It's interesting to see this here, as I've also been considering a tour of the area (I can't quite explain why, but it's always fascinated me).
Anyway, the tour guides generally let you get up to about 200m fromt the reactor building. There's videos on youtube of someone being shown around the unfinished cooling tower of reactor 5 (which was under construction at the time of the accident, nearly finished, and was planned to be brought online later that year).
Concerning the radiation at the plant itself, it's interesting to note that the other reactors were brought back online a month or two after the initial cleanup was finished. Reactor 2 was subsequently decommissioned after it suffered a fire in the turbine hall, Reactor 3 was finally decommissioned due to international pressure in 2000. So the radiation at the plant is apparently not so great that people can't work there. (It's also worth noting that Reactor 1 suffered a partial core meltdown a few years prior to the explosion of 4).
When pripyat was evacuated, the people were asked to leave their windows open, so you can expect to see a lot of broken glass in the town, and the structures are being destabilised due to vegetation encroachment (in fact, they won't be able to do these tours much longer).
Due to rains, the radioactive dust has largely been washed off the roads and walkways, but is retained within the top 20cm of topsoil (it's estimated that seepage results in the contamination going deeper by about 1cm/year). The radioactive dust may also have accumulated in rooms without much wind circulation. The guide will likely insist you keep to the roads and only enter known-safe buildings.
Anyway, the tour guides generally let you get up to about 200m fromt the reactor building. There's videos on youtube of someone being shown around the unfinished cooling tower of reactor 5 (which was under construction at the time of the accident, nearly finished, and was planned to be brought online later that year).
Concerning the radiation at the plant itself, it's interesting to note that the other reactors were brought back online a month or two after the initial cleanup was finished. Reactor 2 was subsequently decommissioned after it suffered a fire in the turbine hall, Reactor 3 was finally decommissioned due to international pressure in 2000. So the radiation at the plant is apparently not so great that people can't work there. (It's also worth noting that Reactor 1 suffered a partial core meltdown a few years prior to the explosion of 4).
When pripyat was evacuated, the people were asked to leave their windows open, so you can expect to see a lot of broken glass in the town, and the structures are being destabilised due to vegetation encroachment (in fact, they won't be able to do these tours much longer).
Due to rains, the radioactive dust has largely been washed off the roads and walkways, but is retained within the top 20cm of topsoil (it's estimated that seepage results in the contamination going deeper by about 1cm/year). The radioactive dust may also have accumulated in rooms without much wind circulation. The guide will likely insist you keep to the roads and only enter known-safe buildings.
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