The Urban Spaceman: Chernobyl, Pripyat and Kiev

A Christmas night out in Bolton. The Sweet Green Tavern, with Fragglehunter and Mick Darabuka. A few ciders and talk turns to Urbex. 'We should do a trip to somewhere, shoot the hell out of it.' Mighty big talk. Then Fragglehunter (a chap given to mighty big ideas) broaches the subject of Chernobyl. Yeah, we've all seen the pictures, heard the stories. Can you really get into the zone? Can you really get into the buildings? There are wolves and bears aren't there?... So a plan is hatched. The plan has two strings to it. Firstly we need to find out how to get there, where to stay, how to gain access. Secondly we need to convince our ladies that a trip to the worst ever man made nuclear disaster area is a good idea, particularly as the project will involve a couple of nights in Kiev, which we are reliably informed is one of the most dangerous capitol cities in the world (this I find hard to believe, given that the list includes places like Lagos, Accra, Beirut and Dublin!). But there it is. On reflection, do not worry about visiting Kiev. It is a great city. A city of contrast. On the street, people look right through you, if you nod they ignore it. Head down and keep on. Once inside a building, be it a hotel, hostel, shop, bar, whatever, those Ukrainian people open right up! They are warm and effusive, they smile a lot and are invariably pleased to see you. We had the best welcome from everyone we met! As a result we had a great trip. Thank you my Ukrainian friends.x
Bekki (above) runs the Magic Bus Hostel in Kiev. +38097-336-03-03. Located at 31 Saksaganskogo Street, Apt 3. Here you will find a warm welcome, a hot shower, tea and coffee, and a hostel full of nice folks. I can't recommend it highly enough. I am not naming the people who helped us access the Zone. There are strict rules about where visitors can go, and what they can do. We really pushed our luck, which is why we have pictures from inside buildings. This is not allowed anymore. If I know you, and you plan to go, email me and I will do what I can to help.
Sadly there is now a film called 'Chernobyl Diaries' which looks as though it was shot in Pripyat, but I am told was not. I expect that the film will cause loads of tourists to visit and push the patience of the Ukrainian authorities until the result will inevitably be a block on visiting.
I should add, before the visit I spent a lot of time researching this place and researching what happened there. To say it made grim reading doesn't begin to cover it. Let me tell you the basics, then take a look at the pics. They don't need captions as I think they speak for themselves.
At 01.24 on 26th April 1986 an experiment to test the cooling system on Chernobyl reactor number 4 failed. the failure resulted in the core of the reactor descending into an irreversible meltdown. It exploded and launched the 'lid' of the reactor (a heavy concrete and steel structure containing the high temperature water vapour vessels, transmitting super-heated steam to the turbine halls, and weighing some 2,000 tonnes) 50 metres into the air, straight through the roof of the building. It then fell back onto the reactor, on its side. 3km away the town of Pripyat, home to 50,000 people was asleep. What followed is too huge, detailed and terrible to recount here. Suffice to say, I have been humbled by the bravery of the people who gave their lives to contain the radiation. Do your homework, read the reports and visit the city if you care enough. This disaster, on nuclear terms, happened in our back yard. The land on which Pripyat stands will remain radioactive for the next 20,000 years. Today it is possible to visit for a short time. The forests turned red by the radiation are still there. The trees do not grow normally. Wolves and bears roam the streets. All are radioactive.
Finally, I must conclude that the human race should not be dabbling with nuclear power. The stakes are too high. It is in our nature to fight one another. How can we possibly commit ourselves to science that requires 20,000 years of stability to keep safe? We are a race of warmongers and terrorists. We should not be doing this. Chernobyl reactor 4 remains in a state of meltdown. It is still highly unsafe. If it blows again and contaminates the ground water, goodbye water supply to mainland Europe. Please hope and prey this never happens. Thank you for reading.
Fragglehunter and a drummer by the name of Mick Darabuka were my companions on this venture. Thank you Fragglehunter for all your work in bringing it about. Thank you Mick for your insight. I will remember this one for a lifetime! Briefly, what follows is the town centre. A hotel, supermarket, sports centre, music school and high school. The fairground was never used as it was being set up for the May Day holiday. Now the photos...

Soviet apartment blocks. There are dozens.

On 'The Bridge of Death' - 500 or so Pripyat residents flocked to this bridge for a better view. The light show they witnessed was the Cherenkov effect. It killed them all.