Originally Posted by gkandr4ch
I think you have been misinformed slightly. In the years after the accident it was deadly, but now 21 years later things have subsided. Yes there is radiation in the soil, but it is not much more than having an x ray.
There are radiation hot spots such as the red forest and the vehicle graveyard, which is highly radioactive. You are only allowed to see these at a distance.
People DO STILL live there and they eat things grown from the soil!!!!!! The tour takes you to meet these people. They are called SELF SETTLERS.
The town that has been abandoned is definately worth seeing.
Mate... it is not me that is mis-informed, it is you that is being mis-sold.
An X-ray is over in a matter of seconds, pop down the hospital and ask at A&E what would happen if you stood in an X-ray machine for 12 hours solid ?
On the site you put the link up for, it says there, which is why I quoted it, the amount of radioactive material released was 9 tonnes... 90... thats
90 times more than the Hiroshima bomb, the after effects are still causing birth deffects and very high levels of cancer in the population 60 years down the line.
The whole thing is 'sealed' in a steel and concrete shell which is deteriating much quicker than any one expected and the authorites havent got the money to redo the job 'properly'
The people who are living there are doing so because they have to, they are peasants and have no other choice.
Just Google Chernobyl Cancer and then repeat the search on images, theres plenty facts to read from reputable sources.
I can understand people going to Auschwitz, to try and understand what went on so that it may never be repeated, but to go to the site of the worlds biggest nuclear disaster out of some sort of 'morbid tourist' is beyond me.