Day 1 - June 1, 2006

At 7:00 AM Thursday, Sasha, Yana, and I met on the street outside my hotel. Yevgen Goncharenko, another friend from Pripyat.com, and his wife Natalia were kind enough to provide us with transportation to the Zone and met us in front of the hotel. Driving north out of Kyiv, we drove approximately 80 km through many small communities, open fields, and forests.

Shortly before reaching the Zone, we pulled off to the side of the road and met our guide Yuri Tatarchuck, head of International Relations for CII. I decided to ride with Yuri because he speaks English well and would be able to easily answer my questions.

Dytytaky Checkpoint and Chornobyl

After a short drive, we reached the southern entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Dytyatky checkpoint. The gate is manned by the Ukrainian military. We were required to exit the vehicle and show both our permission document and passports to the armed guard. After clearing the checkpoint, we passed several abandoned villages before arriving at the offices of Chernobyl InterInform in the town of Chornobyl (this is the proper name of the town and will be used to distinguish it from the Chernobyl nuclear plant).

Before continuing our journey throughout the Zone, this would be a good time to briefly discuss radiation levels. The European standard of measurement for ionizing radiation is the roentgen (R). Natural background radiation levels range from 0.17-11.0 microroentgens per hour (µR/h), and typical background radiation levels in urban areas ranges between 20-50 µR/h.

V.I. Lenin Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station (ChAES)

Leaving the town of Chornobyl, we passed through the Leliv checkpoint and the former village of Kopachi (see details in Day 2). Just around a bend in the road, the Chernobyl nuclear complex came into view. The first reactor at the station came on line in 1979, while Reactor 4 began operations in 1983. This complex was considered the jewel of the Soviet nuclear industry. Original plans called for a total of 12 reactors at the site.

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