Inside Chernobyl's Reactor 4 Control Room

Do you think interest in the HBO series and the nuclear accident has ended? Not at all. Despite pleas and warnings, a new stream of visitors insists on going to the disaster region, especially after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared it a 'tourist zone'. That means the boldest will have the 'privilege' of entering the control room of Chernobyl's Reactor 4 for brief tours, wearing suits, helmets and masks.

The pattern is fairly simple: once the miniseries exploded on HBO, a wave of instagrammers and vloggers headed to Chernobyl and Pripyat to see and record the region with their cameras. This 'invasion' was not well received at first, but that changed with President Zelensky's decree naming Chernobyl an official tourist attraction. In the president's words, it is time to 'inject life into this region of Ukraine', since it was always a negative aspect of the country, and 'it's time to change that'. In short, Ukraine today has the potential to become one of the capitals of the so-called dark tourism.

What does the tour offer?

The novelty is that all interested parties (after prior permission request) will be able to visit the control room of Chernobyl's Reactor 4, the place where the accident began. Tourist interest is not exactly new, but local agencies acknowledge that tour reservations jumped 30 percent in May (shortly after the series premiere), and 40 percent for the summer months. The safest zones have been open to visitors since 2011, however, the Reactor 4 room requires additional care.

On the one hand, visitors must wear protective suits, hard hats, and masks to reduce contact with radioactive particles (the room was covered with an adhesive substance that prevents dust formation, but the risk still exists). Second, tours are short. Finally, all participants will undergo two radiological tests after leaving the place. We must remember that Reactor 4 itself is covered by the New Sarcophagus.

To be honest, only the skeleton of the control room remains (previous visitors took various 'souvenirs', so to speak), but it is still a disturbing space, marked forever by tragedy. Personally, the only thing I find annoying is the chatter. The journalists in the video never stop talking, and I think a place like this is better appreciated in silence.

Source: CNN