About the Sarcophagus, Vassili Nesterenko - Nuclear Physicist said: "...if the sarcophagus will collapse, that would be the worst thing that could happen because inside there are 100kg of plutonium; 1 microgram is a lethal dose for humans, that means that there is enough plutonium to poison 100 million people..."
The Sarcophagus is falling apart, you can see birds flying through holes in the structure. Every day the chances of the sarcophagus's collapse increase and if this happens there will be another release of radioactive material into the environment with disastrous consequences.
It is impossible to repair the structure of the old Sarcophagus from inside because the extreme level of radiations that are still registered inside it will kill a person in a few miutes so no man can be sent inside. A new safe containment "The Arch" is the new Sarchopagus that will incorporate the old one and the reactor N°4 and it should last for the next 100 years, it is only another tomb that will need to be replaced one day.
The Arch is to being constructed 180 metres west of the old one and slid into place. The estimated completion date was 2015 but is now estimated to be 2017.
I remained in the exclusion zone for 2 days. I spent the night in the only hotel of Chernobyl which is the place where the workers are.
They also had a restaurant area and the staff was very polite.
Within the exclusion zone there are other checkpoint where they check the level of radiation of your hands and shoes to ensure you are not carrying any radioactive particles.
The city of Chernobyl and Prypiat are completely abandoned, the time stands still and if you stand in silent you can probably still hear the voice of the children of Chernobyl...
I visited Prypiat town, I saw the luna park, the hospital, the old school, the theater. People can think it is weird to go and visit places like, well yes probably is but the spirit of my travels is also this, going to forgotten places where the things to see are not in front of you for your eyes but around you in the air...
Apparently there is still somebody living withing the exclusion zone, I met an old and the man said they returned to their house a few years after the disaster and now they live eating the vegetables and fruit that they grow.
I am not sure if to believe in this, probably they are paid from the government to make the zone "safe", seeing old people living there, growing their own food and being still alive gives the message that there is no risk.
After I met the couple I left the exclusion zone and I returned to Kiev where I spent another night before to leave.
Kiev has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, just was a bit hard at the start to know what station to get off the metro because I could not understand the voice on the speaker and either reading the cyrillic alphabet but I survived and it was quite fun.
I went to say goodbye to the Mother Motherland, went for a walk and I had my dinner sitting along the river, it was a warm summer night, relaxing with people fishing here and there...
My trip ends here, what I learned is that probably humanity should not handle nuclear energy.
To read more about radioactivity click here
Science allows us to manipulate atoms and their reaction but is it really necessary?
The earth is not infinite, how many other Chernobyl and Fukushima do we have to see before to understand it?
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