A Visit to Chernobyl

We had the opportunity to travel with three other couples to Chernobyl yesterday. The Mission President was along with us so I thought if he was going then we could possibly be safe. Just a little bit of history about the area. In about 1972 the city of препять (Prepat) was started out in the country as a city to house those that worked at the nuclear plant named Chernobyl. Prepat became a city of 50,000 and was considered the most modern in all of Russia, actually it is on about 80 miles from Kiev and is in Ukraine, and very good place to live. It was only 13 years old when the disaster struck. On 26 April 1986 it was decided that an experiment to test the capabilties of the reactor would be done. Some of the safety precautions were removed and the test failed. Many people in the area did not know that radiation was released so they went out on roof tops to watch the cloud and fire and the children went to a bridge close to the area to watch. The firefighters and first response people died within three weeks of exposure. The next day over 35,000 people were removed from Prepat within two hours. There is no exact number of the people who have died from this. This city is still in the 8 mile radius of the ractor and is uninhabited. There are workers at the site but they stay for only about 20 minutes at a time in certain zones. Radiation levels of under 50 are considered safe, some areas go to over 3000 rads. This is a picture of reactor number 4, it is the one that failed. It is now encased in cement to keep the radiation in but that cover is failing. France has offered to pay for a new encasement.
This next picture is of reactors number 1 and 2. They were finally all closed down in the early 90's as another fire broke out and they became another safety issue.
This is a picture of reactors 5 and 6. They were to be finished in 1986, they were 90% complete but were abandoned after the first accident.




Following are some pictures of the city. The Ferris wheel was to begin running on 1 May as there is always a big May Day celebration in Russia. In fact Kiev had that celebration but none of the government officials came. This has become a famous ferris wheel. I think most of these pictures speak for themselves. The bridge is called the "Bridge of Death". You can see the diving board through the window in one picture, another is of a hotel. Will put a few of the apartment buildings on. Later looters came in and took anything that was left and sold much of the furniture in Kiev. When we were driving out we saw a herd of wild boars. There were about 15 of them and vey big. It is now called "the Ghost Town". There is hardly any noise, we heard none but think maybe those boars may make some noise some time. But as the saying goes when a tree falls if no one is there to hear is it a sound? John mentioned that he saw no birds in the area.



Chernobyl is a country town about 16 miles from the reactor site. It had about 16,000 inhabitants at the time. Now we were told that there about 40 people who have returned to their homes. If they are going to die they would rather die at home than be homesick the rest of their lives. Am posting some pictures of the town Chernobyl. There are a couple of monuments also in this area. We also had a meal prepared for us in Chernobyl.



Just wanted to show you that there really are storks - they live above the pole on the right!
Dad may be sideways but he was checked for radiation before they would let us out.





I just looked out the window and it is snowing, we thought Spring had come. We both are doing well. we have had a busy week and have been down to the city the past three days so today we are just answering phone calls from home. Tomorrow, we will have the Lees and two companionships over for dinner. Sat. will head to the Church for the RS Birthday celebration. They want me to bring Brownies so will have to make a couple of batches, probably one brownie and one Texas sheet cake. We love you all, write and let us know what is going on once in a while. Luv M&D, GM&GP, J&J