Radiation levels in The Zone

Radiation is a massive subject, which I still don't fully understand. But I didn’t take this trip lightly, as I didn’t my previous visits. It does increase your chances of getting thyroid cancer, but so does eating bananas.

Put VERY simply: The main types of radiation are Alpha: which can be stopped by paper. Beta: which can be stopped by cotton or skin. And Gamma, which needs concrete and lead. So I blocked A&B with protective clothing, but couldn’t wear concrete, so just had to limit my exposure to Gamma.

But it’s not that simple. I can spend all day protecting myself from getting Alpha particles into me, then have a shower with the workers, breath in some Chernobyl steam and ingest a ‘hot particle’. Or get drunk with the guards, and forget about the radiation and clean my teeth in Chernobyl water….

The sand bucket had spent a lot of time above an open reactor, and had become 'charged'. but the area around it was pretty low.

Chernobyl town avoided the worst of the radiation as the wind blew westwards, then north, and it is South of the power plant. It has also been cleaned.

A typical UK reading (My house, & Luton airport) is 0.11Msv. A lot of places in the south go up to 0.36Msv.

On the plane, we were that bit closer to the sun, and it went up to 2.95 Msv (27 times higher than Luton)
So for the three hour flight I absorbed the same radiation of being in Luton for 3 days (God forbid)

Here's where I slept:
0.06Msv


Oh the 30Km checkpoint was also 0.06Msv.

Here's inside Reactor 5 cooling tower, 3.85MSv (64 times higher than zone entry)


BUT I was here for 20 mins, so absorbed way less radiation than on the flight here (2.95 Msv for 3 hours) than being in Reactor 5's cooling tower!

Here I am 100m from Reactor 4, it's gone up to five and a half MSv (91 times (9,100%) greater than exclusion checkpoint):


Here's a bit of fairground, just above 35Msv, an inch from the ground, on the ground it went up to 143, That’s 2,383 times (238,333% more than exclusion checkpoint)


Here's the Kindergarten, 0.16Msv. Similar to what we're all getting in the UK right now:


I took readings near the thousands of Msv - but limited my exposure to just seconds.

If you slept in the sand bucket, you’d be pretty ill within the day. If you slept where I slept you’d’ be safer than the British countryside.

To be honest - while I was there - I walked across rafters above swimming pools, balancing with no hands then hung off a 16 storey ledge. Then went across rotten floors to a basement filled with asbestos, and a store room filled with broken neon lights, filled with freon - all 1,000 times more likely instantly to kill me than radiation.

I've taken loads of negative comments from zone visitors this week for posting photos of low level readings on Geiger counters. And have also had comments from zone guides saying that my comments on how safe it is will put people off coming for that 'extreme adventure'.

I expect to get similar responses for posting this - but... I don't care I just want to give an honest documentary.