On the night of April 26, 1986, at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, nuclear scientists tested one of the safety systems. This experiment has already failed 4 times, the fifth attempt was fatal, ending in two thermal explosions of unprecedented strength and the complete destruction of the reactor. The first city on the way of a cloud of radioactive isotopes and transuranic elements was the "pearl" of the USSR - Pripyat.
Dead zone
Before the Chernobyl accident, Pripyat was a developing young city (the average age of residents was 26 years old), with a population of about 50 thousand people. Now it is a ghost town, located in the most polluted 10 km zone, the so-called high-security sector - this is the territory of burial grounds, it was here that in a hurry they buried what was thrown out of the reactor.
Now this zone is contaminated with transuranium isotopes and is considered dead forever. People do not live in Pripyat, only twice a year special buses bring former residents here to visit the graves of their relatives. Life on these territories will be able to return only after a lapse of several millennia - the period of plutonium decay is more than 2, 5 thousand years.
Today's Pripyat is a terrifying sight. It looks like a huge architectural cemetery hidden in thickets of dense forest. But, oddly enough, there are many who want to plunge into the atmosphere of a dead city and see with their own eyes what life after people can be like. Excursions to Pripyat are very popular. Although this is a rather dangerous and extreme type of tourism, because the level of radioactive dust, which has firmly eaten into the ground, trees, houses, is still off scale.
In addition, under the influence of the environment, most buildings collapse and are in disrepair. On the territory of the city there are only a few objects - a special laundry, a garage for special equipment, a station for deferrization and fluoridation of water and a checkpoint at the entrance to Pripyat.
Rebirth of life
A little further from the nuclear power plant, in the 30 km zone, life begins to glimmer. In Chernobyl, located 18 km from the radiation center, there are workers of some enterprises working on a rotational basis, and already more than 500 self-settlers - people who, despite the existing legal restrictions, nevertheless risked returning to their homes after the mass resettlement of 1986.
The number of self-settlers is growing every year. Some use housing as summer cottages, others come to stay forever. Over the years of alienation, a unique natural reserve with rich flora and fauna has been formed here. People are engaged in agriculture, fishing and without fear eat vegetables grown here, mushrooms and berries picked.
In the center of Chernobyl, occasionally you can even hear the sounds of repairs; in some five-story buildings, windows are inserted. The only place in Chernobyl that lives and is buried in flowers is the Ilyinsky Church. The family of a local clergyman is one of those who returned to their homelands.
In recent years, the life of people living in the exclusion zone has improved somewhat: the state began to pay them benefits, restored lost documents, and organized the delivery of necessary products. Self-settlers do not deny obvious environmental and radiation problems, therefore they are treated with galangal tincture, believing that this herb has healing properties and helps to remove harmful substances from the body.
