In 1986 a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine had a melt down and caused a drastic amount of radioactive fallout that was scattered around the rest of Europe. I feel obligated to learn about all of that and so I took a one-day trip from Kiev into the Chernobyl “exclusion zone” to learn and take photos.
Unlike a quarantined zone, an exclusion zone is permanent. Due to the nature of the on-hundred thousand year high-half life of the radioactive isotopes contaminating parts of the 30km and 10km radius zones surrounding the disaster site, parts of the area will be dangerously tainted forever. Access to and from the exclusion zone is strictly enforced and controlled with rigorous access checks and security. Still, there is a large area that is safe to visit and explore with only very low, and perfectly safe radiation exposure.
An unexpectedly cool part of the trip was discovering this magnificent, secret, gigantic radio tower built by the Soviets to try and anticipate nuclear attacks from the USA. It was securely guarded and hidden behind the guise of a children’s camp (replete with a fake bus stop decorated with childish, cartoon animal motifs). Conveniently located near the disaster site (for power requirements). A true marvel of engineering — too large to fit in my camera’s frame — that sadly never worked as intended after billions of dollars of investment; natural atmospheric interference caused by weather lowered the operability accuracy considerably. These days truly serves as a monument to poor project planning and delivery. You can read more about this very interesting construct here.
