Ukraine

[briwy]

We have recently returned from a week staying with relatives near Kiev.
Inital thoughts were a trip in the van through Germany, Poland and into Ukraine. Now very glad we decided to fly as talking to the relatives it seems that many drivers there don't bother with insurance, the roads are diabolical and the standard of driving is unbelievably poor.
However, Kiev is a very nice place to visit and very cheap for public transport, food and drink. Highly recommended.
Whilst there we had a two day trip to the Chernobyl site. Very interesting and unreal how the Russians tried to cover it up initially. Mixture of human error and poor design of the reactor led to the disaster.
Drones are strictly forbidden in the Exclusion Zone but I managed to get permission for a couple of brief flights.
Whilst the tour drives round the actual reactor security is tight and they get very stroppy about pictures of the reactor site as there is still a lot of nuclear fuel left which could be put to unsavoury purposes if someone managed to steal it.
Two small videos here that I've knocked together from the footage if anyone is interested. The reactor with it's stainless steel cover can be seen in the distance on the Pripyat video.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JZQY6gEMSGrSMDxNhBfNXd9ri0sMEc_D/view?usp=sharing


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hs_epc6phoz2p9vgLmgZCX45KiepuOuH/view?usp=sharing

 

[Moakesy]

Thanks for sharing. So what is the radiation levels like now...32 years later? Must be safe enough for visitors, but got to be still too high for anything more, which makes me wonder about the tour guides??

 

[larrylamb]

Love the drone footage Brian, amazing structures in the first clip, second clip looks like a scene from "The Walking Dead" with the overgrown trees etc.

 

[Amarillo]

Two small videos here that I've knocked together from the footage if anyone is interested. The reactor with it's stainless steel cover can be seen in the distance on the Pripyat video.

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Loved both videos.

A friend of mine is a nuclear consultant. He's visited and done extensive work at the sites of the three nuclear disasters: three mile island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, also the submarine Kursk. He says that if the chance of a "Black Swan" event is one in ten thousand, divide than by the number of power reactors (450) you get a serious accident every 22 years. Apparently the biggest known threat is a volcanic eruption, and dust clogging up the emergency diesel generators required to keep everything cool in an emergency. At Fukushima the diesel storage tanks were not bolted to the ground and the tsunami washed them away one at a time.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Not enough band width here on my mobile. Will take a look later. Thanks for sharing Brian.

 

[BillyCasper]

If anyone is interested in reading more about the aftermath of Chernobyl, I recommend Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich. She also authored a very good book about the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, Zinky Boys.


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