ABC News In-depth 
Once the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl is now a major tourist destination, thanks to a wildly popular TV drama. We go beyond the crowds to reveal the secret life inside Chernobyl’s exclusion zone.
It’s byword for disaster and contamination. A lasting reminder of the devastation of nuclear meltdown, government-sanctioned cover-up and radiation sickness.
Now, thanks to the wild success of the HBO series dramatising the world’s worst nuclear accident, the site of Chernobyl in Ukraine has become a global tourist hotspot.
Geiger-counter in hand, Europe correspondent Linton Besser explores the enduring impact of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
He joins the hordes of tourists who arrive each day to wander around the ghost towns and near the abandoned reactor.
“I heard a lot of stories…there are mutants there, there are creatures inside ,” says Australian tourist Nick, one of hundreds visiting the site from around the world.
Besser goes where tourists can’t, beyond the decaying town of Pripyat, into the contaminated exclusion zone where he meets the secret communities who have defied evacuation orders to return home.
The ‘babushkas’ – grandmothers – continue to grow their own food and drink water from their wells, despite the persistent presence of radiation.
“This is our motherland, it cannot be replaced,” says one babushka, sipping homemade vodka. “We want to die in our village. It’s our most cherished dream ,” says another.
Foreign Correspondent uncovers the strange sub-culture of Stalkers, young rebels attracted to the dangers of the zone – the threat of police, wild animals and radiation. “Life among death, is the main philosophy of Stalkers ,” says one man who’s made a niche business smuggling thrill-seekers in by night.
And we meet the disaster’s youngest victims – the children from the fallout zone who are suffering from radiation-related illnesses. “The soil should have been removed from the contaminated area, ” says one nurse at a children’s hospital. “But that wasn’t done. Everything was left as it was.”
Thirty years on, Ukraine still has 15 nuclear reactors providing the nation’s energy and many are operating despite reaching their designed lifespan. Local anti-nuclear campaigners say another disaster is a real possibility.
While some locals see this tourism boom as exploitative, many are glad their story is being told. “Everyone should know what had happened her,” says 73 year-old Sofia, standing barefoot in her garden. “ It’s hard to remember. Very hard ,” she cries. “Radiation is an invisible enemy”.
Read more here: https://ab.co/2jTN1nu
About Foreign Correspondent:
Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia’s national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC’s television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.
Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC’s Online Terms of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3). This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel
source
About The Author
That there are tours going to any part of the site that is still radioactive is beyond belief!!
If one needs to get into protective gear and carry Geiger counters should be a clear sign you don’t need to be there!!
Enjoy those Radioactive strawberries.
No one is actually supposed to be there without a protective suit on. If his wife gets pregnant now she will have mutated babies,and it is all because of his dumb human curiosity
Now, let's do a video of the aftermath of both places where the US dropped the Atomic bomb at.
Oof
oof
Those British tourists should volunteer and go visit those kids that will probably die before they reach 20 from cancer!! Shame on those clueless tourists who roll out the red carpet for toxic cellular changes to their bodies as well as mock the victims that died tortuous deaths!!
Arghh so much of this is hyped to the point of inaccuracy😪 the commercialisation makes me sad
Less than 100 people left now, many of these people are no longer with us ❤️
that’s saf
Vanessa putin on the thumbnail
bro the oof death sound origin was here. how
they are essentially dancing and posing on the graves of plant workers, firemen, liquidators, miners, civilians. How can anyone ethically turn this into an 'exciting' 'mutant' search when so many children are being treated to this day for birth defects and thyroid cancer. Their glee, their selfies define barbarism.
How old lol and she looks stronger and more full of life than most in the UK I know!
They grow fresh veg and fruit but I like in the UK on sick pay unable to afford most foods.
Wtf!! Do another disaster is around the corner oh and Putin bombing the place means the world will have even more nuclear disaster.
Not as much "poor", but extremely corrupt ………………………..
Let’s keep building nuclear power plants. It’s so safe and green for the planet lol. At the end of the day money comes before safety and that will never change. Humans are greedy by nature so nothing will change unless you can afford to live off planet in the future
Just wait until the "stalkers" want to grow up and have kids, that's when they'll regret it
What an enviable level of freedom in a "communist" country….beyond western understanding. Probably, we have to rethink Western "democracy " and "freedoms"
Ppl could have been evacuated as soon as possible. Also, why would someone want to ever come back here?! Don't ppl fear getting exposed to radiation?
How and why are people allowed to go there. It still is highly radioactive and will be for the next 1000 years before it is habitable again (and that is a guess) as far as I have read. Why would people expose themselves to that knowingly.
Pretty disrespectful visitors. Grow up.
Nuclear power is much safer than what we are using now. Fossil fuels kill millions of people per year but no one ever talks about them.
time stoped in there.. looks like ukraina not much changed from sssr times… sad….
Oh my- making a tourism industry out of a catastrophic human and evironmental disaster?!? What is wrong with people who run this and tourists who visit?! Disgusting and disrespectful. Big thumbs down 🤤💩💩👎👎
aww I want the cute cat at 26:28
My heart goes out to those old ducks still living in there house within the exclusion zone.😢 My fist goes out to the USSR Soviet era government 😤😤
we know not what we do
❤🩹
I believe they where albe to hone in the deaths, caused directly from the explosion in chernobyl , to 32
I would love to go on a tour there
4000-24000
Seek his Facebook
The Chernobyl vodka looked really good. I think it actually would be a hit with slightly radioactive moonshine from the exclusion zone. A big liter bottle, shaped like a corroded, rusty, dirty thing, with a big yellow radioactive sign on it.
Due to the flawed reactor design and untrained nightshift employees, came at one result.
I could say it's incredibly Morbid to holiday at Chernobyl but it happens everywhere doesn't it ?
I mean other sites of mass human suffering and despair for those left behind.. even watching the videos leaves me in tears . I don't think I could handle a tour .