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My name is Vita Polyakova.

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I work as a guide for
a governmental body

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who's responsible for all the
visits in the exclusion zone.

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That sound of
beeping all the time,

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it can become nerve-racking.

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After the explosion the
reactor didn't exist any more.

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The active core blew up.

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The steam literally drenched
all the exclusion zone

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around the reactor.

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This is Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant in the very center,

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then we have 10
kilometer zone, and then

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we have 30 kilometer zone.

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The structure
which you see right

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now that is the sarcophagus.

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Inside, we have the
fuel containing masses,

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and that is the source
of radioactive dust.

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The radioactive
dust has been coming

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through the holes for 27 years.

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The radiation,
which we see here,

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that is radioactive
dust coming from inside.

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Plus the walls
may just collapse.

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This is perfect
weather to be here,

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because it's after the rain.

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The ground is moist,
and it's humid,

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so everything is
staying in place.

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The worst kind of
weather would be

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hot, windy, dry weather
because then the wind picks up,

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the radiation blows around.

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00:27:25,890 --> 00:27:27,350
That's why the
radiation maps keep

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changing, because the radiation
doesn't stay in one place.

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It moves around.

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Oh my gosh, look at that.

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That's a ruin.

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I haven't been here for
probably seven years,

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so it'll be interesting
to see what's changed.

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Everything.

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Valentyna has had
some health problems.

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She was at the reactor site
the night of the disaster.

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That means that she got some
pretty serious radiation doses.

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So she got thyroid cancer
and had her thyroid removed

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two years after the accident.

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A mushroom isn't
just a mushroom.

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It's a huge, huge organism,
and the layers in which

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it is absorbing
nutrients are the most

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radioactive layers of the soil.

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If you're eating mushrooms, you
might be absorbing radiation

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actually from a great distance.

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So this may be clean.

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This area here may be clean, but
these mushrooms might be dirty.

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And the only way of knowing
is taking them to a lab,

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burning them, and testing them.

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If they're eating
the local food,

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they are absorbing
radiation, cesium,

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which accumulates in
muscle, and strontium,

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which accumulates in bone.

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This forest, it looks
like a storybook to me.

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But there's a deeper story.

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Geiger counters take
the measurements,

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and then every hour they
update the information,

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and over here on the
screen one can see that.

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The level of radiation here
actually exceeds the limit.

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We are forced to eat.

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That's all the Ukrainian
landladies have to feed

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their guests till they are
just  Only then

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they're persuaded you
are happy and they

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have fulfilled their duty.

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Otherwise, they get insulted.

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Lethally insulted.

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I'm just begging you,
please let me help you.

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VITA POLYAKOVA: Here we are.

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I know there are risks.

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But as for these babushkas
I just can't say no.

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Just eat the minimum you can,
drink the minimum you can,

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and that's it.

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When I first came and nabbed
them still living here,

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I was amazed how kind they
are, how strong they are.

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They are so committed to what
they do to their homeland

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although it is contaminated.

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There's one lady in Zalissia?

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They really are dying off.

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Younger animals-- and
we're including humans

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among animals-- are
far more susceptible

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to the effects of radiation.

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The reason why they
have semi-officially

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allowed the babushkas
to live here

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was because they
figured that old age

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will kill them before any
kind of radiation does.

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Hello?

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Wild boars can pop
out of anywhere.

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For the people who
came back, it's

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impossible to tease out
what's radiation, what's

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drinking, what's smoking.

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So far the only
cancer that has been

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absolutely definitely connected
to Chernobyl is thyroid cancer.

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That said, the
upper estimates are

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that up to tens of
thousands might have died

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of radiation induced cancers.

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All of the medical
studies are flawed.

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And flawed in such
a way that partisans

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on both sides of
the nuclear debate

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can argue that the
studies prove their point,

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and that's one of
the big problems.

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You don't come here
for clear answers.

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MARY MYCIO: What the zone
will be in the future?

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It will be that sarcophagus,
and it will be that new covering

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on the sarcophagus.

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And how they intend to make
that last forever-- which

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it will have to-- is sort of
one of the great mysteries

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of Chernobyl.

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It'll have the last
longer than the pyramids.

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What's going to happen
5,000 years from now?

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What's going to be there?

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Something has to be there,
and if nothing's there people

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will unknowingly go live there
and die, not knowing why.

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Now that it seems that
probably every generation

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or so there will be a
catastrophic breakdown

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at a nuclear power plant,
it's something that the world

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needs to think about.

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The babushkas'
generation is passing.

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The population is
definitely dwindling.

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You always kind of wonder
about the last specimen

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of a dying species and
how lonely that must be.