Welcome to Chernobyl! The atomic amusement park

WELCOME TO CHERNOBYL! THE ATOMIC AMUSEMENT PARK

(Ukraine 2014-2019)

Yuriy Tatarchuck is the deputy director of the area's department of tourism and sightseeing in the exclusion zone, and has been living in Chernobyl since 1998, the town being sadly famous because of the nuclear accident of 1986, and since then within an exclusion zone. His main job is the tourist guide. It would seem a paradox, to do the tourist guide in a restricted area, but instead it is. Since 2011, the year in which the Ukrainian government has opened the door of the exclusion zone to the tourists' visit, about 60,000 people a year cross the radiation border.

There are now dozens of tour operators from Kiev organizing the all-inclusive "Chernobyl tour", a day in the most significant places of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The classic one-day tour includes a visit to the city of Chernobyl, the stop in front of the sarcophagus covering the reactor exploded, and the monument in memory of the firemen burned by radiation in the early hours of the incident. The visit to some abandoned villages where the so-called "resettlers" returned to live and the visit to Pripyat, the town of 50 thousand inhabitants located three kilometers from the nuclear power plant and evacuated two days after the explosion. For the more adventurous there are custom tours, even for more days.

The tourists are welcomed into a guesthouse in the town of Chernobyl built years ago for scientists, journalists and photographers and recently renewed for tourists, with good accommodation and an excellent restaurant where they served three good and abundant meals a day. All this made to live fully, but with the convenience of the tourist, the intensity of the "end of the world." Tourists come from all over the world: US, Europe, Australia, Japan, South America, with the most different reasons: fans of abandoned places, or tourists of extreme places, people interested in history or to see with their own eyes the consequences of a nuclear accident. Or just curious.

But today, after 30 years of neglect, while nature is taking over the area thanks to the absence of humanity, the zone has become decadent and crumbling. The buildings are falling apart, especially in Pripyat. Now the greatest danger here are no longer radiations, which in any case still remain a problem as they are always very high in most of the area, but the fact that a rubble can fall on the head, or worse an entire building. For this reason the government, which regularly checks the conditions of the abandoned buildings, has started putting restrictions for tourists, for security reasons. Many areas have become off-limits. And they will become more and more. Maybe up to get rid of in the near future, tourism from Chernobyl.

Today tourism in this new Pompeii has become fundamental. It helps the local economy, 60,000 people a year, are not few for a place that would have to be abandoned and forbidden. Here the nuclear amusement park works well, so well that the Ukrainian government plans to bring the number of tourists to one million a year. But forgetting that everything here is contaminated, and it will be for millennia. That the area is called “exclusion zone” because it should exclude people's access to avoid the risks for their health, even if tour operators assure "no risk". And also to preserve the respect for the memory of this tragedy as a warning for humanity and not to transform Chernobyl into an amusement park for tourists passionate of horrid, abandoned places and selfies, as it has become today Chernobyl.

Selfie in front of the stele of Pripyat, exclusion zone

Atomic souvenir shop at the check point of 30 km exclusion zone

Tourist while taking a souvenir photo holding the skull of a cow, scientific laboratories, exclusion zone

The van of tourists arrived at the check point of the 30 km exclusion zone, checking documents and permits

The guardian of the ghost towm of Pripyat

Explanation of the guide in front of the exclusion zone’s map, check point of the 30 kilometer exclusion zone

Inside the kindergarten "Zolotoj Kluchik", the golden key, Pripyat, exclusion zone, compositions made by tourists to take pictures

Selfie from the roof of a building in the city of Pripyat with distant views of the nuclear power plant, zone of exclusion

a portrait of Lenin insiide a building in the ghost town of Pripyat

Exploring the swimming pool gym, Pripyat, exclusion zone

Alexsey while taking a picture to another participant of the tour, on the roof of a building in Pripyat, exclusion zone. Aleksey is from Odessa and came to Chernobyl because he wanted to see how it was a city in the Soviet era

In the main square of Pripyat, exclusion zone

Yuriy Tatarchuck on ice inside the abandoned electronics factory. The whole basement is flooded and during the winter becomes a slab of ice, where it is possible to walk. Pripyat, exclusion zone

The hotel which hosts tourists in Chernobyl town, exclusion zone

Inside the school number 1, Pripyat, exclusion zone

Alexey is practicing to become a Chernobyl tourist guide, here he is in the lobby of Pripyat hospital waiting for the tourists, Pripyat, exclusion zone

The house of culture, a portrait of the soviet leader Yuri Andropov.

The chef of the hotel near the Chernobyl gadgets for tourists, Chernobyl city, the exclusion zone

Yuriy Tatarchuck inside a building while waiting for tourists going around

a graffiti inside a building in the ghost town of Pripyat

Inside the scientific laboratories, the exclusion zone

Francesco is from Italy, here is inside the scientific laboratories, the exclusion zone.

Jose with his wife while they make a souvenir photo in front of the military antenna Duga 3. They come from Argentina and are doing a tour of Ukraine and Poland. they have thought to include in the tour the visit to Chernobyl as definitely unusual

Tourists with their guide in the main square of Pripyat, exclusion zone

written by tourist on the board of the school number 1 in Pripyat

Tourists while watching a fox in the main square of Pripyat, exclusion zone

Gabriele playing with bumpers cars, Pripyat exclusion zone

Ida in the square of Ferris wheel while measuring the radioactivity with her Geiger counter. Ida comes from Norway and is passionate about abandoned places.

Tourists while photographing in front of the stele of Pripyat, exclusion zone

a Tourist in front of sarcophagus of reactor number four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Gadgets for tourists inside the hotel, Chernobyl city, the exclusion zone

Tourists while taking a picture in front of sarcophagus of reactor number four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Selfies inside the control room of reactor number 2, Chernobyl nuclear power plant

inside a building in the complex antenna Duga 3, exclusion zone

Canteen near the nuclear power plant where tourists do lunch break during the tour, the exclusion zone

Yevgen Goncharenko in a work break in the bar inside the hotel, Chernobyl city, the exclusion zone

Tourists Van waiting to leave after the visit to the science labs, the exclusion zone

Yuriy Tatarchuck while giving to tourists diplomas certifying their visit to the exclusion zone

a radiation warning sign in the Chernobyl exclusion Zone