I spent nearly my whole weekend reading up on nuclear energy, its discovery and current status. It all started after I watched "Decontamination: Losing the Sheltering Trees" - a NHK documentary about decontamination work in areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear event and how it has affected the communities there.
The Fukushima event is one of only two nuclear events classified as a level 7 event (highest level - most serious) on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The other being the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. So that got me wondering about the current state of Chernobyl.
From my online search, I found out that work to build a new containment called "New Safe Confinement" to cover the old leaking sarcophagus (a huge concrete structure built in 1986 enveloping the destroyed Reactor 4) has started in 2012 and is expected to be completed in 2015. Now, I know that "clean-up workers" at the area are known as liquidators.
More interestingly, I read that since 2002, there were guided tours to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone which includes the ghost town of Pripyat but now the itinerary has been altered to exclude visits to the Rossokha village and the military machines graveyard as prohibited by the government.
Who would want to pay to visit this place, I asked so I looked for more information about the tour, read many articles written by people who went on this tour and browsed through their photos. Some descriptions about the tour:
- dreamlike
- eerie silence
- haunting
- unforgettable
- attracts people who like lonely, abandoned and deserted places
So would you consider going on this tour?
It takes alot of guts to choose this kind of tour :).
ReplyDeleteEven now, I am skeptical about visiting Tokyo.
A few friends went on a tour last year. I think it's a reminder to all the kind of destruction human is capable of doing.
ReplyDeleteYou can be best friend with my husband. He also very into these nuclear stories that he went to search/watch all kind of documentaries about Chernobyl. He'd definitely want to go on such tour. Unfortunately, I can say the same for myself. Hehe!
ReplyDeleteHi "My Family's Memoir", yes, a lot of guts.
ReplyDeleteHello Steph, thanks for stopping by. So what did your friends say about the tour - is it worth going there for the experience?
ReplyDeleteI think they said its interesting. I would like to go one day too.
DeleteHi Jennifer, aha, so he is also into reading about nuclear events. So if he really went on a tour like this and asked you to go, would you go just to accompany him?
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I dont think i dare to go
ReplyDeleteI'd have to accompany him anyway. I couldn't stand it not knowing what happen when we are not together, knowing this kind of tour is very scary and probably dangerous. Especially if you have watched the movie Chernobyl's Diaries.
ReplyDeleteHi Small Kucing, I don't think I dare to go either.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer, I watched a bit of Chernobyl's Diaries - too scary for me to continue watching. You are brave to accompany him if he goes.
Hi Steph,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply. Do blog about it if you go visit there one day. :)
I think I would find it depressing but I'm sure it would leave a deep impression. Are you thinking of going?
ReplyDeleteHi Jamie, I don't think I dare to go.
ReplyDelete