What It’s Like to Work in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Scott said that his team had done tests outside the nuclear facility in the 2,600 square kilometers (1,000 square miles) of abandoned land in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), created in the years after the accident to keep humans away from potentially harmful radiation. In recent years, the CEZ has become an unexpected haven for wildlife (as has Fukushima’s exclusion zone) as well as tourists who flock to the area. (Someone even made vodka from grain grown within the CEZ, although agriculture is prohibited.)
In 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared the region an official tourist attraction—thanks in part to an uptick of interest following HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries—and the government even opened the previously-off-limits Reactor 4 room to tourists. (You’re only allowed inside for five minutes, and you need to take radiation tests after your visit.) A scientist showed the BBC last year how some radiation readings in places in the CEZ were lower than those you’d get in an airplane.
