This is from the August 2, 2008 edition of Frontera, a Tijuana/San Diego based Spanish-language newspaper. Recognize that photo at the bottom? Yeah, that is Ryan and I in front of Chernobyl’s infamous reactor four when we (along with Laura) toured the exclusion zone on July 4, 2007.

The entire article is behind a paywall now, but it did list my blog address and this blurb:

Lindsay Fincher es una californiana que visitó el reactor número 4, en su blog describió la experiencia en el lugar como “surrealista”.

From my three years of high school Spanish (which I’ve almost completely forgotten), it generally translates to “Lindsay Fincher is a Californian that visited reactor number four and in her blog described the experience as surreal” or whatever.

The funny thing about this? I had no idea this article existed until it showed up in my website stats. Figures.

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In Belarus, several thousand protesters marched through Minsk to express their opposition to the government’s recent announcement that a quarter of new college graduates would be assigned to areas that were heavily contaminated by radioactive fallout in 1986:

Protester Konstantin Timokhov, 21, said he was deeply worried that the government will force him to work in a contaminated area when he graduates from university.

“The government is hiding the truth from us. My health and my future are in danger,” he said.
Radiation levels have declined substantially in most areas near Chernobyl, but scientists disagree on the level of risk.

Some doctors who work in towns downwind from Chernobyl say the health effects are still being felt, and students being sent into these areas are afraid.

Kasya Markouskaya, 23, has been ordered to spend two years in Buda-Koshelyovo, a contamination-area town, when she graduates with a journalism degree this spring.

“My situation is little different from that of a slave who has been forced to do dangerous work,” Markouskaya told The Associated Press recently. If she refuses, she will either be stripped of her diploma or required to reimburse the state for the full cost of her education. When she entered university, there were no such strings attached.

The work assignments began last year, and about one-fourth of this year’s 21,000 graduates are being sent to the contaminated areas.

Vice Prime Minister Alexander Kosinets said at parliamentary hearings Friday that if the work assignments were canceled, these regions would be left without the doctors, teachers, agricultural workers and other specialists they need.

Many people from these areas moved away; Lukashenko now wants to repopulate them so agriculture and industry can be revived.

Some of the young professionals sent to contaminated regions last year have already fled. About 800 graduates have refused to take up their work assignments this year, the Education Ministry said.

There was a preview for the History Channel’s “Life After People” while we were waiting for Charlie Wilson’s War to start (entertaining enough movie, but seriously, read the book), and I instantly recognized one of the featured locations (“Dude, that’s where we went in July.”). Supposedly, the show focuses on what happens to our infrastructure after all the humans are gone (where we went, I have no clue, but apparently not to Home Depot). The show’s case study is Pripyat, the city of 50,000 that was abandoned following the disaster at Chernobyl. The footage of Pripyat looked rather amazing, so if nothing else, the show is worth TiVoing because of that. “Life After People” premieres Monday, January 21, 9pm (or 8pm for those of you in that bizarre central time zone).

Pripyat amusement park, July ’07

As bizarre as it sounds, wealthy Ukrainians are building vacation homes near the 30km exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor:

The sky is a cornflower blue and the lake is calm. Sunburned fishermen pull up to the dock in motorboats, their nets filled with pike.

On the deck of a hunting lodge, couples are feasting on their catches and rehashing the day’s adventures. Farther down the road, crews are finishing the roof of yet another lakefront, luxury home.

The latest villa to sprout on the shores of the Kiev Reservoir is just a few metres from the barbed-wire fence that marks the 30-kilometre exclusion zone surrounding the infamous Chernobyl plant.

Yes, nature lovers have discovered Chernobyl. The region near the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident is now dubbed the “Chernobyl Riviera” for its grand homes and commanding vistas.

[...]

Twenty-one years after a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, ripping off the roof, and spewing radioactive poison into the countryside, Ukrainian holiday-makers are flocking to the region to bask in its quiet and enjoy the abundant wilderness that sprang to life when humans were forcibly evacuated.

Today, the woods and waters surrounding the village of Strakholissya – a half-hour drive from the stricken plant – are among the best hunting and fishing grounds in Ukraine. Wild boar, deer and wolves roam in the dense birch and pine forests.

Not one of the many weekenders interviewed expressed concern about potential health hazards. “It’s more contaminated in Kiev,” one fisherman said, laughing.

Recently, Ukraine’s rich and famous discovered the tranquil spot. They are mainly from Kiev, townspeople say, and they have built a line of lavish homes, hidden from prying villagers’ eyes by tall fences.

Their magnificent houses, docks and swimming pools are on full display if you rent a boat and ogle from the lake.

[...]

At the hunting lodge, Mr. Kuzmenko, his wife and friends said they weren’t worried about radiation levels.
“Our bodies have adapted to this,” said Sergei Ivanov, who, along with Mr. Kuzmenko and their wives drove up from Kiev for a weekend of duck hunting.

The group were up at dawn with their rifles. By early afternoon, they were back at the lodge, relaxing on the deck, the corpses of their hunted fowl hanging from the railing. Mr. Kuzmenko’s wife, Oksana, was looking forward to sunset.

“In the evening, the water gets an interesting colour,” Ms. Kuzmenko said. “The moon gives a white light, which makes [the lake] look like ice.”

Personally, I’d rather invest in beachfront property and spend my time surfing instead of picking radioactive mushrooms, but that’s just me. To each their own.

Related: LAist Interview: Director/Adaptor of Voices from Chornobyl, Cindy Marie Jenkins, Chernobyl plant to get a proper burial

Yeah, I’m finally done writing about this trip. Only took me four months. Still, that’s a significant improvement over last year’s trip to the Caucasus, which I didn’t finish writing about until December. I haven’t the slightest idea why it takes me so much time to write about places I’ve gone, considering that my travel posts are what most people stumble across, and therefore e-mail me about.

So, if you missed anything, here you go:
1. LOT – The airline of the proletariat
2. Ukraine Photos: Touring the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
3. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part I: Dude, where’s your Geiger counter?
4. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part II: Liquidators Memorial / Kopachi / Catfish / Reactor 4
5. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part III: The ghosts of Pripyat
6. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part IV: Chisto?
7. Kiev: Post-Chernobyl food run/4th of July dinner (or how I flew 6000 miles to partake in Oreo Madness)
8. Ukraine Photos: Kiev
9. Kiev: You’ve seen one Rodina Mat, you’ve seen ‘em all
10. Make sure to secure the door when I am gone. There are many dangerous people who wanna take things from Americans, and also kidnap them. Good night!
11. Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Kiev Monastery of the Caves)
12. Poland Photos: Krakow / Auschwitz-Birkenau / Wieliczka Salt Mine
13. Kraków
14. Auschwitz
15. Wieliczka Salt Mine: Goin’ Deeper Underground

The Blacksmith Institute recently published its list of the world’s most polluted places, with four of the top ten located in the former Soviet Union:

* Sumgayit, Azerbaijan (chemical industry)
* Dzerzhinsk, Russia (chemical weapons production)
* Norilsk, Russia (nickel mining)
* Chernobyl, Ukraine (radiation)

Never made it to Sumgayit when I was in Azerbaijan, but the area outside of Baku was the most polluted place I’d ever seen…huge pools of crude oil, rusting equipment, broken pipelines…the place was just a damn mess. Chernobyl, of course, is also extremely polluted, but you could easily mistake it for a nature preserve if not for the “Warning! Radiation!” signs planted throughout the exclusion zone.

In other Chernobyl related news, the Ukrainian government signed a $600 million contract with the French company Novarka for the construction of a new shield to cover reactor four and the current dilapidated sarcophagus. Work is expected to start in October, with a targeted completion date of 2012. The EBRD is picking up most of the tab.

Source: BBC

Look familiar? Yeah, “In here, it’s always Friday”

I’m a big fan of Eastern European food, but often find myself suffering from borscht and pelmeni fatigue when traveling in the region. Sometimes you just need deep-fried potato skins stuffed with massive amounts of cheddar cheese and bacon. And really, you can’t celebrate America’s birthday with beet soup and Siberian dumplings, can you? No, you need something that just screams America, like a thick, juicy hamburger and a side of fries. What better place to get a hamburger in Kiev than TGI Friday’s? (No, seriously, do you know of any other places to get a hamburger in Kiev?)

Dining at a TGI Friday’s in Eastern Europe is a surreal experience, similar to visiting the Friday’s of your childhood, before corporate filled the menu with “low-fat/low-carb/right price, right portion” entrees and introduced fancy desserts like Cinnabon cheesecake, or whatever. Much like our American Friday’s, assorted “Americana” junk lines the walls, but the placemats are in Cyrillic and the waitresses speak English with a Ukrainian accent. The red and white striped polo shirts and silly hats of yesteryear remain the standard uniform of Ukrainian Friday’s employees, along with ubiquitous suspenders decked out with a variety of “flair”. My personal favorite “silly hat” was the garrison cap, complete with Soviet insignia, worn by one of the waitresses. If I ever worked at Friday’s, I think I would wear my giant ushanka with the red star.

As for the meal, it was delicious end to a bizarre day touring Chernobyl, and a suitable way to celebrate America’s birthday while 6,000 miles from home. I had the peppercorn burger, fries, and a liter of Ukraine’s Obolon Premium, which I found to be a rather refreshing beer. For dessert we split the Oreo Madness (R.I.P.), which, along with the peppercorn burger, have been eliminated from the menus of Friday’s in the United States. It’s a shame really, Oreo Madness was one of the best desserts on the menu.

The Kiev TGI Friday’s: Where all your favorite menu items go to die.

With the visit to Pripyat over, our tour of the exclusion zone was slowly drawing to a close. We stopped at the 10km exclusion zone checkpoint, where a guard ran a Geiger counter along the side of the bus and gave us a thumbs up to proceed back to the city of Chernobyl. Before heading back to Chornobylinterinform, we stopped at a ship “graveyard”, memorial park, and small enclosure that contained vehicles used by the liquidators during the cleanup effort.

These ships were abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster due to their high levels of radiation.

Firetrucks and armored personnel carriers used by the liquidators

Memorial erected on the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster

We arrived back at Chornobylinterinform in the late afternoon, and after dutifully standing in line to wash our hands (with our guide mumbling something about particles and parts per million, or whatever) we were served a delicious four course “clean” (meaning, all the food was apparently brought in from outside the zone) meal. I was completely puzzled by one of the beverages, a bright pink concoction with the consistency of jello that hadn’t quite solidified. We dined with an Englishman who had recently returned from North Korea, which, he claimed, was one of the best countries he has visited. I was totally jealous, considering I’ve been wanting to go to North Korea for the past four years. Maybe next year?

Before leaving Chornobylinterinform, we took turns posing for photos on this machine that apparently checks for radiation, or something. Like I said in a previous entry, the health and safety briefing was lacking.

Ryan, myself, and Laura

Kittens outside Chornobylinterinform

Ryan and Laura playing with the radioactive kittens. Uh, no, you can’t take them home…and while Purell hand sanitizer kills 99.999999% of germs, I don’t think that applies to radiation.

When we reached the 30km, and final, checkpoint, a guard ran a Geiger counter along the side of the bus, once again declared it clean, and ordered us off the bus. We were led into a building containing a row of machines that check zone visitors for possible contamination. I stepped onto the machine, placed my hands on the side, and stared at the four buttons in front of me, silently praying that the green one marked “chisto” (“clean”), and not either of the two red buttons, would light up. After a few agonizing seconds, the green button declared that I was clean, the steel bar unlocked, and I was free to leave the zone.

Chisto!

Several in our group stood there on the machines, waiting for instructions of some sort, until the guard supervising the process grinned at them, gave a thumbs up sign, and urged them on using the only English he knew, “OK, OK!” Our entire group passed, which was comforting, because I don’t think anyone was really looking forward to the decontamination showers. Rather, we just wanted to get back on the bus as quickly as possible, as the skies had darkened overhead, signaling that a torrential downpour was well on its way.

Read more about the tour:
1. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part I: Dude, where’s your Geiger counter?
2. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part II: Liquidators Memorial / Kopachi / Catfish / Reactor 4
3. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part III: The ghosts of Pripyat

“Stay off the moss. Very radioactive.”

We were standing on another bridge outside the city of Pripyat, this time surveying the lush green landscape below, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rampaging packs of wild boar that were apparently proliferating throughout the exclusion zone – or so our guide claimed. We didn’t see any.

No boar, but lots of radioactive moss

The road to Pripyat

You are now entering Pripyat, Population: 0

Founded in 1970, Pripyat was a model Soviet city built for the Chernobyl plant workers and their families. It contained all the conveniences that a young Soviet family could desire: high-rise apartment buildings, schools, a cultural center, hospital, swimming pools, theatres, stores, restaurants, cafes, playgrounds, and a stadium. On the morning of April 26, the citizens of Pripyat awoke to the sound of helicopters buzzing overhead and a column of smoke rising from reactor four off in the distance. At noon on April 27, the Soviet government informed the citizens of Pripyat that they had two hours to gather their essential belongings and board a bus for mandatory evacuation. They were told that their evacuation was only temporary, for perhaps three days at the most, and so the residents left most of their clothing, photographs, toys, and family pets behind. The 50,000 citizens departed Pripyat on a line of Kiev-bound buses that stretched for miles, all of them expecting to see their hometown again in just a few days. They would never return.

Today, the entrance to the town is guarded by an officer who sits in a run-down shack for hours, waiting for the occasional town visitor. After exchanging a few words with our guide, and checking papers, he waved us into the “ghost city.” We entered the city on the main road, Prospekt Lenina, now lined with crumbling apartment buildings and overgrown trees, and stopped in the center of the city. Our guide was content to let us wander around on our own, with the caveat that we stay out of the buildings (“for your own safety”) and away from the apparently highly radioactive moss. It was hard to avoid the latter, as the stuff was growing in huge swaths throughout the city, so you would often see us hopping from concrete patch to concrete patch, employing a variety of run-and-jump tactics. I’m surprised I didn’t come back from Pripyat with a sprained ankle.

Prospekt Lenina

Apartment building in the city center

Decorations for the May Day parade that never was

Cultural Palace “Energetik”

Restaurant

Theatre

Some of the things they left behind

Not even a nuclear ghost town is immune from graffiti

Apartment building and city center, pre-Chernobyl disaster (courtesy pripyat.com)

The same “All power to the Soviets” apartment building, now

Hotel Polissya, pre-Chernobyl disaster (courtesy pripyat.com)

Hotel Polissya, now

No more fruits and vegetables, just rusting refrigerators and shopping carts

Stay off the moss

At one point the group started to head toward the amusement park. Ryan and I had no idea where Laura went, so we backtracked to the cultural center and started shouting her name. I ran into our guide, who was looking quite bored with his surroundings. After doing this several times a week, it probably does get monotonous. He grinned at me and warned, “Stay with the group. We don’t want wild boars to find you alone.” My fear of stepping on a patch of radioactive moss was now replaced with that of being impaled by the radiation-coated tusks of an angry wild boar.

We eventually ran into Laura and continued past the cultural center until we arrived at the amusement park. Small and desolate, it is probably the most depressing amusement park you will ever come across. The park was scheduled to open on May 1, 1986, but fate intervened and the brand new rides were left to rust away, never once touched by the children of Pripyat.

Bumper cars

Ferris wheel

We probably spent an hour in Pripyat, wandering around this deserted city of 50,000. It was eerily silent, the only noises coming from the flies that constantly buzzed around, the sound of digital cameras taking hundreds of photos, and, at one point, a loud crash that reverberated across the empty buildings. I will admit that walking through Pripyat was, at times, both unsettling and voyeuristic. I felt that I really had no right to be there, but on the other hand, if given the chance, I would have stayed there for hours.

Happier times – Pripyat Pioneer camp, 1985 (courtesy pripyat.com)

In the city of Chernobyl there stands a simple memorial to the liquidators who rushed to reactor number four in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.

“To those who saved the world.”

The firefighters who initially responded to the disaster on the morning of April 26, 1986 were unaware that they were entering a radioactive environment, and rushed to the plant without donning protective suits and respirators. While they labored to extinguish the fires, their bodies absorbed lethal doses of radiation, and many of them later died of Acute Radiation Sickness. Overall, some 600,000 workers, including scientists, miners, and Soviet military conscripts, participated in the Chernobyl cleanup efforts. To this day, many of them continue to experience a variety of health problems stemming from their time spent in the zone.

We passed another checkpoint and entered the 10km exclusion zone that surrounds the V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. Our driver stopped the bus and we soon found ourselves standing on the road staring at large mounds of dirt skewered with radiation signs. Our guide explained that this was the village of Kopachi. Shortly after the Chernobyl disaster, liquidators arrived with bulldozers and dismantled the town, burying the radioactive houses underneath tons of dirt.

Off in the distance is Chernobyl-2, a now abandoned radar station formerly used by the Soviet military.

Further down the road we had our first glimpse of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. Across a small canal stand reactors five and six, both abandoned in mid-construction after the explosion at reactor four.

The power station

Reactor four

Reactor five

Water cooling tower

As our bus entered the grounds of the nuclear power station, our guide warned us that photos were not permitted here for “security reasons.” He led us towards a disused railroad bridge that spanned one of the cooling pond’s adjacent canals and hopped onto a rail in order to avoid walking on the dirt. Recalling his previous warning to “stay off the dirt”, we followed his example, hopscotching from the road to the rails to the wood planks of the bridge. Looking into the canal directly below us, we could see hundreds of catfish swimming in the water. A loaf of bread was passed around (ah, so that’s what that was for) and we took turns throwing chunks into the water, watching as the pieces were devoured by the largest catfish I have ever seen in my life. If I were telling you this story in person, I would spread my arms as wide as I could – they were literally the size of sharks. We were soon joined by a group of plant workers who had brought along their own bread to feed the monsters. I guess there isn’t much to do on your lunch break at Chernobyl.

Workers feeding the fish (snuck this pic once we got back on the bus)

While feeding giant fish was entirely thrilling, we had more interesting places to go, namely closer to reactor four.

Memorial to the heroes who contained the disaster

Situated on the westernmost perimeter of the nuclear power station, reactor four is a massive structure surrounded by decrepit concrete walls lined with barbed wire. Following the 1986 disaster, a sarcophagus was hastily constructed over reactor four to contain the radioactive material that lay inside. Some twenty years later, the damn thing just looks like it could collapse at any moment. Sets of yellow “braces” were recently added to provide a bit of structural integrity, but the sarcophagus is plagued with holes of varying sizes that allow moisture to collect inside the structure, further weakening it. Fortunately, however, plans are currently underway for the construction of a so-called “New Safe Confinement” structure that will more effectively contain the radioactive material that remains in reactor four. From the material that has been released, it looks to be an impressive feat of engineering.

The sarcophagus

Standing in that parking lot, with reactor four a mere 100 meters ahead, was intensely surreal. If you’ve read other accounts of Chernobyl visitors who stood in the same spot as we did, this is where you would see the sentence “Our dosimeter was registering 470+ microroentgens per hour!” But, as I previously mentioned, our guide apparently didn’t find it necessary to carry one of those around (instead taking a loaf of bread for the monster fishies), and so we hadn’t the slightest idea how much radiation we were exposed to at that moment. Brilliant, I know.

Ryan and I, with reactor four in the background

Laura

We spent a few minutes here taking photos and then returned to the bus. Our next stop would be Pripyat, the model Soviet city of 50,000 that housed the Chernobyl plant workers and their families.
Read more about the tour:
1. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part I: Dude, where’s your Geiger counter?
3. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part III: The ghosts of Pripyat
4. Dispatches from Chernobyl, Part IV: Chisto?