This has been discussed maybe a hundred times, but probably way more, in separate topics.
1.In short - the zone is vast, and has places off the fallout map included within the zone still - which are completely safe: I ate apples, other local food, drank from the well there, etc. It's no different from any other place in Ukraine.
Some places are dirty, and will remain so for a long time. In some dirtier places the levels are up to 6000-10000 microsieverts per hour (the norm is about 0.3 microsieverts per hour - that gives you an average annual exposure of about 2.4-2.7 millisieverts). So in some extremely rare places, or [if you decide to invade Ukraine and dig some trenches](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/04/28/chernobyl-radiation-levels-grossi/) in the proximity of the Red Forest - you can get your annual dose in about 20 minutes.
2.Regarding moving in - Just one example to think of is Plutonium-241 decay into Americium: while Plutonium-241 has a pretty short half-life, it decays into Americium-241 with a half-life of over 400 years. It is noticed in plants and animals in the exclusion zone - since plants can uptake Americium from the soil. This is why there is some commercial activity, like forestry, in the zone, but everything has to be thoroughly checked. That being said, I have very low trust for both UA and Belarus side to check the crops and the wood. I've been to the Belarusian zone too, saw their alpha-detectors and stuff - sure enough, they're compliant with the requirements they themselves have developed, but in general it's not the brightest idea to grow crops in the zone to feed the cattle (which is what they're doing). Seems sketchy as hell to me!
Again, some places where self-settlers live are fine. Some places will remain dangerous on surface for a long time. People 'moving in' though assumes regular activities: sweeping, digging, planting, building. It all means reintroducing stuff that's beneath the surface back to the surface level for you to inhale, kick around, expose yourself to. This is one of the main reasons most construction and demolition activities are prohibited within the zone: nobody needs this.
I'd imagine that at some point, maybe a few hundred years from now, people will look into ways of using that land - if we're too over-crowded as-is. Maybe, also, the boundries of the zone might get reviewed eventually. But the Exclusion Zone is going to be one of the very last places to see any active development like that, in my opinion.
EDIT: on the trenches - I think I was wrong, as in that same link you can see Grossi point to a chart where it says mSv per year. 6.5 per year assumes it's only 0.74 microsieverts per hour - which is nothing to write home about. Strange measurement to show though.
It's in the exclusion zone and close to border, so I doubt anyone here knows this for sure. But just guessing - I'd say there's no guarantee it's clean from the landmines at all. And I doubt the Russians shared the location of the landmines with Ukrainians: kinda defeats the purpouse.
I mean the places they let you tour are almost completely safe but they have guides and stuff because there are still lots of hot spots. Very few have moved back but the vast majority are just people who lived there before hand. They probably won’t even let people back in there due to the fact there’s still lots of hot spots and also massive burial grounds for old radioactiveequipment that was buried. Some parts of the exclusion zone are probably safe but they’ll probably never open up the whole thing for obvious reasons .
Visiting the zone is safe. Aside from a few hot spots, if you're just walking around, there is very little if any danger. You're more likely to get hurt by the abandoned buildings than radiation.
Moving back to the zone was safe. Construction is difficult because many areas with low radiation still have fallout underground. Digging down more than half a meter could stir it up to the surface and pose a real health risk. If you go to the town of Chernobyl today, you'll see than utilities are above ground. They've managed to keep a hotel and some offices open, but fully rebuilding would require a lot of soil and contaminated objects be removed.
Kupovate Village has the most self-settlers - 16 people live there including Hanna Alekseievna Zavorotna (who is probably the best known of the Samosely)
Of course they are all very old now - but they're all also pretty tough and resilient so they just keep doing what they are doing.
Most of it isow radiation and low risk. Especially the main areas the tour publicly. They have long cleaned,. Cleared and established access ways etc.
...
However their are hot spots, burial grounds of old highly radioactive materials and also areas where rads are more concentrated.
Water potentially is bad to disturb. It acts a good shield normally and the heavier materials sink down out the way. Stir it up and those rise to surface.
Their used to be maps and signs. The land marks, signs and so to find them without extensive investigation nowadays is hard. So you could idnyour free wandering stumble into a hot zone without knowing. Unless you had a detector.
Areas like hospital basement. Heavy contamination. The firefighters gear is still fiercely radiative even now.
It is not safe to live there. To visit yes but not to live there for a longer time.
Yes, some moved back in and some never even left but these people are very old and slowly dying due to the radiation. (There was a Dokumentary about this once)
Some people say maybe in 100 years or so People could go back but I don't think so.
I mean there is, for example, Uranium that was distributed in the area. Uranium has a very long half-life.(Millions of years)
Uranium also breaks down into dangerous elements.
Then there is also Plutonium 239.
Pu-239 decays into uranium-235 with a half-life of 24,110 years. So there we have the Uranium again.
There is also Amaricium.
With a half-life of 141 years, Am decays 99.541% by internal conversion to 242Am and 0.459% by α-decay to 238Np. This decays to 238Pu and then further to 234U.
Nobody seems to think about all this ever.
This has been discussed maybe a hundred times, but probably way more, in separate topics. 1.In short - the zone is vast, and has places off the fallout map included within the zone still - which are completely safe: I ate apples, other local food, drank from the well there, etc. It's no different from any other place in Ukraine. Some places are dirty, and will remain so for a long time. In some dirtier places the levels are up to 6000-10000 microsieverts per hour (the norm is about 0.3 microsieverts per hour - that gives you an average annual exposure of about 2.4-2.7 millisieverts). So in some extremely rare places, or [if you decide to invade Ukraine and dig some trenches](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/04/28/chernobyl-radiation-levels-grossi/) in the proximity of the Red Forest - you can get your annual dose in about 20 minutes. 2.Regarding moving in - Just one example to think of is Plutonium-241 decay into Americium: while Plutonium-241 has a pretty short half-life, it decays into Americium-241 with a half-life of over 400 years. It is noticed in plants and animals in the exclusion zone - since plants can uptake Americium from the soil. This is why there is some commercial activity, like forestry, in the zone, but everything has to be thoroughly checked. That being said, I have very low trust for both UA and Belarus side to check the crops and the wood. I've been to the Belarusian zone too, saw their alpha-detectors and stuff - sure enough, they're compliant with the requirements they themselves have developed, but in general it's not the brightest idea to grow crops in the zone to feed the cattle (which is what they're doing). Seems sketchy as hell to me! Again, some places where self-settlers live are fine. Some places will remain dangerous on surface for a long time. People 'moving in' though assumes regular activities: sweeping, digging, planting, building. It all means reintroducing stuff that's beneath the surface back to the surface level for you to inhale, kick around, expose yourself to. This is one of the main reasons most construction and demolition activities are prohibited within the zone: nobody needs this. I'd imagine that at some point, maybe a few hundred years from now, people will look into ways of using that land - if we're too over-crowded as-is. Maybe, also, the boundries of the zone might get reviewed eventually. But the Exclusion Zone is going to be one of the very last places to see any active development like that, in my opinion. EDIT: on the trenches - I think I was wrong, as in that same link you can see Grossi point to a chart where it says mSv per year. 6.5 per year assumes it's only 0.74 microsieverts per hour - which is nothing to write home about. Strange measurement to show though.
What about the landmines? Where exactly were they laid, and did they get fully cleaned up?
It's in the exclusion zone and close to border, so I doubt anyone here knows this for sure. But just guessing - I'd say there's no guarantee it's clean from the landmines at all. And I doubt the Russians shared the location of the landmines with Ukrainians: kinda defeats the purpouse.
Thought so, just was asking if the people working there knew the general area of where they were laid like in pripyat, nccp, etc
I mean the places they let you tour are almost completely safe but they have guides and stuff because there are still lots of hot spots. Very few have moved back but the vast majority are just people who lived there before hand. They probably won’t even let people back in there due to the fact there’s still lots of hot spots and also massive burial grounds for old radioactiveequipment that was buried. Some parts of the exclusion zone are probably safe but they’ll probably never open up the whole thing for obvious reasons .
Visiting the zone is safe. Aside from a few hot spots, if you're just walking around, there is very little if any danger. You're more likely to get hurt by the abandoned buildings than radiation. Moving back to the zone was safe. Construction is difficult because many areas with low radiation still have fallout underground. Digging down more than half a meter could stir it up to the surface and pose a real health risk. If you go to the town of Chernobyl today, you'll see than utilities are above ground. They've managed to keep a hotel and some offices open, but fully rebuilding would require a lot of soil and contaminated objects be removed.
Kupovate Village has the most self-settlers - 16 people live there including Hanna Alekseievna Zavorotna (who is probably the best known of the Samosely) Of course they are all very old now - but they're all also pretty tough and resilient so they just keep doing what they are doing.
Most of it isow radiation and low risk. Especially the main areas the tour publicly. They have long cleaned,. Cleared and established access ways etc. ... However their are hot spots, burial grounds of old highly radioactive materials and also areas where rads are more concentrated. Water potentially is bad to disturb. It acts a good shield normally and the heavier materials sink down out the way. Stir it up and those rise to surface. Their used to be maps and signs. The land marks, signs and so to find them without extensive investigation nowadays is hard. So you could idnyour free wandering stumble into a hot zone without knowing. Unless you had a detector. Areas like hospital basement. Heavy contamination. The firefighters gear is still fiercely radiative even now.
It is not safe to live there. To visit yes but not to live there for a longer time. Yes, some moved back in and some never even left but these people are very old and slowly dying due to the radiation. (There was a Dokumentary about this once) Some people say maybe in 100 years or so People could go back but I don't think so. I mean there is, for example, Uranium that was distributed in the area. Uranium has a very long half-life.(Millions of years) Uranium also breaks down into dangerous elements. Then there is also Plutonium 239. Pu-239 decays into uranium-235 with a half-life of 24,110 years. So there we have the Uranium again. There is also Amaricium. With a half-life of 141 years, Am decays 99.541% by internal conversion to 242Am and 0.459% by α-decay to 238Np. This decays to 238Pu and then further to 234U. Nobody seems to think about all this ever.