WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.265 --> 00:00:02.682
Now, first up this year is Ukraine.

2
00:00:02.910 --> 00:00:11.120
In 1986 it was still part of the USSR when an accident happened at Chernobyl -- a nuclear disaster of catastrophic proportions.

3
00:00:11.673 --> 00:00:17.155
Diana Magnay has been to the exclusion zone, a nuclear wasteland frozen in time. 

4
00:00:17.853 --> 00:00:22.485
We're driving through the exclusion zone en route to Chernobyl.

5
00:00:22.485 --> 00:00:29.605
It doesn't feel like a place where the world's worst-ever nuclear accident happened almost 25 years ago.

6
00:00:30.225 --> 00:00:34.311
The sun lends a wintry charm to the derelict homes we pass.

7
00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:41.458
Postcards from Soviet days scatter the floor. A doll, forgotten in the rush to leave.

8
00:00:43.565 --> 00:00:53.387
In all, nearly 350,000 people were forced to abandon their homes as a radioactive cloud blew over Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

9
00:00:54.630 --> 00:00:58.618
This village is called Zalissya in Ukrainian, which literally means "behind the forest."

10
00:00:58.655 --> 00:01:03.311
But as you can see now, it has been completely consumed by the forest.

11
00:01:03.338 --> 00:01:07.495
And when the villages were evacuated about 10 days after the accident took place,

12
00:01:07.981 --> 00:01:12.370
they thought that they'd be able to come back here, that this village would be inhabitable again.

13
00:01:12.416 --> 00:01:14.874
But as you can see, that wasn't to be the case.

14
00:01:17.243 --> 00:01:22.107
So, this is the memorial, because how many people died immediately after the accident?

15
00:01:22.264 --> 00:01:26.924
Well, no, [the] first time, one person is buried inside of it.

16
00:01:27.195 --> 00:01:36.280
Not buried, but his poor body wasn't found. Answer: about 30 people in one month died overall, highly radiated.

17
00:01:37.068 --> 00:01:42.452
Yuri Tatarchuk, who's our certified guide from Ukraine's Ministry of Emergencies

18
00:01:42.452 --> 00:01:49.365
says the final death toll from the nuclear fallout is impossible to calculate,but that it's less than people feared.

19
00:01:49.947 --> 00:01:55.127
Estimates from the International Atomic Energy Agency put the number at 4,000,

20
00:01:55.500 --> 00:02:02.984
but the World Health Organization points to 4,000 incidents of thyroid cancer among children from the affected areas.

21
00:02:03.406 --> 00:02:09.221
So, now it's 8.7, 9 microsieverts.

22
00:02:09.557 --> 00:02:16.056
Radiation's not down to normal, but Tatarchuk says it's not a health risk if you're just here for the day.

23
00:02:16.704 --> 00:02:24.632
We're staying here just minutes, but it's not sure if such levels of radiation...inhabiting here is not allowed.

24
00:02:25.475 --> 00:02:33.008
We're not the only visitors. A Russian tour group pick their way through frozen tower blocks in nearby Pripyat.

25
00:02:33.573 --> 00:02:43.363
The town was evacuated the day after Reactor Number Four exploded, before the Soviet Union admitted it had a serious problem in one of its nuclear plants.

26
00:02:44.683 --> 00:02:53.437
Jaroslav Bychkov wasn't born then, but he thinks it's important people visit so they understand the dangers of nuclear technology.

27
00:02:53.702 --> 00:02:58.853
What exactly can you see when people don't care about something like the nuclear weapons and stuff.

28
00:02:59.227 --> 00:03:04.881
I really think that we should get rid of that, you know? I don't want to see the places like this anymore in this world.

29
00:03:05.367 --> 00:03:13.607
This year, the government will remove restrictions to the exclusion zone,turning these Soviet ghost towns into a tourist destination,

30
00:03:14.099 --> 00:03:20.508
a chance for people to see for themselves the relics of a nuclear catastrophe frozen in time.