The killer is here, it’s all around. Its presence has me on guard. We have been warned not to touch anything including the long grass, plants and especially not the mother earth beneath our feet. It is silent, invisible, unable to be touched or smelt but it is deadly anyway. As I walk through the verdant fields, silent but for the occasional birdsong my nostrils inhale the fresh smelling air contaminated with caesium, strontium, plutonium and americium. All are deadly byproducts of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident.
On April 26 1986 reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant exploded near Pripyat in Ukraine. The explosion was caused by errors of procedure in the plant compounded by errors of construction that compounded the fire and lengthened the time of nuclear winds. Chernobyl is only 10 km from the border with Belarus and prevailing winds blew the nuclear fallout north into Belarus. The rest of the world was not informed for a week. In that time May Day celebrations (May 1) were celebrated as usual. The International Labour Day and first day of spring were marked by street parades festivities and dancing in what was then the USSR guaranteeing the unknowing people maximal exposure to airborne radiation.
Finally on 3 May, a week later the order came to evacuate all of those in southern Belarus in the most heavily radiated areas now known as the Polesie State Radioecological reserve. In all 140000 residents were evacuated with reassurance that they would only be away from their homes for 2 -3 days and not to pack large items or their pets. These people never returned to their homes or cherished belongings. Overall 107 rural villages were emptied of all humans never to return.
Now the 2100 square kilometers is contaminated. It is likely to be at least a millennium before humans can return and live there. Normal background radiation levels on earth is 1-2 microsieverts per hour. We are in the Polesie State Radioecological reserve in Belarus a long 4 hour drive south from the capitol, Minsk. Our Geiger counter registers 8 times that level on entering the reserve.
Whilst high that is a level where limited exposure is harmless. Forty years on this an area for research scientists. In that time with minimal human impact, nature has taken over. Rough unmaintained roads are now crowded with rampant vegetation and trees.Animal life has flourished while traces of humanity are decaying and being slowly absorbed into nature. Tourism started here in 2018 and we are transported around with a guide in the tough as nails Soviet era UAZ vehicles. Looking like a rusty khaki coloured loaf of bread these ugly minibuses eat up rough roads.
We are taken first to a high observation tower from the top of which the domed “sarcophagus” of Chernobyl is visible on the horizon. From there a tableau unfolds of abandoned houses taken over by trees, kindergartens still with bed frames and childrens dolls decaying. There is a small hospital, veterinary clinic, farm equipment and schools all littered with the chattels of the residents who were forced to leave them at short notice. It is poignant and sad and I cannot but help to imagine my thoughts at the time if I was there having been lied to with never a chance to return. It is a tragedy that should never have occurred. Nonetheless it did not happen as a consequence of malevolent acts by any players. Sometimes we humans are swept up by an ill tide that no-one can control.
