# Radioactive Samples Lab (ex. Kindergarten) Pripyat



## UrbanX (Jun 24, 2011)

So, before the 'zone ban' this week I managed to get in a few more cheeky 'splores! 

...Rumour has it that there is a creepy laboratory, set in an old kindergarten in downtown Pripyat down by the greenhouses, that’s enough motivation for me so off I went. 







The greenhouses are HUGE! Pripyat wanted to be a self sustaining city, so built several acres worth of glass greenhouses to grow their own crops:





There is more broken glass than you can imagine. I’m not sure if this has been done by vandals, or liquidators breaking the glass to prevent the buildup of radioactive pockets. Or more likely, have broken on their own from years of heavy snow, and scorching summers expanding the metal framing










But this isn’t why I’m here. I urge my guide to take me to the lab:






We enter the building through what must have been an old potting shed





These have been stacked for nearly 30 years…





Well insulated pipes:





Following the disaster: scientists wanted to take soil samples from all over the city to test their radioactive content, and study how they deteriorated. The biggest building near to the greenhouses was the old abandoned kindergarten: 






Signs of it’s former use were everywhere: Old Piano:




















Radioactive soils samples are everywhere, there is no option but to walk across them as carefully as possible. Occasionally one would pop open underfoot, spewing its radioactive black contents onto the floor. 






Flesh in formaldehyde :





















Room upon room of samples: 






Radioactive crop samples:
















From 1996, a full decade after the disaster:






Machinery:




















Interior panoramic, typical room:










Scientists handwritten notes still piled high on shelves:











And the obligatory empty vodka bottles. 





Cheers for looking, the adventure continues….


----------



## Janey68 (Jun 24, 2011)

As usual.......brilliantly photographed and worded


----------



## klempner69 (Jun 24, 2011)

Disturbing but compelling viewing..great stuff L.


----------



## audi-adam (Jun 24, 2011)

awesome pics ! , how does it work regarding how long you can stay in pripyat before you risk dangerous exposure to the radiation ? or have i got the wrong end of the stick? lol


----------



## UrbanX (Jun 24, 2011)

Cheers for the kind comments Janey and Klempner, been lovely to chat with you both this week.



audi-adam said:


> awesome pics ! , how does it work regarding how long you can stay in pripyat before you risk dangerous exposure to the radiation ? or have i got the wrong end of the stick? lol



No not at all, but its one of those 'how much is safe to drink' questions!
It affects everyone differently, and the radiation varies wildly - at one point I found THE sandbucket used directly above the open reactor, the radiation was 52,000 times stronger when I took a pace forward...no smell, no taste, no feeling. 
The workers generally work '3-4' three days on, 4 days out the zone. I was lucky enough to out stay a couple of shifts 

Edit: Oh, Where I slept was extremely low radiation, at least 75% less than you'll absorb sleeping in Devon tonight...


----------



## audi-adam (Jun 25, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> Edit: Oh, Where I slept was extremely low radiation, at least 75% less than you'll absorb sleeping in Devon tonight...




see now im confused ! :s (to be honest unless its car related it doesn't take much to confuse me)


----------



## UrbanX (Jun 25, 2011)

audi-adam said:


> see now im confused ! :s (to be honest unless its car related it doesn't take much to confuse me)




Radiation is a massive subject, which I still don't fully understand. But I didn’t take this trip lightly, as I didn’t my previous visits. It does increase your chances of getting thyroid cancer, but so does eating bananas. 

Put VERY simply: The main types of radiation are Alpha: which can be stopped by paper. Beta: which can be stopped by cotton or skin. And Gamma, which needs concrete and lead. So I blocked A&B with protective clothing, but couldn’t wear concrete, so just had to limit my exposure to Gamma. 

But it’s not that simple. I can spend all day protecting myself from getting Alpha particles into me, then have a shower with the workers, breath in some Chernobyl steam and ingest a ‘hot particle’. Or get drunk with the guards, and forget about the radiation and clean my teeth in Chernobyl water….

The sand bucket had spent a lot of time above an open reactor, and had become 'charged'. but the area around it was pretty low. 

Chernobyl town avoided the worst of the radiation as the wind blew westwards, then north, and it is South of the power plant. It has also been cleaned. 

A typical UK reading (My house, & Luton airport) is 0.11Msv. A lot of places in the south go up to 0.36Msv. 

On the plane, we were that bit closer to the sun, and it went up to 2.95 Msv (27 times higher than Luton) 
So for the three hour flight I absorbed the same radiation of being in Luton for 3 days (God forbid) 

Here's where I slept: 
0.06Msv





Oh the 30Km checkpoint was also 0.06Msv. 

Here's inside Reactor 5 cooling tower, 3.85MSv (64 times higher than zone entry) 





BUT I was here for 20 mins, so absorbed way less radiation than on the flight here (2.95 Msv for 3 hours) than being in Reactor 5's cooling tower! 

Here I am 100m from Reactor 4, it's gone up to five and a half MSv (91 times (9,100%) greater than exclusion checkpoint):





Here's a bit of fairground, just above 35Msv, an inch from the ground, on the ground it went up to 143, That’s 2,383 times (238,333% more than exclusion checkpoint) 





Here's the Kindergarten, 0.16Msv. Similar to what we're all getting in the UK right now: 





I took readings near the thousands of Msv - but limited my exposure to just seconds. 

If you slept in the sand bucket, you’d be pretty ill within the day. If you slept where I slept you’d’ be safer than the British countryside. 

To be honest - while I was there - I walked across rafters above swimming pools, balancing with no hands then hung off a 16 storey ledge. Then went across rotten floors to a basement filled with asbestos, and a store room filled with broken neon lights, filled with freon - all 1,000 times more likely instantly to kill me than radiation. 

I've taken loads of negative comments from zone visitors this week for posting photos of low level readings on Geiger counters. And have also had comments from zone guides saying that my comments on how safe it is will put people off coming for that 'extreme adventure'. 

I expect to get similar responses for posting this - but... I don't care I just want to give an honest documentary.


----------



## gingrove (Jun 25, 2011)

Thanks for posting some actual pictures of of the radiation readings that you encountered on your trip I have often wondered what the readings were in the general area. I have been in Health Physics for the last 30 odd years and have never managed to get over there to see for myself. Did you notice a rise in the background radiation when you went through the room with all of the sample bottles? I don't think that the fact that the doserates are quite low now should put people off visiting, it's not as if you go just to build up your life time radiation dose. Just to put things into perspective these days a classified radiation worker is limited to a gamma dose of 200 microSieverts a day for normal operations. The Liquidators on the roof of the reactor building just after the accident got one or two thousand times that in about 90 seconds not to mention the active particles that they inhaled.
Thanks again for a superb set of reports and fantastic pictures. :notworthy:


----------



## King Al (Jun 25, 2011)

Another superb report UrbanX! this place looks great and your radiation post above is very informative. Great stuff


----------



## stavros (Jun 25, 2011)

amazing photographs, great stuff


----------



## Foxylady (Jun 25, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> ...Oh, Where I slept was extremely low radiation, at least 75% less than you'll absorb sleeping in Devon tonight...




Absolutely superb report as always, Urb. Enjoyed reading your info about radiation, too...apart from the Devon bit! 
Great images and documentation.


----------



## Harry (Jun 25, 2011)

Fantastic report


----------



## night crawler (Jun 25, 2011)

You know I'd love to know the level where I work, all I know is it is checked before we are alowed to go in and if it is safe we carry on, only been warned of a hot spot a few time and told to stay clear. Great report.


----------



## MD (Jun 25, 2011)

Excellent stuff as usual mate


----------



## audi-adam (Jun 25, 2011)

thanks for the lengthy reply fella , much appreciated ! i kind of understand it now!


----------



## karltrowitz (Jun 25, 2011)

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## nelly (Jun 25, 2011)

This is fantastic

You're not only an explorer, you are an historian mate.

Another book?


----------



## smiler (Jun 25, 2011)

Urban X you are without any doubt Nuts , but I have enjoyed all your posts, if you survive I look forward to the next one. Thanks.


----------



## maximus (Jun 26, 2011)

Again an excellent thread...many thanks for sharing mate.

I watched a programme on one of the discovery channels or something regarding the fauna and flora in the exclusion zone...amazing how the wildlife can cope with the high levels of radiation and yet migrating swifts who chose to nest in the many empty buildings after migrating from Africa suffer immensely ie: deformed wings and tails and also defective eggs and young.It seems if the creatures that are constantly within the area build up an immunity towards the high levels of radiation thus flourishing!!

There is a lone man who lives in a small rundown holding within the zone,he grows all his own vegetables and fruit from the contaminated soil,he is also employed to monitor the levels of radiation in the produce in a make do lab in one of the abandoned buildings.....two hours long it was but facinating stuff!!

Sorry I rambled on a bit there!!!


----------



## tommo (Jun 26, 2011)

dude the green house pics are wicked and the soil samples are even better, i take it they where not labled like the rest of the stuff just put in shelves that had dates, just wondered how they managed the soil samples compared to lables ont the bags and stuff

as for the radiation, its a shame people have to defend them selves all the time when ever going or coming back from the zone, its simple in my eyes.......u either go or u dont if its not your thing then move on, as u say u did some extreme climbing and dodgy areas that can kill u in an instant if u fell or tripped on something and fell on glass let alone cancer in years to come, there are places all overthe UK that u can get higher radiation from than just sleeping near the city, and as u said its all about time u spent around the higer levels, people are to clinical now a days 

cheers for clearing stuff up for some though its interesting to see what others class as normal i need to get a geiger counter at some point but having just installed a house electric usage monitor and going around turning all the lights and electrical devices because i can see how much electric i am using having a geiger counter would be a nightmare lol


----------



## tom83 (Jun 26, 2011)

Am I right in saying that Devon has a high deposit of Uranium in the earth below it?

I am 99% positive Ive read or heard of that before.


----------



## Foxylady (Jun 26, 2011)

tom83 said:


> Am I right in saying that Devon has a high deposit of Uranium in the earth below it?
> 
> I am 99% positive Ive read or heard of that before.


I don't know, but it does have a high amount of Radon from the granite deposits.


----------



## Em_Ux (Jun 28, 2011)

smiler said:


> Urban X you are without any doubt Nuts , but I have enjoyed all your posts, if you survive I look forward to the next one. Thanks.



I hope he does he's my exploring partner!! 

Excellent report UrbanX.

Love the sillouette.

Well done explaining the radiation. It sounds complicated!


----------

