- 5/15/2025
Join Ben Fogle as he embarks on a profound journey into the heart of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 35 years after the catastrophic nuclear disaster. This immersive experience reveals not only the haunting remnants of the past but also the remarkable resilience of nature in reclaiming this once-thriving area. During his week-long stay, Ben gains unprecedented access to the infamous Control Room 4, the epicenter of the Chernobyl disaster, where he uncovers the stories and emotions tied to this historical event.
Chernobyl serves as a powerful reminder of the consequences of human actions, highlighting the unprecedented challenges our planet faces today. Yet, amid the ruins, Ben discovers a unique narrative of hope. As nature gradually reclaims the land, it presents an accidental rewilding project that showcases resilience and renewal. This documentary not only explores the impacts of the disaster but also illustrates the of rebirth in a place that once symbolized tragedy.
In an engaging and educational tone, viewers will learn about the complexities of Cobyl's history while reflecting on broader environmental issues. The juxtaposition of devastation and natural recovery offers valuable insights into how we can learn from our past to shape a sustainable future.
Discover the secrets of Chernobyl through Ben Fogle's eyes and witness the extraordinary power of nature. Don't miss this eye-opening exploration of a site forever etched in history.
**Hashtags:** #Chernobyl #BenFogle #NatureReclaims
**Keywords:** Chernobyl, Ben Fogle, nuclear disaster, Exclusion Zone, Control Room 4, environmental issues, rewilding, nature recovery, historical documentary, accidental hope.
Chernobyl serves as a powerful reminder of the consequences of human actions, highlighting the unprecedented challenges our planet faces today. Yet, amid the ruins, Ben discovers a unique narrative of hope. As nature gradually reclaims the land, it presents an accidental rewilding project that showcases resilience and renewal. This documentary not only explores the impacts of the disaster but also illustrates the of rebirth in a place that once symbolized tragedy.
In an engaging and educational tone, viewers will learn about the complexities of Cobyl's history while reflecting on broader environmental issues. The juxtaposition of devastation and natural recovery offers valuable insights into how we can learn from our past to shape a sustainable future.
Discover the secrets of Chernobyl through Ben Fogle's eyes and witness the extraordinary power of nature. Don't miss this eye-opening exploration of a site forever etched in history.
**Hashtags:** #Chernobyl #BenFogle #NatureReclaims
**Keywords:** Chernobyl, Ben Fogle, nuclear disaster, Exclusion Zone, Control Room 4, environmental issues, rewilding, nature recovery, historical documentary, accidental hope.
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TVTranscript
00:00:00Wow.
00:00:28When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986, it changed everything.
00:00:35I was 13 years old, and it was just when I was starting to understand the world.
00:00:42And Chernobyl for me was such a massive punctuation mark.
00:00:48Now, 35 years after the disaster, I'm travelling to the most radioactive place on Earth.
00:00:57This is the accident and emergency department.
00:01:01Imagine the horrors that went on in here.
00:01:04I've been granted special permission to explore some of Chernobyl's secrets.
00:01:10Some people believe that this was a mind-controller, like a brain-scorcher.
00:01:16Going inside the very control room where the fatal mistake was made.
00:01:20Goodness me.
00:01:21I mean, this is unbelievable.
00:01:26And seeing close up the tomb of the doomed reactor.
00:01:30Wow.
00:01:31I can't quite believe I'm actually in here.
00:01:36What has Chernobyl now become?
00:01:38Look.
00:01:39So someone's been staying in here.
00:01:44This is the Chernobyl squatter.
00:01:47And what does it mean for the generations to come?
00:01:51I see this as a very timely visit, because the world is at tipping point.
00:01:57I'm hoping that by visiting this place, the people, maybe I'll find some hope that all
00:02:06is not lost.
00:02:30I'm on my way to the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident.
00:02:34So this road doesn't lead anywhere but into the restricted zone now?
00:02:39We call it simply the zone.
00:02:41The zone, yes.
00:02:43Where I'm going, I have to be accompanied by a government-sanctioned expert.
00:02:48Nikolai Formin has in-depth knowledge of the risks.
00:02:51So this is the checkpoint.
00:02:53Still pretty highly militarised area, so please prepare your documents.
00:03:00Beyond this border crossing is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a region so contaminated it
00:03:06was closed off from the rest of the world for over a decade.
00:03:10It feels quite strange.
00:03:12It's heavily militarised.
00:03:13There are loads of police.
00:03:14And it's heavily controlled in terms of who can go in and even who can go out.
00:03:25From now on, the law dictates that the increased radiation I'm about to experience must be
00:03:31continually monitored.
00:03:32Got the meter for you, the zimeter.
00:03:36This is the device that measures your total radiation exposure, your dose.
00:03:40So this I have to wear around my neck?
00:03:42Yes.
00:03:43And this is the Geiger counter.
00:03:44These units measure radiation level.
00:03:47It's never zero, right?
00:03:48So there's always a little bit of background radiation all over the world.
00:03:51So right now we're measuring 0.13 microSieverts per hour.
00:03:56So if radiation levels exceed normal reading, it will go off.
00:04:00It will start flashing red.
00:04:02It will start beeping.
00:04:03So you'll never miss that.
00:04:04OK, we're good to go.
00:04:08Two worlds.
00:04:09I'm about to step over the threshold.
00:04:18I'll be spending a week living inside the exclusion zone, which covers an area of more
00:04:24than 1,000 square miles, larger than Luxembourg.
00:04:34The zone was established in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
00:04:42On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded.
00:04:49The resulting fire lasted 10 days, releasing 400 times as much radioactive contamination
00:04:55as the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
00:04:59The entire civilian population in the surrounding towns and villages was forcibly evacuated,
00:05:06later told never to return.
00:05:18Are these radiation signs?
00:05:24Yes, they are.
00:05:26Stay away from the warning signs.
00:05:28And from now on, don't touch anything.
00:05:31I'll be going inside the stricken power plant itself.
00:05:35But first, I want to visit the ghost of Chernobyl.
00:05:41We're in the city now.
00:05:42Yes, we are in Pripyat.
00:05:44In front of us, it's main street of Pripyat.
00:05:47This is the main street?
00:05:48This is the main street.
00:05:49So everything, all these trees, this has all grown since it was abandoned?
00:05:54Yes.
00:05:57Pripyat was still being constructed when its 48,000 residents all left.
00:06:04It was designed to be the model socialist city, a Soviet utopia.
00:06:11I've never really seen anything like it.
00:06:16I've been to war zones.
00:06:18I've seen places that have, you know, experienced great upheaval and changes, but never quite
00:06:25like this.
00:06:27I'm imagining mums in their push chairs and children squealing, you know, a bustling place.
00:06:37And now look at it.
00:06:47I was expecting to see a few derelict buildings, but not this.
00:06:55This is not even a town.
00:06:57This is an entire city with five secondary schools, two sports stadiums and its own palace
00:07:04of culture, all left to ruin and consumed by nature.
00:07:10That's incredible.
00:07:13I'm on a multi-story school building and there's trees growing through the floor.
00:07:25I do feel like I've gone back in time.
00:07:30To me, that looks like sort of dosimetry to test for radiation.
00:07:36The great irony is that everyone here was preparing for a nuclear catastrophe that came
00:07:41from the other side of the Atlantic, that would come in the form of a bomb and not in
00:07:46the form of their own power station.
00:08:04Wow.
00:08:06Iconic, poignant.
00:08:10It's kind of everything this, because this was the theme park that never was.
00:08:18The abandoned city of Pripyat is unlike anywhere I've ever been.
00:08:23Life changed here forever, a day after the world's worst nuclear disaster.
00:08:30By all accounts, Pripyat had been a happy, thriving city, full of the hopes and dreams
00:08:36of a young population.
00:08:38The average age was 26.
00:08:40It was built just three kilometres from the Chernobyl power plant for workers and their
00:08:45families, with brand new facilities to rival the West.
00:08:49Wow.
00:08:59Wow.
00:09:09Back in 1986, this was state of the art.
00:09:12In the USSR, this was unheard of, because Pripyat, this was a model town, a model city.
00:09:19I suppose the comparison in the United Kingdom is Milton Keynes.
00:09:23You know, this was built for purpose, and the living standards here were far better
00:09:28than anywhere else in the Soviet Union.
00:09:32It makes me smile more in here than other places, with an air of sadness as well,
00:09:38because there would have been so many happy times that people had in here.
00:09:44The Chernobyl No 4 reactor exploded in the early hours of April 26th, 1986.
00:09:50When Pripyat awoke, toxic levels of radiation were already engulfing the area.
00:09:56But no warning was given.
00:09:58People continued their lives as normal.
00:10:04Alexander Syrota was a nine-year-old schoolboy.
00:10:08So, what are your memories from the 26th of April, 1986?
00:10:39So, this is the school here?
00:10:52Right through here?
00:10:53Yes.
00:10:54This is you?
00:10:55Yes.
00:10:56This is poignant.
00:10:58Wow.
00:11:08This is the school?
00:11:09Yes.
00:11:30Alexander was sent back to school,
00:11:32despite the fact that radiation levels in the city had reached alarming levels.
00:11:37Incredibly, the Soviet authorities waited 36 hours before starting an evacuation.
00:11:44Can I ask if you or your family suffered long-term health implications?
00:11:50I really can't even imagine what he went through.
00:11:56That 36-hour delay, so much is made about that.
00:12:00Without doubt, that cost people their health and probably their lives.
00:12:08I don't know what to say.
00:12:10I don't know what to say.
00:12:12I don't know what to say.
00:12:14I don't know what to say.
00:12:16It cost people their health and probably their lives.
00:12:20The Soviet Union did not want to admit it was embarrassing.
00:12:24It wasn't... It wasn't Soviet.
00:12:27You know, a reactor couldn't explode.
00:12:29There was disbelief, but there was also denial.
00:12:34And denial cost lives.
00:12:42By the afternoon, confusion had descended on Pripyat.
00:12:45No official information was being provided,
00:12:47other than a small fire on the roof of the power plant.
00:12:51But there was one place in the city
00:12:53that had already been a witness to the terrifying events that were unfolding.
00:12:59Oh, hello. I've got company.
00:13:02In my mind, this is one of the most significant buildings, really, in Pripyat,
00:13:07because this is the hospital.
00:13:10Hospital 126.
00:13:13Everyone who went to the plant that night
00:13:16to fight the little fire on the roof that we now know
00:13:20was this world-shattering explosion
00:13:24would have been taken in this door.
00:13:33Remember to just not touch stuff, yeah?
00:13:37In the hours after the explosion,
00:13:39108 firefighters and plant workers
00:13:42suffering from acute radiation sickness
00:13:45were taken through these corridors.
00:13:51This is the accident and emergency department.
00:13:55I'm trying to imagine the chaos, but also the unknown, really.
00:14:00No-one really knew why or what had happened.
00:14:03But also the unknown, really.
00:14:05No-one really knew why all these firefighters were coming
00:14:08and why they were vomiting.
00:14:12The contamination they left is still a danger today.
00:14:16That's the reason I've got a mask on right now,
00:14:19all those dust particles.
00:14:21Don't really want those going into my nose and mouth.
00:14:24Because this is one of the most radioactive parts of Pripyat.
00:14:27All the first responders were heavily radioactive from fighting those fires.
00:14:34Anyone exposed to radiation at the power plant
00:14:37should have been washed and dressed in uncontaminated clothing
00:14:41before they arrived here.
00:14:43That never happened.
00:14:45This is... This is kind of strange.
00:14:48There are still the rags that the nurses were using on the firemen.
00:14:52If I use my dosimeter that is picking up beta...
00:14:57..it's already gone the highest it's been.
00:15:00The reading is 60 times higher than the average background radiation
00:15:05just outside the zone.
00:15:07I'm not going to spend very long in here.
00:15:09I'm obviously being very sensible.
00:15:11But it's the invisibility of radiation that they would have had as well.
00:15:16They wouldn't have had a clue.
00:15:18They didn't have these.
00:15:20These were just firemen who had, you know,
00:15:23these were just firemen who had burns
00:15:26and an unknown symptom that caused vomiting.
00:15:3328 people brought to this hospital after the explosion
00:15:36lost their lives within three months.
00:15:39It's unclear how many would later suffer ill health
00:15:42as a result of their exposure to radiation that night.
00:15:46I think of all the buildings I've been into in Pripyat,
00:15:50this is the most chilling, the most haunting.
00:15:56Imagine the horrors that went on in here,
00:15:58the number of lives that were lost.
00:16:00Because this was a town of 48,000 people.
00:16:04In fact, they called it a city.
00:16:06So there would have been many, many pregnant women,
00:16:09lots of newborns.
00:16:11And just 36 hours after the accident,
00:16:15this, along with the whole city, was evacuated.
00:16:19A whole working hospital, gone.
00:16:22Look at it now.
00:16:31I've been told that beneath this pile of rather innocent-looking sand
00:16:35is the entrance to the basement,
00:16:37one of the most toxic parts of the whole of Chernobyl.
00:16:40All of the uniforms from the first responders, the firefighters,
00:16:44so their boots, their tunics, their hats,
00:16:47was taken down into the basement where it was left.
00:16:51Because they were so toxic, so radioactive,
00:16:55they couldn't let anyone go near it.
00:16:57The basement was only sealed a few years ago
00:17:00to stop trespassers intent on venturing into one of Chernobyl's
00:17:04deadliest sites.
00:17:06Nikolai wants to show me some footage of what's actually down there.
00:17:11This is the basement of the hospital before it was buried.
00:17:14Mm-hm.
00:17:15Levels of radiation there are insanely high.
00:17:2072...
00:17:21700.
00:17:22That's off the scale now, you see?
00:17:24And that's a pair of firemen's boots.
00:17:27The main risk is not even the dose of radiation you obtain there,
00:17:31it's dust.
00:17:32All those tiny particles of radioactive material,
00:17:36if you ingest any of those,
00:17:38even the microscopic ones that you cannot see,
00:17:41they are capable of killing a human being.
00:17:45Are these authorised individuals?
00:17:49No, I'm pretty sure they are trespassers
00:17:52because it's strictly forbidden to go there.
00:17:55Although in recent years authorities have allowed
00:17:58some very strictly controlled tours inside the wider zone area...
00:18:02Now it's getting real.
00:18:04..illegal thrill-seekers, driven largely by social media,
00:18:08continue to be a problem here.
00:18:10I think these guys are doing it for adrenaline, attention...
00:18:14Showing off.
00:18:15..in the social media, showing off.
00:18:17That's what drives people to take the risk and go down there.
00:18:21The checkers and stuff is this way.
00:18:23What about the firemen's helmets?
00:18:25What about the firemen's helmets? Are they down there?
00:18:28There was one helmet that somebody took from the basement
00:18:33and put on the ground floor of the hospital building in Pripyat.
00:18:37That was in front of the main entrance for years.
00:18:41Now it's gone. Somebody took it.
00:18:43So somewhere out there is a highly radioactive fireman's helmet?
00:18:48Yeah, and I hope that's within the zone.
00:18:51I really hope they didn't take it out
00:18:53because that's the worst-case scenario,
00:18:56because if you take something radioactive from here,
00:18:59it can cause a lot of trouble.
00:19:01Radiation has no taste, it's invisible, you can't see it,
00:19:04you can't smell it.
00:19:05The levels of radiation in the uniforms are a sobering reminder
00:19:09of just how toxic some parts of the zone still are.
00:19:13Scientists predict the Chernobyl reactor site
00:19:16will be uninhabitable for at least 20,000 years.
00:19:20Containing the disaster is ongoing.
00:19:22Almost 3,000 people still work at the power plant.
00:19:25No-one can stay within 10km of the site,
00:19:28and for some workers, this is a way of life.
00:19:31So you do this every day, basically,
00:19:34when you go into the control zone.
00:19:37Clean.
00:19:39This just analyses what I've got on me, if I'm contaminated or not.
00:19:45That's that I'm clean.
00:19:47That's good news.
00:19:50I'm spending my first night at one of the few lodgings in the zone.
00:19:58Yes, of course.
00:20:03OK.
00:20:05OK.
00:20:07To limit my dose of radiation,
00:20:10I'm only allowed to stay in the zone for up to 14 days at a time.
00:20:15Wow.
00:20:17It's actually a lot more comfortable
00:20:19than I thought this was going to be.
00:20:24But it is very weird that I am just a few kilometres
00:20:28from the Chernobyl that I remember melting down
00:20:33when I was a 13-year-old.
00:20:35And here I am, about to have my first night.
00:20:38And I've even got a memory of home.
00:20:40That's nice.
00:20:42I've been advised that boots should maybe be left outside
00:20:46just because they've obviously been touching dirt and dust
00:20:50that might be a little bit more radioactive than anything else.
00:20:54So these will be left outside.
00:20:58The invisible threat of radiation is ever-present in the zone.
00:21:02Tomorrow, I'm going to the very heart of where it all started.
00:21:28The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a strange and unsettling place,
00:21:34filled with haunting human stories of a paradise lost.
00:21:41I want to get closer to the events that actually unfolded
00:21:45in the early hours of April 26th, 1986,
00:21:48and so that can only lead me to one place.
00:21:53The Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself.
00:21:58This, back in 1986, was ground zero.
00:22:04When the roof blew off,
00:22:07that was one of the things that we were most fearful of.
00:22:11Thousands of miles away in the UK,
00:22:14I remember being terrified of it.
00:22:16What happens if that reached me?
00:22:19And now I'm here.
00:22:22I'm going to go in there.
00:22:26How mad is that?
00:22:35An enormous steel arch now shields the highly radioactive remains
00:22:40of Chernobyl's doomed Number 4 reactor unit.
00:22:43I've been given special permission to go inside the actual control room
00:22:48where the disaster unfolded,
00:22:50which for decades has been completely off-limits.
00:22:57I'm heading into the inner workings of Chernobyl.
00:23:01So you have to make sure there is nothing that can be contaminated,
00:23:09so I've had to...
00:23:10Anything I'm wearing of my own is my pants.
00:23:14They may need to be changed after this.
00:23:18OK.
00:23:19Are we ready? I think so.
00:23:23Don't start, don't start.
00:23:27From now on, we have to move quickly.
00:23:30The power plant is vast
00:23:32and my permitted dose of radiation strictly controlled.
00:23:37This is pretty extraordinary, this,
00:23:40to be given access into the workings of Chernobyl.
00:23:47Pretty amazing.
00:23:49Lots of activity here, there's lots of people working here, obviously,
00:23:54ensuring that it's safe.
00:23:58Wow, it's endless.
00:23:59This is the Golden Corridor.
00:24:02The 800-metre so-called Golden Corridor
00:24:05links what remains of Chernobyl's Reactor 4
00:24:08to its three other reactors,
00:24:10which were largely undamaged in the explosion.
00:24:14That says Control Room 1, so that's in there.
00:24:20I'll only have a very limited and restricted time
00:24:23inside the heavily contaminated shell of Control Room 4.
00:24:30Control Room of Unit 3.
00:24:33So engineer Valery Kuleshenko first takes me to see what it was
00:24:37that caused the explosion.
00:24:39So engineer Valery Kuleshenko first takes me to see
00:24:43what it would have looked like.
00:24:51Feels like going back in time now.
00:24:53So this is the control room of Reactor 3,
00:24:57the sister reactor to the one that exploded.
00:25:01On the night of the accident,
00:25:03up the corridor in Control Room 4,
00:25:06engineers were carrying out complex reactor tests
00:25:09that were spiralling out of control.
00:25:12As an exact mirror to Control Room 4,
00:25:15this was the button that doomed Chernobyl.
00:25:19This unprecedented chain of events had begun
00:25:22and the final decision was made to shut it down.
00:25:25The button was turned...
00:25:30..and that was it. Disaster.
00:25:37The shutdown triggered a massive power surge.
00:25:41Oh, my goodness.
00:25:43The core overheated and, seconds later, the first explosion,
00:25:48followed soon after by a second.
00:25:51This is truly extraordinary.
00:25:54I am standing on Reactor 3.
00:25:58So each of these is a fuel rod.
00:26:011,661 to be exact.
00:26:06This is an exact mirror of Reactor 4.
00:26:10This...blue.
00:26:13Everything came off.
00:26:15This is what people thought was impossible.
00:26:18But what you must remember is we're talking 1986.
00:26:22That was when nuclear energy was in its infancy.
00:26:25It was transitioning from weapon to source of power.
00:26:29And the USSR were producing these power stations
00:26:33faster than anyone else, but they were also cutting corners.
00:26:43These reactors weren't designed with a concrete and steel dome
00:26:47to contain the radiation.
00:26:49Two engineers were killed instantly in the explosion,
00:26:52while the night shift in Control Room 4
00:26:55were exposed to lethal levels of radiation.
00:27:00So there's a little hatch here.
00:27:02It looks like I'm going to be given another dosimeter.
00:27:05It kind of shows that I'm now heading
00:27:07into more vulnerable parts of Chernobyl.
00:27:10It's much higher radiation where we're going now.
00:27:14I'm now heading into the heart of the Chernobyl story...
00:27:17Through here.
00:27:19..where many of the decisions and actions
00:27:21that led to the disaster played out.
00:27:23So this door goes into Control Room Number 4.
00:27:27Oh, Unit Number 4.
00:27:29I mean, this is pretty extraordinary because beyond this door
00:27:33is a control room that changed the world.
00:27:37I mean, this is unbelievable.
00:27:49Goodness me.
00:27:53I don't have long to take it in.
00:27:56We have not more than five minutes.
00:27:59Five minutes to absorb all of this? Wow.
00:28:06In terms of places of historical significance,
00:28:11this is right up there,
00:28:13because, arguably,
00:28:15this was the location of the world's greatest mistake.
00:28:27SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:28:46This is working area of reactor operator.
00:28:50Oh, my goodness. It's a time capsule.
00:28:53Lots of things have been removed.
00:28:55Where are they? Stolen over the years.
00:29:00It's hard to even imagine the terrifying events that took place here.
00:29:04The panic, the fear, the horrific effects of radiation.
00:29:10The reading's pretty high in here.
00:29:12It's about as high as I've seen during my whole time around Chernobyl.
00:29:17But what a profound, extraordinary, moving place.
00:29:23I mean, look at this.
00:29:27One minute only.
00:29:29Soviet authorities blamed the disaster on an inexperienced night shift
00:29:34failing to follow safety protocols.
00:29:37But was it human error, flaws in the design,
00:29:40or was the Soviet nuclear programme's technology just unstable?
00:29:45Time has to go.
00:29:47Then my time was up.
00:29:51OK, we've got to go.
00:29:53I doubt I'll ever come back into here, but, wow.
00:29:57What an experience.
00:30:00It's a reminder, I suppose, of our mortality.
00:30:09I'll be returning to the power plant later in my journey
00:30:12to see something perhaps even more extraordinary,
00:30:15the tomb of the doomed reactor deeper inside the huge steel arch.
00:30:32There are very few people who witnessed first-hand
00:30:35the events of that night and lived to tell their story.
00:30:40I'm returning to the ghost town of Pripyat to meet one person that did.
00:30:47So this is the police station?
00:30:51A former policeman called Alexei Moskalenko.
00:31:03Alexei was a 29-year-old officer with a young family
00:31:06when the disaster happened.
00:31:10HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:31:14Incredibly, he was on patrol directly outside the power station
00:31:18when Reactor 4 exploded.
00:31:40HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:31:45Despite his injuries, long after his own family had been evacuated,
00:31:50Alexei stayed on in Pripyat to police
00:31:53the enormous, life-threatening clean-up operation.
00:31:57Where are we going now?
00:32:10So this, this is the claw?
00:32:12Apparently, this grappling claw was attached to a crane
00:32:16and used to handle large chunks of ultra-radioactive graphite
00:32:20ejected by the explosion.
00:32:22Does that not mean that this is highly radioactive?
00:32:25HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:32:41OK. I don't want you to overdo it.
00:32:44That was as high as I've seen it.
00:32:56Toxic debris was scattered all over the roof of Reactor 3,
00:33:01spewing out lethal doses of radiation.
00:33:04Attempts to use robots to clear the area failed,
00:33:08so another method was needed.
00:33:26HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:33:34The army of people drafted in for the deadly task
00:33:37became known as the Liquidators.
00:33:40Every shovel they used and every item of makeshift protective clothing
00:33:44they wore had to be safely disposed of
00:33:47after each potentially fatal mission.
00:33:50Thousands of Liquidators are thought to have died
00:33:53as a result of exposure to radiation.
00:33:59Do you think people sacrificed their lives because they had to
00:34:03or did they do it for their country?
00:34:05HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:34:15Did you sacrifice your health?
00:34:18HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:34:23You were given five years.
00:34:25HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:34:34That's just incredible.
00:34:36I mean, to meet someone who not only experienced it first-hand
00:34:40but came back, was given five years to live.
00:34:44I really can't even imagine what he went through.
00:34:49It was just a duty of humanity.
00:34:53So what he did was arguably for all of us, really,
00:34:57to help contain it, and that's what the Liquidators did.
00:35:01And they're the real unsung heroes of this whole sorry story.
00:35:13Cleared by the Liquidators as best they could,
00:35:16deep in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,
00:35:19it's still referred to as a toxic dead zone.
00:35:23But just how true is that?
00:35:25Tomorrow, I'm going somewhere that might well turn everything on its head.
00:35:30Could people actually still be living here?
00:35:47My Exclusion Zone lodgings are in the tiny town of Chernobyl,
00:35:51after which the power plant itself was named.
00:35:54Still inside the zone, it was also evacuated.
00:35:58But being 14km away didn't suffer the total abandonment seen in Pripyat.
00:36:05It has a very strange feel here.
00:36:08It feels like we're the only people here.
00:36:12Showing me around is Kate Goncharianka,
00:36:15whose father and grandparents were forcibly relocated after the accident.
00:36:21This looks like it's a working building over here.
00:36:23Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:36:24This is the post office of Chernobyl town,
00:36:27and generally this is the one post office for the whole area.
00:36:31And above the window, you can see the screen.
00:36:34Usually, when we see such a screen at the post office,
00:36:37we expect to see the time there.
00:36:39But as long as we are in the Exclusion Zone,
00:36:41we see the level of radiation in the different parts of the Exclusion Zone.
00:36:47That's kind of mad.
00:36:48So basically what my little dosimeter is doing here,
00:36:52that's telling me every single part and region of the entire Exclusion Zone.
00:36:57Exactly, you're getting it right.
00:37:02No-one is allowed to stay here for more than two weeks at a time,
00:37:06but there is a local shop.
00:37:09This is a proper supermarket. Hello.
00:37:11Hello.
00:37:12Look, everything you could need. Knives, biscuits, a lot of alcohol.
00:37:16Yeah.
00:37:20Do you just come here for two weeks at a time?
00:37:23How do you feel working here?
00:37:29I think I'm going to get myself a little something sweet.
00:37:33Do you fancy anything, Kate?
00:37:34I guess one of this, please.
00:37:36Yeah.
00:37:39I love that she's using an abacus.
00:37:41Yeah.
00:37:43It's like stepping back in time.
00:37:4526.
00:37:47Thank you, thank you so much. Bye-bye.
00:37:50Bye-bye.
00:37:54It's against the law to live inside the zone,
00:37:57but Kate is taking me to the crumbling outskirts of Chernobyl
00:38:01to meet one woman who is defying the authorities.
00:38:05Look at all these derelict houses here.
00:38:09This is the house of Valentina,
00:38:13one of the resettlers, the people who came back
00:38:16and continue living in their homes.
00:38:20Let's go.
00:38:22Look, she's got a cat.
00:38:23Yeah.
00:38:29I didn't really think that there were resettlers,
00:38:32as in people who moved back here permanently.
00:38:35It still feels like this is a dead zone.
00:38:39The fact that I'm walking around with this,
00:38:41monitoring the amount of radioactivity that I'm absorbing,
00:38:46but Valentina lives here.
00:38:48It's kind of quite a lot to get your head around.
00:38:51Shall we? Yes.
00:38:53Thank you very much for letting me come into your house.
00:38:57Valentina moved back to the zone soon after the disaster.
00:39:01Her late husband found work here as a liquidator.
00:39:04Hello, little dog.
00:39:05Who ate all the pies?
00:39:07Valentina, what is your dog called?
00:39:11I can't quite work it out.
00:39:12It's like a Chihuahua corgi cross.
00:39:15There's lots of bottles of water.
00:39:17Do you drink from the tap?
00:39:28Valentina does have electricity
00:39:30and friends bring food in from outside,
00:39:33but it's a humble existence.
00:39:37So, Valentina, why did you choose to return
00:39:41to a place so close to Chernobyl Power Station?
00:39:54Does it ever feel sad here or lonely here?
00:40:04VALENTINA SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:40:23Will you ever leave here?
00:40:26VALENTINA SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:40:31Around 200 resettlers still live in the zone,
00:40:34one of the most toxic places on Earth.
00:40:37Already, they've lived longer on average
00:40:40than those who never returned.
00:40:42She also offers us some vodka.
00:40:45When in Ukraine, I feel like I must take a little bit of vodka.
00:40:49These labels look a little bit scary.
00:40:51Isn't that for electricity? Electricity, yeah.
00:40:55I think Valentina is keen to show me
00:40:57that there can be a kind of normality here.
00:41:00Is this Ukrainian hospitality? Exactly.
00:41:04My goodness, that's quite a lot.
00:41:06Is she trying to get me drunk?
00:41:08Exactly. Thank you very much.
00:41:10How do we say cheers in Ukrainian?
00:41:12VALENTINA SPEAKS RUSSIAN
00:41:21Wow. And you should eat something as well.
00:41:24Yeah. I need to. That's quite strong.
00:41:29Valentina has one more treat for me.
00:41:33Is this the entertainment?
00:41:36Ably assisted by Dana.
00:41:38MUSIC PLAYS
00:41:54ROOSTER CROWS
00:42:00Oh-ho-ho!
00:42:02Valentina, that...
00:42:04I'll never forget that.
00:42:11Take care.
00:42:18It's kind of amazing.
00:42:20There's so much love and humour and humanity and normalness.
00:42:27And then this, which is kind of what people expect to see
00:42:31in Chernobyl, abandonment and derelict buildings.
00:42:35It's kind of a tale of two worlds, isn't it?
00:42:38And it's just completely unexpected, that,
00:42:41because that, such a sign of kind of hope and beauty
00:42:45amid such wretchedness,
00:42:47kind of flips it all on its head.
00:42:51MUSIC CONTINUES
00:42:56Self-settlers like Valentina show that life can still exist here,
00:43:00but I'm learning of a newer generation
00:43:02who also want to connect to this strange place.
00:43:06This evening, I'm returning to the ghost town of Pripyat.
00:43:10No-one can enter here without a government permit.
00:43:14But not everyone heeds the rules.
00:43:17What I've slowly realised being here is that,
00:43:20although it is a deserted city, stuff still happens here.
00:43:24And police patrols are one of the realities
00:43:27because a deserted city attracts people for the wrong reasons.
00:43:33And I'm curious to find out what sort of people do come here and why.
00:43:38Ukrainian police carry out 24-hour surveillance of Pripyat.
00:43:42Wow.
00:43:43Officer Mikhail Kuznenko and his team are on the night shift.
00:43:47So what kind of things do people get up to here?
00:44:14The illegal trespassers are known as stalkers.
00:44:18Is there a security?
00:44:21They operate in groups, creating makeshift living quarters inside buildings.
00:44:29And even sleeping there.
00:44:34Stalkers seek out the most dangerous and inaccessible places...
00:44:40..to get their thrills.
00:44:44The dangers are clearly massive.
00:44:51Tonight, Mikhail's team believe some have been staying in a high-rise
00:44:55on the outskirts of the city.
00:45:14This is so strange.
00:45:16Kind of going from apartment to apartment,
00:45:21looking for people.
00:45:24Looking for people.
00:45:41People have been graffitiing here.
00:45:44They're pretty certain that there is someone around.
00:45:48There's fresh footprints,
00:45:50fresh signs of people being here.
00:45:54Oh, look.
00:45:56So someone's been staying in here.
00:46:01This is the Chernobyl squatter.
00:46:05Who'd have thought?
00:46:07It's a side to Chernobyl.
00:46:09I never even considered that people would be attracted here
00:46:12for the thrill of staying over.
00:46:16I mean, pretty astonishing views.
00:46:18I'm drawn to the window.
00:46:20Wow.
00:46:24There's a little sledge there.
00:46:30Very easy to lose face of the fact
00:46:33that this was once a thriving block of flats.
00:46:44Hey, look.
00:46:49So this is pretty strange.
00:46:51I can't quite make heads or tails.
00:46:53I don't think any books or anything were left in this building.
00:46:56Everything was kind of taken,
00:46:58so it's almost like they've created this little thing.
00:47:01It's got the original Soviet flag.
00:47:04It's got a map of Pripyat.
00:47:06This is the social media effect,
00:47:09and it's even reached Chernobyl,
00:47:12because people want to come here, they want to make videos,
00:47:15they want to show off,
00:47:17they want to create dangerous stunts,
00:47:21and actually this is sort of their playground.
00:47:26That's a post-disaster effect nowadays.
00:47:35The problem is so widespread,
00:47:37it's common for the police to arrest at least one stalker on every patrol.
00:47:42If they get caught, do they get arrested?
00:47:45There is a requirement for radiation safety.
00:47:48Sanctions are a protocol for imposing a fine.
00:47:51Because the fines are relatively small,
00:47:54people illegally come here.
00:47:57We arrest about 350-400 people a year.
00:48:02We need to increase the fines,
00:48:05we need to be more responsible.
00:48:15Darkness has set in, and it has a whole different feel now.
00:48:20It's getting late, and with no arrests tonight,
00:48:24the police head off to patrol other parts of the zone.
00:48:27I think it's fair to say that's the strangest,
00:48:30most surreal night patrol I've ever been on.
00:48:34It's just a whole other face to Chernobyl.
00:48:40The stalkers might have eluded us tonight,
00:48:43but we have another plan to track them down.
00:48:49Nikolai, my minder, reckons that tomorrow morning
00:48:52will definitely snare us, our stalker.
00:49:05I'm spending a week living inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,
00:49:09a toxic wasteland that I've discovered is now a major attraction
00:49:13for illegal sightseers and thrill-seekers.
00:49:16I want to understand why these so-called stalkers come here,
00:49:20and what Chernobyl means to the generation
00:49:23who weren't around at the time of the accident.
00:49:29Nikolai has managed to track down a stalker through social media,
00:49:33and he's willing to talk to me.
00:49:36He's there. Down here somewhere?
00:49:38Yes, on his way back from the zone.
00:49:42Stalkers enter the zone illegally,
00:49:44so we're meeting just outside the border.
00:49:47Apparently, they're on their way back from Pripyat,
00:49:50so they may well have been there when I was there.
00:49:59No, no, we're good. OK.
00:50:02How long were you in Pripyat for?
00:50:05Four days. Four days.
00:50:07And when you're in Pripyat, where do you stay?
00:50:10In my apartment. Your apartment?
00:50:12Yes. I can show you my videos from there. Yes.
00:50:15This is my house, where we live.
00:50:20So, we live in this house.
00:50:23How did you get in?
00:50:25Illegally way.
00:50:28From the perimeter fence, it's around 30km to Pripyat.
00:50:36The zone is a vast wilderness.
00:50:38To avoid the police, stalkers must trek through toxic forests
00:50:42and cross ice-cold rivers.
00:50:44Now it's maybe zero degree.
00:50:47So, crossing the river in your pants, it's going to be cold?
00:50:51Water was this deep,
00:50:55and this backpack, I turn in my hand and go across this river.
00:51:00You don't understand how it's cold.
00:51:04Why do you do it?
00:51:06For me, this is like new adventure,
00:51:08and every time, it's very different.
00:51:10For example, I find police and run away.
00:51:14Second time, I meet many stalkers, also illegally.
00:51:18It's like adventure and shock for me.
00:51:23Reaching Pripyat is the stalkers' holy grail.
00:51:28A place where they can share their extreme thrill-seeking
00:51:31on social media.
00:51:36The dangers of this illegal trespass are clear.
00:51:39That must be scary up there.
00:51:41Wow, look at that.
00:51:46Do you not worry about radiation?
00:51:48I know where is dangerous,
00:51:50and it's like four days radiation not kill you.
00:51:53So, why not?
00:51:56See you.
00:52:00Fascinating, that.
00:52:02Here, I suppose, is a modern Ukrainian youth
00:52:07who's embracing 2020, 2021,
00:52:11and social media and making videos and keeping stories alive.
00:52:15It's a form of history-telling, isn't it? Really.
00:52:19It's the new world meeting the old world.
00:52:22It's kind of cool and weird and unexpected.
00:52:34I'm back inside the zone.
00:52:36Its size still astounds me.
00:52:381,000 square miles of crumbling villages,
00:52:41toxic forests and abandoned farmland.
00:52:45But when the eyes of the world turned to Chernobyl,
00:52:48they found far more here than just a ruined nuclear plant.
00:52:52In a remote part of the zone, Nikolai has special knowledge
00:52:56of something that was once classified at the highest level.
00:53:03We're off to see something secret,
00:53:06remain of the Cold War.
00:53:08It's truly amazing.
00:53:11I'm going to a site that, at the time of the Chernobyl disaster,
00:53:15was marked on Soviet maps as a children's camp.
00:53:19Wow.
00:53:22It had quite a climbing frame.
00:53:25You guys don't do things by halves.
00:53:28This is an amazing feat of Soviet engineering.
00:53:31The scale of this place, I feel dwarfed by it.
00:53:35It's like a 50-storey building.
00:53:40So what exactly is this?
00:53:42During the Cold War, this was able to detect incoming missiles
00:53:46in case of nuclear strike.
00:53:48The purpose of this was to give a seven-minute warning
00:53:52to the Soviet authorities.
00:53:54And this was a technology available only in the Soviet Union.
00:53:58So Americans didn't have anything like this.
00:54:01The huge radar receiver was built around the same time
00:54:04as the power plant, helping to conceal from the Americans
00:54:08the 14,000 tonnes of steel
00:54:10that needed to be brought on site for its construction.
00:54:14It stands 150 metres high and nearly a kilometre wide.
00:54:18So how did this actually work? Radio waves?
00:54:21Yes, and the radio geeks in the 80s with their radio scanners
00:54:25could hear the sound of the radar station.
00:54:29Some people were calling it a Russian woodpecker
00:54:32because it sounded a bit like woodpecker
00:54:35and it was clearly coming from Russia.
00:54:38If you were picking that up,
00:54:40if you were a ham radio operator in America,
00:54:43I can see how you'd start thinking, what is this?
00:54:46Did the Americans know about this? When did they first see it?
00:54:50After the meltdown, when all the spy satellites
00:54:53turned their eyes here, they suddenly discovered
00:54:56this massive frame in the middle of nowhere.
00:54:59That was quite a surprise.
00:55:01Because of its size and weird look,
00:55:04there are many conspiracy theories.
00:55:06So some people believe that this was a mind controller,
00:55:10like a brain scorcher of the Soviet Union,
00:55:13that was operating radio waves
00:55:15to control and change human behaviour.
00:55:18I'm trying to imagine the people
00:55:20who thought it could control your mind.
00:55:22I feel I need a vodka now.
00:55:24You do? Has it affected me?
00:55:27We're 100% sure it's not operating now
00:55:30and we can sleep tight tonight, you know.
00:55:33We're not zombies yet.
00:55:41The radar network is another example
00:55:44of the Soviets looking the wrong way.
00:55:46While they scanned the horizon for the incoming threat,
00:55:49it was actually the failure of their own nuclear technology
00:55:53that ultimately led to the disaster they all feared.
00:55:57Now there's just one truly extraordinary place I'm yet to visit.
00:56:02Somewhere that very few will ever get the opportunity to see.
00:56:07Tomorrow, I'm going directly beneath
00:56:10the vast Chernobyl radiation shield,
00:56:13getting as close as is possible
00:56:15to the very epicentre of the explosion.
00:56:27I'm returning to the Chernobyl power plant
00:56:31to gain access to something off-limits to almost all outsiders.
00:56:36Deep inside the enormous steel arch known as the new safe confinement
00:56:41is the entombed remains of the ruined reactor itself,
00:56:45the very epicentre of the explosion.
00:56:48After months of discussions, I've been granted permission
00:56:52just a few minutes inside.
00:57:00This is pretty special to be allowed to go into there.
00:57:04That's why there's lots of people keeping an eye on me,
00:57:07lots of paperwork.
00:57:09It's taken a long time to get these permissions.
00:57:13Directly underneath the arch,
00:57:15radiation levels are even higher than control room levels.
00:57:19Radiation levels are even higher than control room number four.
00:57:23It's kind of like going to war.
00:57:27I think we're about to head into the final area.
00:57:43Wow. Oh, my goodness.
00:57:50This is unbelievable.
00:57:52I mean, I can't quite believe I'm actually in here.
00:58:00Behind the scaffold is the crumbling concrete sarcophagus
00:58:04that was hastily erected to entomb the blown-apart reactor.
00:58:08If you could hear that beeping,
00:58:10that was everyone's dosimeters from outside going off,
00:58:13because it's off the scale in here.
00:58:1585.
00:58:17Almost 90.
00:58:21Over time, and exposed to the elements,
00:58:24the concrete sarcophagus has deteriorated
00:58:27and is teetering on collapse.
00:58:29The entire structure will be painstakingly disassembled.
00:58:33Its still-hot radioactive core removed
00:58:36and placed in special storage facilities.
00:58:39So, when the workers eventually start to dismantle this,
00:58:43how long can each worker spend doing their job?
00:58:58It will all be robotics? Yeah.
00:59:01Very slowly, everything will be picked apart.
00:59:04This is modern-day liquidators.
00:59:06This is history repeating itself.
00:59:08All those men that were sweeping the debris off the roof,
00:59:11it's going to happen again.
00:59:13Spearheaded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
00:59:17over 40 countries came together to fund the £1.3 billion arch.
00:59:22For at least the next century,
00:59:24this extraordinary feat of mega-engineering
00:59:27will protect and enable the radioactive ruins of Reactor 4
00:59:31to eventually be made safe.
00:59:34I'm trying to explain to you now my emotions.
00:59:37It's really weird because I feel surprisingly emotional
00:59:42to see what is arguably a wretched, terrible place.
00:59:49But what I see coming in here is hope and that's what I love
00:59:52because this is the hope of what technology can do.
00:59:56This is the hope of what people collaborating,
00:59:59multi-nations came together to create this dome
01:00:03and protect it for another 100 years.
01:00:05And isn't that incredible that over the next couple of decades,
01:00:09robots, AI, artificial intelligence,
01:00:12that so many people think could ruin the world,
01:00:15could actually help save it and preserve it?
01:00:21So my emotions right now are of great pride
01:00:25for this country, for everyone who worked on it,
01:00:29and showing what humanity can do.
01:00:36We've got about 30 seconds left in here.
01:00:39You can hear everyone's dosimeters going off.
01:00:43Oh, gosh. Chris, we have to get out.
01:00:46Chris, we've got to go.
01:00:51Our time is up.
01:00:55Everything is checked for contamination.
01:00:58But we're all clear.
01:01:06The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is still a long way
01:01:09from being a safe, habitable environment.
01:01:12But slowly, green shoots are emerging.
01:01:15The wider zone itself has become a giant laboratory
01:01:19where scientists and conservationists can now safely study
01:01:23the effects of radiation and what happens to nature
01:01:26when humans disappear.
01:01:29What is this we're going into now, Marina?
01:01:33Biologist Marina Shkreveria
01:01:35has been studying wildlife in the zone.
01:01:39So all of this here has grown since this was abandoned?
01:01:45What's interesting is, when I look at my dosimeter,
01:01:48it's a little bit higher in here, perhaps.
01:01:51And I know that if I go down towards the moss,
01:01:54it goes up quite a lot.
01:01:56And yet, nature is still here.
01:01:58It's still here.
01:02:00It's still here.
01:02:02It's still here.
01:02:04It's still here.
01:02:06It's still here.
01:02:08It's still here.
01:02:10It's still here.
01:02:12It's still here quite a lot.
01:02:14And yet, nature has flourished here.
01:02:42Maybe even a wolf.
01:02:47Marina and other scientists believe that without hunting,
01:02:50farming and the destruction of natural habitats,
01:02:53the zone is becoming an unlikely wildlife sanctuary.
01:03:00We're tracking wolves.
01:03:06Have you found anything, Marina?
01:03:08Yeah. You can see tracks?
01:03:11Yeah. This one?
01:03:13Oh, yes, I've got it.
01:03:15How many wolves do you think have come through here?
01:03:25There are plenty of wolf tracks,
01:03:27but in an area the size of Luxembourg,
01:03:30seeing them was always going to be a long shot.
01:03:37Luckily, Marina and her team have caught glimpses
01:03:40of the wildlife that live in the zone on remote cameras.
01:03:47So this is from a drone?
01:03:50That's a beautiful shot.
01:03:52Wow, look at that galloping off across the landscape.
01:03:56How beautiful is that?
01:04:00Marina, how did these horses get here in the first place?
01:04:03Were they introduced?
01:04:11And wolves. Look at that. Incredible.
01:04:17It's just amazing to see the array of animals on those camera traps.
01:04:22Moose, deer, wolves, lynx.
01:04:25There's even bears.
01:04:27So many animals in the zone.
01:04:29It's amazing.
01:04:31It's amazing.
01:04:33It's amazing.
01:04:35It's amazing.
01:04:37There's even bears.
01:04:39So many animals living in this extraordinary exclusion zone.
01:04:59The planet faces unprecedented challenges,
01:05:02many of them, like Chernobyl, of our own making.
01:05:07I came here looking for hope.
01:05:11What I've discovered here at Chernobyl
01:05:13is that this is supposed to be a radioactive wasteland
01:05:17for tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of years.
01:05:22And yet nature's reclaiming it.
01:05:30Look at this.
01:05:32This, for me, is the really exciting part of the Chernobyl story
01:05:35because it's the accidental hope that came from it.
01:05:38Some people are calling this the European Amazon.
01:05:42This is almost the greatest accidental rewilding project in the world
01:05:48because where there was wretchedness and disaster
01:05:53has come this extraordinary return to the wild.
01:06:06For more information, visit www.nasa.gov
01:06:10NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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