Out of all photos on the wall, I’ve singled this one out. According to our guide, this is currently the single most contaminated piece of machinery in the zone. I was told something about 1 million times the typical meter reading.

A detailed map of the zone. Shows cities and villages. Not much help for most people, it’s in Ukrainian

The document that everyone in the tour had to sign. Somehow I wasn’t too worried about my camera being radioactive… But radiation did cause problems, you will see from photos later

There are bunch of cats hanging out around the office. Number varies greatly, last year there were 20 cats.

We were told there’s a very big chance to encounter wildlife. While we did not see anything on our trip, the guide told me that there’s a herd of 100 boars roaming around the zone, with some smaller herds in other areas. There are also wolves, przhevalsky horses. At one point we were told to make sure we don’t step on any snakes. In case of animal encounter, we should head back to the car and away from the animal, we were told.

Firefighter memorial. Fire station behind the memorial is one of the most advanced in this region of Ukraine. In it’s inventory, there are tanks and APCs. Also, on the station’s grounds is a zoo, which only a handful people visited.

This station was one of the first responders on that day in 1986

My Ukrainian is very rusty but I believe the sign says “To whom saved the world”

Checkpoing Leliv is the entrance to the Zone 1. ID check was not done here, but guard checked the paperwork that the guide has to carry with him, confirmed the people count.

After this checkpoint, we were told not to step on the grass and follow guide’s directions to the last word. Meter readings starting here as well

The first meter reading. Showing 28 microroentgens/hour.

A little bit of an explanation on the readings. Typical city in USA has about 12 microroentgens/hour. Kiev would read about 15. There’s no exact number that will kill you, but most agree that 300 roetgens/hour is lethal. Acute Radiation Sickness will start at much lower number.

About 7 kilometers from the power station, and we see.. this? Someone in our group jokingly said that this will be used for Glow in the Dark furniture.

Electrical wires leading to the power station. You can see the famous outline in the distance

Reading a bit closer to the power station. 6.5 times the normal.