memories in northern Ukraine, close to Belarus, is now open to tourists, almost 30 years to the date after a nuclear power plant there exploded. (Xinhua/Chen Junfeng)
Chernobyl, a place replete with horrific memories in northern Ukraine, close to Belarus, is now open to tourists, almost 30 years to the date after a nuclear power plant there exploded. It was the worst nuclear accident in human history.
A large tract of land around the plant was designated a forbidden zone and ordinary people were completely prohibited from entering after the disaster occurred on April 26, 1986. The accident released more than 8 tons of radioactive leaks, directly contaminated an area of over 60,000 square kilometers and exposed some 3.2 million people to dangerous levels of radiation.
But, today, 30 years after the catastrophe, ordinary people in Ukraine are allowed to enter some parts of the zone under certain conditions through tour companies for a one-day tour.
Despite that, authorities strictly restrict the number of tourists in the zone and require tour agencies to submit lists of tourists very day. A Xinhua correspondent saw merely 20 or 30 tourists in the zone on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, visitors participating in such tours have to sign a special agreement, promising not to take away anything from the zone, to strictly follow the instructions of the tour guides, and to only take photos in designated areas.
Also, tourists are required to wear long clothes to minimize the exposure of their skin, and they are not allowed to wear sandals or bare their feet because the soil in the zone is seriously contaminated.
A tour guide who called himself Andrew said that this was an adventure tour program, but tourists would be very disappointed if they thought they would chance upon some rare monsters born there after the radioactive disaster.
However, Andrew said that the number of applications to visit the zone has been rising since the beginning of 2015. Recently it has been very hard to get a ticket as the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is approaching.
