Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

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Known as Chernobyl Disaster, single event turned one of the most advanced areas of Soviet Union into forever (well, maybe not forever) abandoned place, over just few days.

On 24th of April 1986, during late night safety test of reactor number 4 of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then-part of Soviet Union), the worst nuclear disaster in history took place. Reactor 4 was destroyed by explosion and the amount of radiation released into air put entire Europe in serious danger. It killed just 2 people directly, but the number of victims of invisible force of radiation over next weeks, months and years has grown up to thousands, even though it can't really be measured.

Within next 72 hours, 50 000 city of Pripyat as well as the 30 kilometer radius of surrounding area was evacuated. Eventually, this uninhabitable area has become known as Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, or just "The ZONE". Nowadays, 30 years later, The Zone is accessible again. There is few agencies in Ukraine providing guided tours into it.

In order to get there, you have to use the service of one of one of 'certified agencies' which provide guided tours to this area. The good thing is that they will take care of pretty much everything, the bad one is that you will not be alone and you can't do whatever you want, and that's probably good news for the area and for your safety as well (some areas or even single little spots are still way to radioactive. If your tour starts in Kyiv and it most likely does, it will take you roughly 2 hours to drive 150 km straight up north from Ukraine's capital, in order to reach the Exclusion Zone. If you get lucky as we did, it will be +20 minutes to repair a flat tire and experience some Ukrainian countryside.