Lost Places - Chornobyl Zone

Afternoon December 23, 2011. Two hours on the road and from snowdrifts and ice of Regina Forest Resort, we again find ourselves in a warm autumn. The road crosses the western part of the Fukushima’s trace “horseshoe”. Gamma background level inside our van, reaching up to 1.5 µSv/h, gradually declining. We get into the territory of a moderate contamination. We entering Miharu and park in the centre of town near the town hall. On the street level of gamma background is about 0.3 µSv/h – almost clean...

Departed yesterday, December 22, from warm and sunny as in autumn, Nihonmatsu and slept a couple hours in the van, we woke up in the snowy cold mountains district of Iwase (岩瀬郡), in Hatoriko Highland Regina Forest Resort.

Tokyo, December 22, 2011, 8:00 am. We, along with the crew of German TV channel ZDF, loading our stuff and equipment into a van and drive out to the shooting in Fukushima prefecture (福岛県). Since March 2011, it is the most famous Japanese prefecture, just like our Chornobyl, which became notorious throughout the world since April 1986.

November 11th, 2011 at 3 pm on the second stage of ChNPP (third and fourth units of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant) goes the process of installing a new ventilation stack. In connection with the construction of the NSC (new safe confinement) of the damaged Unit 4 ChNPP, it became necessary to replace the old ventilation stack and to install a new pipe, the smaller size. The height of the new shelter is a little over 100 meters and the old 150–meter pipe does not fit into the project. After installing the new ventilation stack, old pipe will be dismantled and the second stage of Chornobyl NPP (3 and 4 blocks) will lose forever its usual shape.