Camping in the exclusion zone from stalker (part 6)

This time I'll show Amusement Park (ferris wheel and the race track), the Palace of Culture "Energetic", to debunk some of the myths about Chernobyl and the exclusion zone.

Over time, some decorative elements on the wheel down and is now at a certain angle, you can see a sinister smile.

Amusement Park. Its opening is scheduled for May 1, 1986. But this was not to be. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred at 5 days earlier.

Let's once and for all clarify the situation with background radiation. So: no safe doses of radiation! Radiation is harmful in any quantity. But do not forget about the natural radiation that irradiates us every day, it's the sun, granite embankments and even during air travel. But the danger is not so much the background radiation, as the total dose of radiation, which got people in my entire life. Secure background radiation - is the highest dose that does not cause immediate fatal consequences for the organism, vague on the life of the average person. This is about 30 mR / hr. Russian sanitary norms permitted radiation level up to 50 mR / hr. For comparison, in Kiev, the normal background 11 mR / hr, and a bright, sunny day 17 mR / hr.

A short stay in the area is not more dangerous than air flight from Moscow to New York.

Of course, you can get a large dose of radiation and to die from radiation sickness in a few days. So, for example, it happened to the fire, the first to arrive to the scene of the accident. But they were in the midst, and received a dose of a million times higher than safe.

I would like to clarify the point on how was generally defined in the exclusion zone. At the time when the accident occurred at the station, mankind has not faced with such situations. Therefore, military compass on a map outlined a range of 2, centered on the station. A circle of 10 km radius, and the second - 30 km. Perhaps the border 30-kilometer zone will be removed and will happen in our lifetime, but in the 10-kilometer zone of living can not be never.

Many people think that is the epicenter of Chernobyl and that the station is in it. No. The station is located 13 km from Chernobyl. And in fact, Chernobyl is not too badly damaged by the radiation. It is located in the south-east, and the wind was blowing in the direction of the north and west.

A small historical digression. Chernobyl is located on the Pripyat River, 83 km from Kiev (physical distance), if the roads is 115 km. Before the accident, lived in the city 12, 5 thousand people. The first mention of Chernobyl relates to events in 1193. In the middle of the XV century, when the land controlled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, near Chernobyl was built castle, separated from the village by a deep moat that has survived to the present day. At the beginning of the XVI century the castle was reconstructed and turned into a well-fortified and inaccessible fortress and the city of Chernobyl became a district center.

In 1793 became part of the Russian Empire. Before the XX century was inhabited by Jews, as well as Ukrainian and Polish peasants.

During World War I was occupied, then was the site of battles in the Civil War. During the Soviet-Polish war it was first occupied by the Polish army, and then retaken by the cavalry of the Red Army. In 1921 it included in the Ukrainian SSR.

In the 1970s, 10 km from Chernobyl was built first in Ukraine nuclear power plant.

In 1985 it was put into operation the-horizon radar "Duga" - the object of Chernobyl-2.

April 26, 1986 on the fourth unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, which became the largest catastrophe in the history of nuclear power.

Now Chernobyl live and work in shifts 3,000. The city administration is located in the Exclusion Zone. There is a shop.

It is also assumed that since 1986 lives in the area stopped. No! The station operated until 15 December 2000. Until that time, in Pripyat were several large enterprises, the city had electricity, water, sewage system worked. The swimming pool area workers. Only after the 2000s began looting the city total.

Now, a few words about the station - the culprit of these events. The first stage of the Chernobyl NPP (the first and second power units with RBMK-1000) was built in the years 1970-1977, the second stage (third and fourth power units with similar reactors) was built on the same site by the end of 1983. fifth and sixth power units with the same reactor, stopped after the accident on the fourth power unit with a high degree of readiness of the object - in 1981, 1, 5 km south-east of the first to the second stage of construction of the third stage was initiated.

Project Chernobyl generating capacity is 6,000 MW, as of April 1986 in the operation of four power units with RBMK-1000 reactors with total generating capacity of 4000 MW were involved. At the time of the Chernobyl accident, along with the Leningrad and Kursk, it was the most powerful in the USSR. According to unconfirmed reports in all of the Chernobyl planned to enter up to 12 reactors that could generate 12,000 MW and it had become the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world!

By the way, now the most powerful nuclear power plant - Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which is located in Japan generates 7965 MW. And before the tsunami in 2011, it was considered the most powerful Fukushima 1 and 2. They generate 8814 MW.

And here we come to the most accidents. How many believe, at the station there was a large nuclear explosion, like a bomb explosion. No! Immediately discard the narrow-minded assumption that a nuclear explosion could occur there; this would require, first, highly enriched uranium and, secondly, the retention of charge in Supercompressed able to ensure its supercritical mass. There was an explosion caused by pressure superheated due to uncontrolled reaction pair. Explosion insides reversal unit 4, thrown reactor lid, which has broken through the roof. All! In this physical destruction ended. The worst was that flew out almost all the unfinished loading about 200 tons of uranium-238 from uranium-235 impurities and the products of nuclear reactions, in particular, plutonium-239. the fire started after the explosion. Lighted asphalt lying on the roof, although it was a flagrant violation of safety rules.

After the explosion caused the destruction of the building of the 4th reactor department, has not been found, despite the efforts searching, senior operator of the main circulation pumps Valery Ilich Hodemchuk whose jobs were in the collapse area. One victim at the time of the accident, serviceman Vladimir Shashenok, at 6 am on April 26, 1986 died of severe burns in hospital in Pripyat. By this time, hospitalized 108 people from among those who participated in emergency response activities and perform their duties at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Another 24 people were hospitalized for 26 April.

According to official statistics (if I remember correctly), killed 7 people. The rest of the victims by decree from above was ordered to write histories in anything other than radiation sickness. That is why now it is impossible to accurately determine the true number of victims of the accident.

Another myth - in the area there are mutants. Of course, the mutation takes place, but the mutation is not necessarily a second head, eight legs and three tails. Typically the mutation is expressed in changes in coat color, the eye may increase plant growth rate. If you are born and two-headed mutants, they do not last long, and all because they are not adapted to a normal life and competition for it.

I hope I have answered most of the questions. I am not in any way encourage you to follow my example and go into the Zone, on the contrary, his story I want to maximize the highlight this theme, so you do not have any desire to see it again.

Let's go back to your photos. This is the Palace of Culture "Energetic". It houses the boxing section, a cinema, a registry office, a gym, a swimming pool.