Want a better understanding of the world's worst nuclear disaster (and a giant dose of radiation)? Come tour the Chernobyl nuclear power plant!Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred almost 25 years ago. Hmmm...I think I'll stick with the pictures and news reports. Famously, Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a chunk of northern Europe, exposing hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, as well as changing the standard genealogy to produce a generationof blue-haired, blonde-eyed kids.
The "exclusion zone" is a highly contaminated area within a 30-mile radius of the exploded reactor, which was evacuated and sealed off in the aftermath of the explosion. Health problems from the meltdown still persist, and all visits since have been prohibited. Currently, around 2,500 employees maintain the remains of the now-closed nuclear plant, working in shifts to minimize their exposure to radiation. Hmmm, they work to minimize their radiation exposure but you want to make the site a tourist trap? It must be some other reason that the few firms who currently offer tours to the restricted area are called illegal by the government, and their safety is not guaranteed.
While the Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman ("There are things to see there if one follows the official route and doesn't stray away from the group") and UN Development Program chief ("Personally I think there is an opportunity to tell a story here and of course the process of telling a story, even a sad story, is something that is positive in economic terms and positive in conveying very important messages") spin their sales pitch, estimates to finish building a new safer shell for the exploded reactor won't be until 2015.
While the Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman ("There are things to see there if one follows the official route and doesn't stray away from the group") and UN Development Program chief ("Personally I think there is an opportunity to tell a story here and of course the process of telling a story, even a sad story, is something that is positive in economic terms and positive in conveying very important messages") spin their sales pitch, estimates to finish building a new safer shell for the exploded reactor won't be until 2015.
The new shelter will cover the hastily built original iron-and-concrete structure that has been leaking radiation, cracking and threatening to collapse. The new shell is 345 feet tall, 853 feet wide and 490 feet long, and will weigh 20,000 tons. It will be large enough to house the Statue of Liberty and will cost close to $1.15 billion, paid mostly by international donors. Let me again point out again that this new containment unit won't be done for another four years.
I understand the need to show people historical sites to understand the events, but making it an attraction without taking care of the safety issues is a bad an idea as giving tours of the WWII interment camps and staffing it with armed Nazis, or letting people take a walking tour of the piles of WTC debris. There's better ways to turn a buck without killing your clientele.
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