Ukraine spotted

[holbeck]

I've just had a little trip to Chernobyl and there were a few AS things of interest I wanted to share with you.

 

I flew into Kiev for the first night and there were plenty of Eastern block vehicles still in daily use.

 

Plus a couple of oddities

 

The next day was the trip to Chernobyl proper, First stop the abandoned city of Pripyat.  No cars here as they had all been buried during the decontamination phase. Highlight for me were the abandoned Hydrofoil ticket office with an amazing stained glass mural.

 

 

The overnight stop was in Slavutych. A new town - post accident built 50kM away from the plant to house those evacuated from Pripyat. Access is by the  special train provided for plant workers.

 

Slavutych provided another car spotted opportunity.

 

 

Onward to Chernobyl Plant.

 

 

A couple of the group turned out to be AS lurkers and there was much interest in the plant tour bus.

 

We all had to get suited and booted. 

 

The so called "Golden corridor"  - gold coloured aluminium sheeting to cover contaminated concrete

In the control room. 

 

On a lighter note, they had some great site vehicles.

 

 

Our Guide Maxim had noted my (and a couple of others) interest in the vehicles, and suggested a drive in a Volga could be arranged in exchange for some petrol money.

 

 

Just a quick spin around the block, but still....

 

In the end, the owner would take no money. 

 

In conclusion I would totally recommend. All the Ukrainians I met seemed totally sound. Hotels / Food and drink in Kiev is very reasonable.

 

 

Thankyou for looking at my holiday slides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MorrisItalSLX]

What a fantastic trip! Thanks for the insight!

 

Something I would love to go and do one day.

[Wingz123]

This is something I would like to do - would you be able to post up anymore info you may have re who you booked through, how you went about booking the tours etc and some idea of costings. Must have been fascinating - so far I have only seen the documentaries on YouTube.

 

Appreciated,

 

Cheers,

 

 

James

[holbeck]

This is something I would like to do - would you be able to post up anymore info you may have re who you booked through, how you went about booking the tours etc

 

http://www.dakarchallenge.co.uk/chernobyl-challenge/

 

£300 ish for the tour, plus flights to Kiev £250, and 2 nights in Kiev either side of the tour £40 / night for a very nice room. 

 

I struggled to spend £100 during the trip. Ukraine is very reasonable for eating and drinking.

[John F]

You met some AS lurkers in Chernobyl?? Wow.

[Fumbler]

Ladas, Ladas, Ladas, TAXI!, Ladas, massive cowel, Volga.....

 

This is honestly ticking all my boxes for a perfect day out.

[RobT]

That looks a great trip, I bet it leaves you with mixed emotions though.

[Fumbler]

And perhaps some counts per minute left with him too.

[holbeck]

That looks a great trip, I bet it leaves you with mixed emotions though.

 

Yes. When you hear the story of the aftermath of the accident. 

 

Lots of ordinary people pitched in to make it safe, probably knowing that it would do for them.

 

The top of the reactor was blown off exposing the radioactive core, this was initially sealed by helicoptering in sandbags to be dropped in to cover it. The pilots flew many sorties to achieve this. All died. 

[Peter C]

How cool?

 

I love the Volgas.

[Pillock]

Haha, you go all the way to Chernobyl and bump into some shiters.

 

Brilliant, I really really want to do this. Neither me nor Mrs_Pillock have passports and I'm wondering whether this is a big leap for our first holiday abroad. Still, it's deffo more "us" than a beach in Spain.

[willswitchengage]

Lol, in those overalls it makes you all like you're attending a chef's conference. Wicked photos.

[doubleyeller]

I went here back in 2010, before the new safe confinement was built. Ie the reactor was covered only by the Sarcophagus. Didn't go in the plant room. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems a bit tasteless to have gone there for a poke around and a photo opportunity. Basically the tour involves a guided trip round the city of Pripyat. And how would we feel if we had to evacuate from our hometown forever and a load of foreign tourists spent the next decades turning up in mini buses,gawping at the belongings we had no choice but to leave behind?

 

I have less issue with people visiting the plant, it's far more impersonal. But again, it's bloody tasteless all these self styled Western tourists taking selfies of themselves with the ruined reactor in the background. As said earlier in the thread, more than 600 helicopter pilots were killed smothering the fire, and thousands of reservists sent out into the roof to shovel up lethal debris while the reaction was still running full tilt and open to the sky. Who knows what our reactions would be if we were faced with the same dilemma, but safe to say as a tourist you are not facing what those individuals did in 1986.

In summary, if your not going to Chernobyl to do anything useful for the affected population, probably best to leave it be. My photo album from 2010 remains firmly shut.

[DSdriver]

Was there a "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON" button in the control room?

[Wack]

Yes. When you hear the story of the aftermath of the accident. 

 

Lots of ordinary people pitched in to make it safe, probably knowing that it would do for them.

 

The top of the reactor was blown off exposing the radioactive core, this was initially sealed by helicoptering in sandbags to be dropped in to cover it. The pilots flew many sorties to achieve this. All died. 

 

 

I remember reading about it at the time , some officials charted a helicopter and took one of the engineers with them to see how bad it was , as they approached and he realised he was looking straight into the core he was screaming at the pilot to get them the fuck out of there.

 

I have a friend who works in the nuclear industry, about 15-20 years ago he spend quite a bit of time in eastern europe helping them make the plants safer , he said they were walking down a corridor when some double doors opened at the other end and 2 guys came walking down in full radiation suits , all the westerners pinned themselves to the wall looking at their radiation badges while their guides started laughing.

 

Some very brave people involved in clearing up at Chernobyl

[Guest Hooli]

I'm not sure I want to go as I could never fully trust the place was actually safe to visit, but it must be a hell of an experience.

[Guest Hooli]

Ladas, Ladas, Ladas, TAXI!, Ladas, massive cowel, Volga.....

 

This is honestly ticking all my boxes for a perfect day out.

 

I couldn't help but read that to this tune

 

[bolognasal spray]

Volgans!!

 

[Skut]

I went in 2015 and there is an element of tastelessness in visiting such a place. It was quite obvious that some of the places visited by the tourists have had rooms rearranged to make them more photogenic. In the school there were genuinely 1000s of gas masks left scattered on the floor.  A couple of dolls had been arranged on the children's chairs wearing the gasmasks to add to the pathos. Also some of the visitors were not above rearranging things themselves to get a better picture or in one case picking up a gas mask and putting it on which seemed rather unwise.  

 

Its not I think fundamentally wrong to go but a more respectful approach should perhaps be encouraged amongst some guests.  A place where people had to move by hand lumps of graphite emitting 10,000 roentgens per hour is a serious fucking place.

 

The vehicle graveyard is currently off limits, but there were abandoned vehicles behind the police station.  One of the suprises was the profusion of V8s laying around.  All Zil truck engines.

 

314 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

315 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

312 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

311 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

310 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

309 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

[Pillock]

It's a fine line. It's definitely tasteless to go tramping across people's possessions and rearranging them. It's also tasteless to play the "grinning buffoon tourist" role with selfies.

 

I do think that sites like this need photos taking and preserving. Kids growing up in 100 years time need to be able to understand not just the process of what went wrong, but the consequences. I also think there's opportunities for visitors to quietly reflect rather than put on a gasmask and do a silly dance.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...All the Ukrainians I met seemed totally sound...

It's just the ones running the country who aren't.

[hairnet]

The white weirdness is a Toyota fj update I think us spec thing

 

See them here now and again

[martc]

I've just had a little trip to Chernobyl and there were a few AS things of interest I wanted to share with you.

A couple of the group turned out to be AS lurkers and there was much interest in the plant tour bus.

thumbnail_20180917_143144.jpg

thumbnail_20180917_143255.jpg

 

 

Your coach is a Laz, a 695 I think. They were built in Ukraine by the Lviv Bus Factory based in, wait for it, Lviv.

 

And they are still there, making coaches (and an ambulance) - http://www.laz.ua/#

[Fumbler]

LAZ, VAZ, UAZ, GAZ, BELAZ.... how many AZs are there?

[martc]

LAZ, VAZ, UAZ, GAZ, BELAZ.... how many AZs are there?

 

I can add a few more - KamAZ, ZAZ, UralAZ, KrAZ, AvtoVAZ (formerly VAZ), TagAZ and AZLK.

 

In all cases AZ stands for Avtomobilny Zavod, in English 'Automobile Factory'. They didn't differentiate between cars, lorries, vans, coaches or buses so I think a better description would be 'motor factory' or 'vehicle factory' occasionally Zavod is translated as 'plant'.

 

The other letters usually refer to the place where the the factory is located, or a nearby geographical feature. For example Lada's were made by VAZ (Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod or the Volga Automobile Factory, named after the nearby Volga river), the LAZ coach above came from the Lviv Automobile Factory and the KamAZ lorry comes from the Kamskiy Avtomobilny Zavod, Kamiskiy referring to the Kama River upon which Naberezhne Chelny stands - the city where KamAZ lorries are made.

 

 

.

[Fumbler]

Apparently the Egyptians from IzhAvto still want AvtoVAZ's designs for the 2107 and I think the 2104. Why, I don't know, but they're cheap and it's good for the old ones as new parts can still be found.

[somewhatfoolish]

Fascinating pictures.

... understand not just the process of what went wrong, ...

1. They designed a reactor with a positive void coefficient, that is to say positive feedback; this is a bad thing in PA systems and definitely a bad thing in a nuclear reactor.

2. They didn't put their crappily designed reactor in a containment; also a bad thing.

3. They carried out some experiments which required disabling or otherwise overriding the safety systems fitted to the reactor controls and operating the reactor at a point in its reactivity/performance envelope where it is least stable/safe; probably the worst thing in a series of bad things and the proximate cause of the disaster.

4. They lied like a cheap watch after it happened and let the general public be needlessly exposed to contamination.

[Fumbler]

5. The master engineer on visit voided official documents and decided to run the reactor down to 200 which it couldn't do and stalled.

6. The roof was made out of combustible material which provided some nice rain protection.

7. Control rods? what control rods?

8. The meter readings the emergency commission first got was 4, which were docimeter readings on the control room people. 4 was the max. When someone went outside with a proper one, counts went up to >1500.

9. Was Gorbachev told immidiately? I don't think so but not completely sure. Please someone enlighten mich.