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2024-05-11 14:25:46
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 PorkChopExpress
      
Location: Pled's Pig Farm, Virginia
Gender: Male
Stand Up Philosopher
 |  | Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
< on 12/13/2010 9:31 PM >
|  | | | Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
By MARIA DANILOVA, AP
KIEV, Ukraine — Want a better understanding of the world's worst nuclear disaster? Come tour the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.
Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people were resettled from areas contaminated with radiation fallout in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Related health problems still persist.
The so-called exclusion zone, a highly contaminated area within a 30-mile (48-kilometer) radius of the exploded reactor, was evacuated and sealed off in the aftermath of the explosion. All visits were prohibited.
Today, about 2,500 employees maintain the remains of the now-closed nuclear plant, working in shifts to minimize their exposure to radiation. Several hundred evacuees have returned to their villages in the area despite a government ban. A few firms now offer tours to the restricted area, but the government says those tours are illegal and their safety is not guaranteed.
Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova said experts are developing travel routes that will be both medically safe and informative for Ukrainians as well as foreign visitors. She did not give an exact date when the tours were expected to begin.
"There are things to see there if one follows the official route and doesn't stray away from the group," Yershova told The Associated Press. "Though it is a very sad story."
The United Nations Development Program chief Helen Clark toured the Chernobyl plant together with Baloha on Sunday and said she supported the plan because it could help raise money and tell an important lesson about nuclear safety.
"Personally I think there is an opportunity to tell a story here and of course the process of telling a story, even a sad story, is something that is positive in economic terms and positive in conveying very important messages," said Clark, according to her office.
The ministry also said Monday it hopes to finish building a new safer shell for the exploded reactor by 2015. The new shelter will cover the original iron-and-concrete structure hastily built over the reactor that has been leaking radiation, cracking and threatening to collapse.
The new shell is 345 feet (105 meters) tall, 853 feet (260 meters) wide and 490 feet (150 meters) long. It weighs 20,000 tons and will be slid over the old shelter using rail tracks. The new structure will be big enough to house the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York.
The overall cost of project, financed by international donors, has risen from $505 million (euro380 million) to $1.15 billion (euro870 million) because of stricter safety requirements, according to Ukrainian officials.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which manages the project, said a final estimate of the project's cost will be released after the French-led consortium Novarka finalizes a construction plan in the next few months.
http://www.comcast...Chernobyl.Tourism/
"Deep in the human psyche there lies the need to believe in something fantastic, something powerful, something unknown."
"Touch what you cannot solve, and return to me. I'll give you hints, and I'll give you three..." Zork Nemesis "I eat asbestos and piss PCBs." |
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Hocksmonovits
Location: Podunk town in Washington state
Gender: Male
118th Tactical Fighter Wing
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 1 on 12/14/2010 1:53 AM >
| | | | Pretty darn cool, if II may say so myself. Just how irradiated is the place still, is my question
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TrixieSparrow
 
Location: Hamilton, ON
Gender: Female
I guess.
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 3 on 12/14/2010 2:00 AM >
| | | | Posted by PorkChopExpress
Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
"There are things to see there if one follows the official route and doesn't stray away from the group," Yershova told The Associated Press.
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Oh I shall visit some day. And of cooooourse I will be good and follow the official route and neeever stray away! Why would I eeeever do that?
Bahahahahahahaha! Oh god, that's too funny.
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Macs Speed
Location: Ottawa
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 4 on 12/14/2010 2:58 AM >
| | | | This is one place that I'd actually follow the official path.
It was the same when I was in Cambodia in 1996, stay on the path, cause off the path there may be a land mine. Stepping on one of those can ruin your whole day.
Knowledge is always of use to the intellect! For, nothing may be loved, or hated, without first being known. |
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Neophile
Location: Chicago, IL
Gender: Female
She dreams in digital.
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 5 on 12/14/2010 4:16 AM >
| | | | It looks like the Ukrainian government has finally figured out that there is a lot of money in Chernobyl tourism and is trying to take all of the action.
When I was there in September the guards were well aware that there were tours going on and did not care.
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earthworm
Location: General Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 6 on 12/27/2010 10:26 AM >
| | | | So, when are we going to admit to ourselves that we are nothing but a bunch of tourists?
Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal. |
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rob.i.am
 
Gender: Male
Carpe noctum
| | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 7 on 12/27/2010 1:57 PM >
| | | | Posted by earthworm
So, when are we going to admit to ourselves that we are nothing but a bunch of tourists?
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From dictionary.com:
tourist: a person who is traveling, esp. for pleasure
From urbandictionary.com:
tourist: An individual who takes part in certain activities or attends particular meetings because they are trendy or popular, usually without regard to whether or not such activities or the subject matter of such meetings interest or pertain to them at all.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob666/ |
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yokes
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| |  | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 8 on 12/27/2010 2:30 PM >
| | | | Also, in 2011, UER.ca will add a search feature.
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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MonkeyPunchBaby
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 9 on 12/27/2010 4:36 PM >
| | | | My wife and I decided that we alternates who gets to choose what we do for our wedding anniversary. I already decided I wanted to do Chernobyl as one of the ones I would choose. Now with this, it makes it a lot easier to be able to go and do this. I am very excited about this.
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yokes
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| | | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 10 on 12/27/2010 5:29 PM >
| | | | Posted by earthworm
So, when are we going to admit to ourselves that we are nothing but a bunch of tourists?
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I did that a long time ago. I don't see what the problem is with the term.
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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micro
Gender: Male
Slowly I turned
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 11 on 12/27/2010 7:37 PM >
| | | | Posted by yokes
I don't see what the problem is with the term.
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It's like being called a hipster. No one wants to be labeled a tourist even if their activity is based on acting and consuming like one.
I think that it's a fitting label to apply whenever any of us travel great distances to see something in particular without ever investing large amounts of time to be able to get to know a place well. It's pretty fashionable these days for explorers to set off on a 'Grand Tour' of locations, especially ones found in the northeast. I've engaged in that sort of thing before and I'd be the first to admit that it's essentially tourism at that point. We'd rather call it 'exploring' though because it sounds less dismissive.
At the same time, I'd be uncomfortable with the the term being applied in reference to the past three years I've spent exploring and documenting my city's sewers. The same goes for a lot of of other people here who manage to avoid the fast-track, checklist mentality that often comes with urban exploration. I'm not sure when exactly something becomes tourism, but I'm pretty sure that the amount of time spent examining something combined with its distance from your home are two very large factors. At least they are for me..
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Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 12 on 12/28/2010 1:54 AM >
|  | | | Posted by micro
It's pretty fashionable these days for explorers to set off on a 'Grand Tour' of locations, especially ones found in the northeast. I've engaged in that sort of thing before and I'd be the first to admit that it's essentially tourism at that point. We'd rather call it 'exploring' though because it sounds less dismissive.
At the same time, I'd be uncomfortable with the the term being applied in reference to the past three years I've spent exploring and documenting my city's sewers. The same goes for a lot of of other people here who manage to avoid the fast-track, checklist mentality that often comes with urban exploration. I'm not sure when exactly something becomes tourism, but I'm pretty sure that the amount of time spent examining something combined with its distance from your home are two very large factors. At least they are for me..
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You could never be a tourist in your own hometown, but whether you gleam something substantial is the part where I think the distinction can make or break that argument. You can also find a place or subject really riveting and maybe no one else cares. Either way people have different levels of engagement which is highly subjective and spending 2 years on something vs. an afternoon will mean vastly different things depending on who you ask.
Traveling with checklists to places many others have visited to recreate 'photographic inspiration is a whole 'nother issue on par with say Roloff Beny (whose work I still like).
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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rob.i.am
Gender: Male
Carpe noctum
| | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 13 on 12/28/2010 2:06 AM >
|  | | | Posted by Air
You could never be a tourist in your own hometown
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Really? Why not? I think many people are tourists in their own hometowns.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob666/ |
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Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 14 on 12/28/2010 2:32 AM >
| | | | Posted by rob.i.am
Really? Why not? I think many people are tourists in their own hometowns.
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Well for one the actual definition refers to traveling.
tour·ist
/ˈtʊərɪst/ Show Spelled[toor-ist] Show IPA
–noun
1.
a person who is traveling, esp. for pleasure.
http://dictionary....com/browse/tourist
I've traveled extensively but have always lived for the most part in the same city. Even when I find something 'new' to engage with in town, I certainly don't feel like a complete stranger 'visiting'.
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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rob.i.am
Gender: Male
Carpe noctum
| | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 15 on 12/28/2010 2:41 AM >
| | | | Posted by Air
Well for one the actual definition refers to traveling.
tour·ist
/ˈtʊərɪst/ Show Spelled[toor-ist] Show IPA
–noun
1.
a person who is traveling, esp. for pleasure.
http://dictionary....com/browse/tourist
I've traveled extensively but have always lived for the most part in the same city. Even when I find something 'new' to engage with in town, I certainly don't feel like a complete stranger 'visiting'.
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I posted that same definition earlier in this thread. 
What I meant was, someone who has lived their whole life in Toronto can still be a tourist in Toronto, particularly if you take someone living in (for example) Etobicoke, and send them downtown.
I'm not trying to be argumentative (particularly), I'm just saying that if your world is very small you don't have to go far to be a tourist (where "your world" can be literal or figurative).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob666/ |
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Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 16 on 12/28/2010 2:59 AM >
| | | | Posted by rob.i.am
I posted that same definition earlier in this thread.
What I meant was, someone who has lived their whole life in Toronto can still be a tourist in Toronto, particularly if you take someone living in (for example) Etobicoke, and send them downtown.
I'm not trying to be argumentative (particularly), I'm just saying that if your world is very small you don't have to go far to be a tourist (where "your world" can be literal or figurative).
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Well, I just think that it implies travel, nothing more. That could be a week (say you go to a resort in Cancun) and do nothing but sit on the patio and drink...and maybe go into a small town once to buy some trinkets), or it could mean living somewhere for a year. What you take away depends on your needs and desires. I know many people who haven't even been to East York but they grew up in Toronto. I guess that could count as well?
The deal breaker for me is how you go about finding things, whether in a linear fashion, such as picking up a lonely planet travel book or a non-linear method as maybe reading someone's blog, looking at old maps, whatever. The more effort you put into something, leaves you with something more valuable to take away. Chernobyl had great appeal to people when it was still a sexy story on a geocities page by a Russian woman on a motorbike. It didn't take much effort for someone to find out how to go and get a guided tour. Now that its MORE open and the access has changed, MORE people will now go in droves making this less exotic, or whatever. It always was tourism, but maybe people felt marginally less dirty with that idea vs. going on a tour of the HERSHEY plant.
And I probably would be a tourist in Brampton ;)
[last edit 12/28/2010 3:01 AM by Air - edited 1 times]
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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rob.i.am
Gender: Male
Carpe noctum
| | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 17 on 12/28/2010 3:03 AM >
| | | | Posted by Air
The more effort you put into something, leaves you with something more valuable to take away. |
Agreed!
Posted by Air
And I probably would be a tourist in Brampton ;)
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I hear it's beautiful in the summer....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob666/ |
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yokes
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| | | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 18 on 12/28/2010 3:12 AM >
| | | | Tourist: someone who goes somewhere others have gone in the past for a similar reason or experience.
Explorer: someone who goes someplace no one has gone in the past, or at least not in the same capacity.
(just a thought)
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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yokes
Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
I aim to misbehave
| | | | Re: Ukraine to open Chernobyl area to tourists in 2011
<Reply # 19 on 12/28/2010 3:12 AM >
| | | | Posted by rob.i.am
I hear it's beautiful in the summer....
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You were lied to
"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel |
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