Belarus' Areas Hit by Chernobyl Disaster - English subs

120 villages were demolished and buried. People from over 400 villages were resettled. Hundreds of thousands hectares of agricultural land were abandoned. Such is the outcome of the Chernobyl disaster for Belarus. The territories of Gomel and Mogilev regions suffered most from the tragedy. In 2010, in Cherikov district of Mogilev Oblast, I noted strange stones and abandoned homes. Three years later I finally had an opportunity to come to that place again. There were no houses there anymore but I had a dosimeter so I decided to take a walk... Belarus. Chernobyl disaster Hi, this is EmSha! As you know several contaminated zones appeared after the Chernobyl tradedy. One of them is in Mogilev region. As a result many arable lands and forests turned out to be unusable. At the moment [2013] the danger of radioactive contamination is still in place. It is generally Caesium-137 and Strontium-90 Such signs stand near many forests and villages here. They are different. Some read that berrying or mushoorming is forbidden. Some forbid you to enter the area. This is one of the examples of such signs. Well, sometimes you should ignore rules :) We will look at what is behind this sign. I have this dosimeter. It measures radiation level (but unfortunately its measurements are not exactly precise). Caesium and Strontuim emit beta radiation so this dosimeter will not detect this kind of radiation. But we will still be able to see gamma radiation level with the help of it. So if anything is wrong we will see it. As you see trees grow here, there are puddles here, and it seems that someone drove a vehicle here. There are no flying elephants here, or caterpillars with 80 legs. So everything is OK, it is not felt that something happened here. Just a couple of words before we start. Right after the disaster the entire territory of Belarus indicated a high level of radioactivity. Because of a great amount of radioactive iodine. Iodine has a decay period of only about seven days (the time during which half of this substance disappears). So in a couple of weeks the danger of radiation was not as big as in the first days. But cesium, strontium and plutonium remained. The first two of them have a decay period of about 30 years, that of plutonium is much longer. But the thing is that cesium-137 and strontium-90 are the main contaminators of the Belarusian territory and the area near Chernobyl. Why is caesium so dangerous? Human's liver and muscles absorb much of it. And this means internal contamination. Radiation inside you can lead to cancer and radiation sickness. Strontium-90 is an even more dangerous substance. Its chemical characteristics are similar to those of Calcium, of which our teeth and other bones are made. So your system thinks that this is Calcium and uses it for its 'construction' needs. Because some cells in your bones die and you need to rebuild them. The human's skeleton begins to emit radiation. For those who do not know chemistry much, beta radiation is a type of decay when an electron is "freed". And this beta radiation is suppressed by your clothes, so this is not so dangerous. But caesium can not only emit beta radiation. It can also turn into another element emitting gamma-ray quantum, which is more dangerous. Well.. That is why the danger still exists. So now we will look around... I am now about 250 meters from the road. I will go a bit more and check the radiation level here. The dosimeter is 15cm above the groun. The distance to the path is about 2 meters. Well, 22 microroentgens, this is not at all high. Sanitary requirements read that this level should not exceed 30 microroentgens. You may not live in the area where this figure exceeds 30. It is evident that there was a village right here. I do not know when its residents moved from here. Maybe the houses are not seen behind those trees. Judging by the crossing of these power transmission line towers two streets intersected here. After 25 years it is difficult to say that some houses stood here. The remains of the road can be seen. Probably people drove cars here. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to call it lumbering Maybe there are some who continue cutting trees here. I don't know... I have just measured radiation here, it's only 18 microroentgens Let's come closer to these logs and measure Only 9 microroentgens... far less than 30.. I am going to make some measurements in different places here and we will continue. The highest measurement was only 15 microroentgens... I do not see any houses here... They were all demolished.. But look at that field. It seems that someone tills this land. Different parts of Belarus accumulate different amounts of radionuclides. Some parts accumulated more, some less... With time these radionuclides decay and the danger becomes less. and the danger becomes less. With time some zones are again inhabited by people or tilling there begins. So this does not mean that there are monsters or high radiation levels behind those signs. Maybe there is only a local area where radiation in high because my dosimeter is very simple, I would say It measures in a very broad diapason, up to 100 roentgens per hour It measures in a very broad diapason, up to 100 roentgens per hour So maybe I am in a very dangerous area now but I don't feel it. I stop in some places and carry out measurements. I stop in some places and carry out measurements. For such trips one should have a bit different kind of equipment, akin to that our guide in Chernobyl had. Needles usually accumulate radioactive nuclides 19 microroentgens here. Not much at all... It is not like in the Chernobyl area near the reactor It is not like in the Chernobyl area near the reactor where you come off the road and radiation levels become extremely high. where you come off the road and radiation levels become extremely high. I still don't see any houses, only their remains. So I'm going to return I will only measure one more time here, in the ditch because in such places radiation levels are higher. And yes, here we see 52 microroentgens And note that my dosimeter is about 40cm above the ground. If we bring it nearer we see already 70 microroentgens. The highest level I registered here is 70 microroentgens. I think there are zones where this level is even higher. It is almost three times higher than the norm. Of course it is not a deadly level and nothing is going to happen to me. I probably need to eat this earth become ill. So there is a reason why those signs stand at the entrance to the forest. So if you eat mushrooms (they accumulate radiation very quickly) you may get contaminated. OK, let's move to some place. We see quite a quality road, traffic lane markings... But we often see exits with similar signs as the one we saw at the beginning of the video. I'm near Cherikov and Kostyukovichi I see a plant, maybe it's a concrete-mixing plant. I saw a railroad crossing near that plant, they also have a rather big station there. There is a sign there behind the corn field... I have just stumbled upon a sign saying that this was the Savinichi village It had 534 residents and 164 houses. But all villagers were forced to abandon it. They moved in 1991. There is an entrace here. Let's have a look. Here you can see a water tower. And it seems it is still working. I can see water pouring from the pipe I can see water pouring from the pipe There is even electricity here. So I suppose this house is still used. This is the entrance to this village. Some 21 years passed and of course almost nothing's left here. Let us see what is the radiation level here. We will then come to some conclusions. These lands were recultivated and were it not for that sign at the entrace, one wouldn't be able to guess that this was a village. So... And I think the houses which stood here were demolished So... And I think the houses which stood here were demolished And the ruines were buried. As far as the residents are concerned, they live in some other places. Some 66 microroentgens near the road. This means that it was right to resettle local residents. Two times higher than the normal level. Two times higher than the normal level. Try to imagine what was happening here. It was 1991, the Soviet Union was going to collapse. The future was not clear at all The future was not clear at all in terms of politics. And imagine that an official comes to your house and says you shoud abandon it and move to other place. so... Of course they probably had a place to live, but still... but I can imagine how hard it was for them to leave their land, a vegetable garden that gave them food... They had to begin everything from scratch. And bear in mind that it happened in the country which ceased to exist some time afterwards. Because in December 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed. It is not clear which month the resettlement happened... So it is all grievous. This is the only remains of the house I've managed to find. Everything else has been plundered. It all disappeared. It all disappeared. In some places you can also see such stones with plaques. In some places you can also see such stones with plaques. There was a village here. This one is called Malinovka. There was a village here. This one is called Malinovka. The number of families was 148, the number of residents was 364. It was demolished and buried in 1999. [Sign: Radiation! Danger! No entrance!] Only fields and remains of a good asphalt can be seen where villages earlier stood. And also power transmission line towers, sometimes rickety, sometimes not. Everything is abandoned and no one needs it. This was the village Veprin. Here is the road. Earlier it was straight and led to the village. But when it turned out that the village is uninhabitable a detour was built. But when it turned out that the village is uninhabitable a detour was built. END OF VIDEO