With over 40,000 times the safe level of radiation, Chernobyl’s control room will soon be available to visit – but only for five minutes at a time.
Forget Disneyland, everyone knows the real tourist money is in disaster zones and places of tragic historical significance. At least that seems to be the case with Chernobyl, a ghost town in Ukraine that’s infamous for being the site of the 1986 nuclear explosion.
It’s also soon to be a hot spot for five minute tours, apparently. It may not have the rollercoasters of world-renowned theme parks or the glitzy glamour of big cities, but Chernobyl does have exceedingly high radiation levels and unsafe structures that won’t be habitable for at least several millennia.
If you’re wondering why Chernobyl has suddenly become a hot spot for tourists then you probably missed the popular HBO series based on the disaster that came out earlier this year. According to the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Management, the team organising 21 new tour routes, the TV show ‘boosted interest’ in the area.
‘Everyone now wants to see more and we are going to satisfy the demand’.
Is there an obligation to actually meet that demand, though? We shouldn’t really be encouraging people to flock to Chernobyl. The site is still incredibly hazardous and represents one of the darkest moments in human history. This ain’t like visiting the Eiffel Tower.