to catapult out of the darkest middle ages into a good. in forty five minutes on d w. what secrets why behind the smallest. find out in an immersive experience and explore fascinating world cultural heritage sites. d w world heritage three sixty getting up. here. contaminated and an apocalyptic the chernobyl exclusion zone three decades after the nuclear disaster one man wants to revive the region. my main job easier create two new. helping to develop a principle a new phenomenon zillions of history of our civilization. which is the chernobyl

duras more speaking more broad drums tradition makes them too risky. business is booming visitor numbers have skyrocketed and are soon expected to top one hundred thousand a year. this time is a vacation like no other an unrivaled experience you won't find anywhere else but it's really nice. but for his own sparse population daily life is hard so. after the accident the people here were evacuated while they were told they'd be gone for three days but they were never allowed back into. they said we don't want you here contaminated.

syrian near me taking a stroll in the radioactive chernobyl exclusion zone. now we are here in the. future a sea of visitor force here of course and victims of the radiation. and workers in those. even now inside the beauty and because it was at the zenith to become to raise their way in which they were brought in all due to the rooms where as if they received no more sorrow during when. the workers called in to clean up after the one nine hundred eighty six chernobyl reactor explosion were officially called liquidators. but they could only contain not eliminate a disaster of this magnitude. within days one hundred thirty four liquidator suffered acute radiation poisoning twenty eight died that year. it's not known how

many people died later from radiation exposure estimates range between twenty thousand and fifty thousand. today the area around sure noble remains an exclusion zone but some pockets inside have been cleaned up and are safe to enter you know my personal opinion that uses it. should immediately be. incompetence. and the result in. the zone is fenced off and can only be entered through one of several checkpoints this is where sarah he's story began. as a chemist he was drafted into the team of first responders. this old soviet tank brings back memories of this dangerous mission thirty two years ago his reconnaissance team was sent deep into the affected area to measure radiation

levels at the time no one knew how high they really were. he is results prompted the evacuation of communities located around the reactor and the establishment of a three and a half thousand square kilometer exclusion zone. a lot has changed since then. could be as i see you huge crowds of dollars through who views it as a place is. one sells and war. sara he is keen to share his experiences as a scientist and veteran liquidator with outsiders. he offers all inclusive tours into the contaminated zone. his company already has twenty five employees competitors are jockeying for a share of this market but sirrah he is ahead of the pack.

so good marketing is part of his business strategy. t. shirts that glow in the dark. and share noble ice cream. is that your mobile during the bill being. the drug you were all for a new stage over minimalization of situation after the accident you know. then it's time for an unusual sightseeing tour. what motivates tourists to come here. why have they voluntarily entered a contaminated zone. and then more samples on it was

a hugely significant event that happened here three decades ago for me it's an opportunity to see what's happened here since what i've learnt on the wall done it also because of current debate on phasing out nuclear power in europe. to better understand why nuclear power plants need to be closed i want to see what happened here report on that of my parents are thrilled about me coming here neither is my girlfriend was known as the fortunately we already have kids so she needn't worry on that account is it more before the future it's a no no it's about. how hazardous is the zone today. sara he did breach the tourist. when block four exploded on april twenty sixth. nineteen eighty six the burning reactor spewed radioactive debris and isotopes into the air. the toxic material and dust contaminated huge swathes of land. the cleanup began immediately some eight hundred thousand liquidators were drafted in serving at great personal risk. many locations were cleared today their radiation levels are low enough to

allow short visits. but there are still highly contaminated areas that could pose a safety hazard if approached. that's why visitors can only enter the zone in the company of local guides like syria he. radioactivity is an invisible danger. radiation measurement instruments are indispensable equipment on the tour. sara he first shows the tourists how to use a geiger counter. mourn for a grim clinking i'm going to realize that. you know. you'll see. greens this. and then as you leave this area just again watch your read some more.

the soil around this tree is still emitting radioactivity two point seven millisieverts per second that's about fifteen times higher than natural background radiation short exposure though is harmless just a fraction of an x. ray. there used to be a village here. after the accident it was dismantled and buried. it's kindergarten is all that remains. is what it says so this is just. higher than kiev's radiation level i think you have has zero point eight team the hot spot here at the tree was six point seven in some places i'm. no reason for alarm right off from a smile let's hope so at the end of the day we all want to go home unharmed and. furniture and toys left behind in the rush of the evacuation. seems that bring to

mind the horror movie and soviet and salinger. it's hard to tell what's clicking more the tourists geiger counters or their cell phone cameras. stick on the phone it's beeping the whole time it makes for a bit of a weird atmosphere. you can't help remembering this was a place where people lived in and you and all the kids in this kindergarten you see the little beds the atmosphere is strange bit like a cemetery really going. to is a ghost town built by the soviets for plant workers and their families it was home to fifty thousand people until the accident then they were all evacuated.

exemplifies the legacy of the disaster like no other place in the zone. well be. true. so i. prepared. if the started to become your old just as a symbol of the. so until frederick sounds well you know it's really really simple example if you never went into it you know why don't you have to ration it was supposed to stop being. the ones i feel stuff way one thousand nine hundred sixty it was almost

a radius and then five days before the accident happened you know and now this view which was never enough to ration. is the most famous for its new things that will. p.p.s. more charm is a money maker it draws tourists from eighty five countries. is good to have such a special interest in cheap pressure. as he said it's a vacation like now of this experience you won't find anywhere else in the zoo for . me it's like not. completely preserved.

our guide hopes visitors can help the region around sure noble improve its image and image he says that also must be decontaminated. that tourism eases and the inevitable element of the system of there to mitigate the long. stand in the consequences of every day from the accident that include ensure a low ball you know it. brings the people. and the will at last but no definitely not at least it is the best way to long as the. those are huge and important. role and i'm going to proud that i am continuing to well i would say feeney is there for us all of that feels good it was to whom i brought a bottle of beer warm because a former officer from duration to overcome is from from chernobyl.

battered pieces of furniture are all that bear testimony to the lives abruptly event in previous. liquidators destroyed and buried almost everything. thousands of abandoned pets had to be caught and put down for fear they would carry radioactive dust out of the zone. eerie calm cast a spell on visitors. kilometer after kilometer surfacing beneath the brushwood empty houses abandoned villages.

three hundred fifty thousand people were evacuated from the zone from one day to the next their lives changed forever. they were resettled in other towns and villages wherever there was room. many today live hundreds of kilometers from their former home. and they say they lost their nose a. local identity they lose their community and lives a substantial. or psychological trauma it's not about what an individual it's about the last. to. places. that may be why life has returned to some villages in the zone like in cuba about thirty kilometers southeast of the reactor. and her husband even were resettled following the disaster. they had nothing but the clothes on their backs when they

arrived at their designated destination a village one hundred kilometers away but they were never welcome there. didn't they want a friend who does some of the locals wanted to stop those of us who'd been resettled from using the well. they threw straw and hay into it so we couldn't they said we don't want you hit your contaminated much. stigmatized and far from home they could no longer bear it and returned secretly they live here illegally but are tolerated by zone officials to is mostly cleared of radiation but no one knows whether residents aren't consuming radioactive isotopes in home grown food even and maria nevertheless provide for themselves they rule out the possibility of danger. there is no radioactivity here i don't believe it i've been living here for thirty one years if

there was radioactivity i'd be long gone this is my home. today an estimated one hundred forty people live illegally in the zone most are elderly and can't imagine living anywhere else. eighty five year old hannah is one of the returning settlers known as someone. but behind you as she's fondly known in the zone lives here with her sick sister sonja she cares for all by herself. the two women wouldn't think of leaving their home again. i knew this is where i was born in this is well i don't want to move into a retirement home if i can no longer walk someone will bring me water so i can die here. but you know it's something of a celebrity in the zone and gets regular visits from tourists. if only.

a guide says he's coming around with a large group oh hello. may god protect you oh how many are coming. that's when you drive by son his place and then come here and then. i'm in the seven people you find come on over there you held a whole. laundry. here as well as public coming to tell me how you like to bring me some coffee that probably. got him. ok i'll make some pancakes for you would i. know that when you can no longer work the fields she depends on the gifts brought by visitors it's hard to get hold of food. a mobile shop selling the basic necessities comes by once a month at most. rehearsal of only gotta have the boys or bring the

flour. the tourists bring me all needles and semolina the tourists bring everything made me i'm so grateful for these kind hearted people people a little bit early. i think a little ahead and baba honey what can we bring there i tell them cape fear what you don't see i can't do without it yes i know me she. she serves up a spread of mashed potatoes bacon and lots of vodka. offers homemade food and the chance to visit a real somewhat silly there is no other place in the world like it. it's the third tour group of the day is waiting outside her door. meanwhile sarah he and his group have arrived at the epicenter of the disaster

reactor block for. it's the highlight of every tour. here like in the hand so this monument you could see the look of the first circles i guess but it was good in really short terms radiation was so high at that point it. sometimes. fifteen twenty seconds. to build it in a good way. around the reactor was completed in two thousand and eighteen. a multinational project that cost more than two billion euros the giant steel shelter is designed to contain radiation from the plant for the next century but is still only a temporary solution. deep inside is the molten core of the reactor known as the most toxic chunk of waste in the world just a few minutes exposure to its intense radiation would be lethal. like mass will

remain radioactive for another hundred thousand years. the canteen is just a stone's throw from the. contamination checks are mandatory before entering the tourists are not exempt. this is where people who work at the site eat lunch. in the city of its name is. to the world's worst manmade disaster. but it isn't abandoned life goes on at least to some degree buildings have been restored to service housing for workers in the zone. there are bars a sports facility and shops with a small selection of goods. but because living in the exclusion zone is illegal people commute they spend one week here to spend time in another place outside his

home. also has a room here every fortnight he returns to his wife and their home three hundred kilometers away in sumi. it hasn't been easy for the residents of trying to start new lives elsewhere. through two long approach the people in sure no ball are unable to move on so they won't find work anywhere else and they've been working here for twenty or thirty years he said little they've grown accustomed to the place people have grown accustomed to each other it's too late to leave that to old they're unfamiliar with modern technologies and computers and they can't speak english when it elise they're living out their old age here.

and i've used to live in this room with his wife but she had to leave his own because of health issues. he wants to stay a few more years to work and money then he too will leave the zone to start a new chapter he has it all planned. a good pension quiet old age a fishing rod a river and a dock. back at the checkpoint for the tourists it's almost time to leave. what's to take away from their journey into the exclusion zone. with the social

might say a lot of historical facts were conveyed also by the guide lots of interesting details. and we saw quite a lot it was a first hand experience like being in a living museum or cemetery depending on how to look at it. or you of course because as i got alternately it's up to each individual to decide what they gain from this kind of tourism whether it's simply snapshots or more than just memories . the message they want to convey. or a real awareness of what could happen if a reactor blew up in a heavily populated area in france or england on going down is unclear this could happen near paris brussels or london specifically my take away is the empathy i feel for the people who live here also it showed me the same thing could happen anywhere else and it would be equally dramatic. and next week i must say the magic is all the way. at the end of their tour the tourists are handed a certificate identifying them as true zone visitors today in this group it's is

a zero point zero zero two wheelers the route it uses the moves of four four hour let's roll for the hours they have that your low blows will. that's about equal to the dose of radiation passengers sustain on a flight from paris to new york. well if this is them does all that it does here so is the fuselage enough but you know it will be my c. . which actually was a corner as a big. no no surgery it was my pleasure coverage of israel. then it's time to return to kiev for the tourists this was an excursion a once in a lifetime experience. the area of the exclusion zone will remain contaminated for thousands of years because of a single accident in

a nuclear power plant. sara he believes it offers more than just a stark lesson from mankind. well and you know this area is actually one of the cleanest areas not in the only in ukraine but perhaps in europe because for thirty years there were literally no industry here visit museums no agriculture group culture views the best kind of good sides well the most dramatic. visit museums of the vehicle. people visit visit you know urban wastes and very soon. he has a road map for the region's future so he wants to see the exclusion zone added to unesco's list of world heritage sites. he's already filed the application i believe it is this area should be drummed into a national you know. a mobile national memorial and

make sure all. to keep their memory ends and the luge. technology which was employed here and which failed you know to to come very solicitous of this event and very far live in this area their noses in my god you know it is one of my you muslims my native places and of course i hear through it and very loudly if you know it's a simpler. number

has a whole chain reaction of breasts. around six hundred years ago. and the renaissance. architects. scientists are. trying to. darkest

enjoying. this demon spawn d.w. . your miserable reaction of breasts. began around six hundred years. to go in the renaissance of the revolution in flash enabled us many people became aware of their abilities and strengths and a new way there was an outpouring of self-confidence mentions it's the force. for. artists. to come into the darkness to enjoy.

d.w. . about its history when i arrived here i slept with six people in a room for him. it was hard i was free. i even got white hair is the. language. this gives me a little but ultimately to instruct us and say if you want to know their story lets her writing and reliable information for margaret. but the worst part was it like force of. her is clearly dangerous. floods and droughts will climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can the right up are going to fix not if you want and

probably most of them will come from. the climate exodus starts giving up thirty s on t.w. . play. this is d.w. news live from berlin a divisive and uncertain general election in spain many voters are still undecided even as they go to the polls no posse is expected to win a majority in the far right looks set to enter parliament for the first time in decades also coming out of the deadly force of the shoreline of momentous new

footage of merges showing the moment one of the last hit the country remains on edge one week on caring for attacks.