since it was struck. contaminated band and apocalyptic the chernobyl exclusion zone three decades after the nuclear disaster one man wants to revive the region. my main job easy create two new. helping to develop a principle a new phenomenon zillions of houston our civilization. which is the chernobyl duras more speaking a more broad drums to be sure makes them tourists. business is booming visitor numbers have skyrocketed and are soon expected to top one hundred thousand a year. old is a vacation like no other i don't buy that experience you won't find anywhere else to leave 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. sciri near me taking a stroll in the radioactive chernobyl exclusion zone. now we are clearly in the. beach or a sea of busy of course here of course and to be clear most of the radiation ago and what is interesting even now inside the building is the shell holes at the

scene that are become to raise their way in which they were brought in old. rooms where as if they received no more sorrow droops 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. easy.

result and. the zone is fenced off and can only be entered through one of several checkpoints this is where sarah he 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. huge crowds of dollars through who views it as

a place is. once i was and was overdue. 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. the down. and cherry noble ice cream. is that your mobile during the bill being. the drive over and use the notable essential 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 even more samples it was a hugely significant event that happened here three decades ago for me it's an opportunity to see what's happened here sense but i don't know nor does it also because of current debate on phasing out nuclear power in your own. way for to better understand why nuclear power plants need to be closed i want to see what happened here ripple on top of some of my parents are thrilled about me coming here neither is my girlfriend was known as fortunately we already have kids so she needn't worry on that account that month before the future illness and all know

about. how hazardous is the zone today. sara he did breach the tourists. when blocked for exploded on april twenty sixth. one nine hundred 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 sarah he. radioactivity is an invisible danger. radiation measurement instruments are indispensable equipment on the tour. said he

first shows the tourists how to use a geiger counter i'm not. going to. you know. you'll see i was going to be. in greece this. and then as you leave this area just again watch. some more realize how they were doing. all. 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. where it's was 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 from. no reason for alarm right off in a smile let's hope so at the end of the day we all want to go home and harm to others . trying to churn toys left behind in the rush of the evacuation. scenes that bring to mind a horror movie and soviet. it's hard to tell what's clicking more the tourists geiger counters or their cell phone cameras. because of its 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 you know and you and all the kids in this kindergarten and 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. it. was a fire as. if the started to be your old just.

prepared. and. when to fight directions. you know it's really very simple example if you never went into it you know why don't you have to ration it was supposed to start to be. good ones i feel stuff way nine hundred eighty six 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 a move for a move for new things that will. p.p.s. more charm is a money maker it draws tourists from eighty five countries. it

is good to have such a special interest in chief pressure. especially. as he said it's a vacation like now if and i'm by that experience you won't find anywhere else in the. middle i cannot. 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 ease and in the bull element of the system of there to mitigate the long. stand in the consequences of radiation accident would ensure nobody you know

it revives very brings the people. and the will at last but no definitely not at least it is the best way to long as the. also those are huge and important. role and i'm very proud that i am continuing to. i would say finish fourth all of that feels good it was to whom i brought a bottle of bill or guns or former officer of the duration of commission from general books. that are pieces of furniture are all that they are testimony to the lives abruptly event and 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.

it's 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. they say goodbye they lost their nose a. local identity they lose their community and it's

a substantial. psychological trauma it's not about what an interview drew it's about the last. 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 welcomed there. didn't i 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 here your contaminated what to do for me wasn't much.

stigmatised and far from home they could no longer bear it and returned secretly they live here illegally but are tolerated by his own officials to is mostly cleared of radiation but no one knows whether residents aren't consuming radioactive isotopes in homegrown 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 it says he when he is 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 some. as she's fondly known in the zone

lives here with her six sister sonia whom 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's on his place and then come here and then. the menu seven people you find come on over there you dish out a whole. laundry. here as well as public coming to our job i

like to bring me some coffee that probably. got him if you're 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. ruthless well known gotta have the boys a bring the flour. and the tourists bring me all needles and some of. the tourists bring everything made me i'm so grateful for these kind hearted people people are lovely. they call ahead and ask baba honey what can we bring them i tell them case here or t.l.c. i can't do without it as 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. is 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 it was built in a really short terms radiation was so high at that point it.

the reactor was completed in two thousand and eighteen. a multinational project. 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 waste in the world just a few minutes exposure to. for another hundred thousand years. the canteen is just a stone's throw from the surface contamination checks are mandatory before entering the tourists are not exempt. this is where people who work at the site eat lunch.

and the city of its name is inextricably linked 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 serve as 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 then leave to spend time in another place outside his own. tour guide says he chair enough also has a room here every fortnight he returns to his wife in their home three hundred kilometers away in sumi. it hasn't been easy for the residents of chernobyl to start new lives elsewhere. cool for too long. the people in our naval to move on so they won't find work

anywhere else and these 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 because they're too old they're unfamiliar with modern technologies and computers and they can't speak english. unless 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. which 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. point of course because i can 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. some 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 on his own crate 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 that i meant to saw it. at the end of their tour the tourists are handed a certificate identifying them as true zone visitors. it's is a zero point zero zero two zero it's it uses the go bold move for for our let's hold our state in your global zone. 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 is so is that usually enough but you know it

will be my sea. which means a corner is a big. no no surgery it was my pleasure going to get a visitor. 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 is the best kind of. well the most dramatic.

visit missions of the vehicle and well most people visit you know wastes and everest and. 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 drawn into a national park you know. from the old memorial and make sure all. to keep the memory and so no willage. technology which was employed here and which failed you know to do. so lessons of this event unfold from very far live in this area your nose is slim because in my view no it is one. of my you muslims to say of my maid of places and of course i clear through it and by laughing at you know it's something simpler.

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his mission succeed. tomorrow to next on the d w. and there with president chain reaction of the grass. around six hundred years ago. the renaissance. architects. scientists and artists of. the culture a culture of the funnest religious enjoyment of. the renaissance struck her in forty five minutes long w. . when the hour starts rising fight for survival on a set up i get me but if i get one there's a flood water comes up trying waste on your clothes faster every morning. but

a lack of water. he's equally dangerous. there john q his sleep will move south so they can plant crops and find food stamps. floods and droughts climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any are going to be snide if you want them probably more to come to. the climate exodus starts earlier on t w. hello and welcome to tomorrow today the science show on d w. coming up. breastfeeding nursing doesn't just protect babies but mothers as well. motivating a teacher from germany on

a nasa exhibition gets his class on board. and inspiring at sixteen bolin slattern idea for cleaning up theo.