Today was the day, that most in the group were probably most looking forward to – our included day trip into the Nuclear Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl.

With this trip we were to enter the area, where history changed dramatically back in April 1986, when – during an experiment – reactor block 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded and did send off nuclear particles over big parts of Europe.

I guess, there could be loads to discuss here … from the crisis management (or lack thereof – at least initially), the approach to evacuations, the assignment of liquidators and the clean-up of the aftermath to the whole process of building the second sarcophagus. Though  for the sake if this specific trip (with a very post-Soviet theme), I think for me, the key item (in retrospect) is, that Chernobyl was really marking the beginning of the end of the whole system of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s Perestroika had already slowly but surely started – and Chernobyl was really a catalyst for that … and can be seen as turning point towards the collapse of the USSR.

We were picked up in the morning and made our way North towards the zone. On the way – about a two hour drive – we were shown a series of documentaries on Chernobyl. The documentaries did cover the main aspects, from the actual cause of the accident and initial responses to the mid-term reaction (once the Kremlin got to understand the magnitude) and the deployment of the liquidators. We were also shown a documentary on the sarcophagus and the challenges in building the new one.

We eventually got to the first checkpoint and entered the exclusion zone. We did not drive too far from here, the first stop being already a few kilometers past the checkpoint – for a walk through an abandoned, now overgrown village (Selyshche Zalissya). During the walk we could get a glimpse of the old shop, the cultural center and several houses, some of which could even be entered.

We continued on to the town of Chernobyl with a first stop at the welcome sign at the boundary of the city. From here (and after a bit of a photo session) it was on to the Wormwood memorial and the Monument of the Third Angel – this was followed by lunch in a nearby restaurant (Chicken Chernobyl – with all the ingredients brought in from outside the zone).

Radiation levels so far were pretty low and not too far off from the reference values outside the zone. This was about to change now, as we – after passing another checkpoint and a further stop in a village (this time, to see the remains of a kindergarten) – were now on our way straight to the nuclear power plant.

We had a first stop around 2km from the power plant overlooking the first four reactor blocks – with the construction site for number five and six just behind us. We continued towards the nuclear power plant, made a drive around the perimeter for a stop a mere 200 meters from the new sarcophagus around reactor block four. Radioactivity was now up to about 2 µSv/h (so about 15 times of what would be normal).

But then – there was more to come …