1 00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:44,530 My name is Vita Polyakova. 2 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:46,840 I work as a guide for a governmental body 3 00:03:46,900 --> 00:03:49,910 who's responsible for all the visits in the exclusion zone. 4 00:11:52,220 --> 00:11:54,790 That sound of beeping all the time, 5 00:11:54,860 --> 00:11:56,760 it can become nerve-racking. 6 00:12:09,540 --> 00:12:12,770 After the explosion the reactor didn't exist any more. 7 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:14,610 The active core blew up. 8 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:18,810 The steam literally drenched all the exclusion zone 9 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:20,350 around the reactor. 10 00:12:20,420 --> 00:12:22,650 This is Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the very center, 11 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,290 then we have 10 kilometer zone, and then 12 00:12:25,350 --> 00:12:26,720 we have 30 kilometer zone. 13 00:12:29,990 --> 00:12:31,830 The structure which you see right 14 00:12:31,890 --> 00:12:33,460 now that is the sarcophagus. 15 00:12:33,530 --> 00:12:36,160 Inside, we have the fuel containing masses, 16 00:12:36,230 --> 00:12:38,470 and that is the source of radioactive dust. 17 00:12:38,530 --> 00:12:40,940 The radioactive dust has been coming 18 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,810 through the holes for 27 years. 19 00:12:45,010 --> 00:12:46,640 The radiation, which we see here, 20 00:12:46,710 --> 00:12:49,480 that is radioactive dust coming from inside. 21 00:12:49,540 --> 00:12:52,180 Plus the walls may just collapse. 22 00:27:07,100 --> 00:27:08,800 This is perfect weather to be here, 23 00:27:08,870 --> 00:27:11,410 because it's after the rain. 24 00:27:11,470 --> 00:27:14,410 The ground is moist, and it's humid, 25 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,810 so everything is staying in place. 26 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,280 The worst kind of weather would be 27 00:27:19,350 --> 00:27:23,020 hot, windy, dry weather because then the wind picks up, 28 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:25,820 the radiation blows around. 29 00:27:25,890 --> 00:27:27,350 That's why the radiation maps keep 30 00:27:27,420 --> 00:27:30,590 changing, because the radiation doesn't stay in one place. 31 00:27:30,660 --> 00:27:33,830 It moves around. 32 00:27:33,890 --> 00:27:36,500 Oh my gosh, look at that. 33 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:37,300 That's a ruin. 34 00:27:41,470 --> 00:27:44,640 I haven't been here for probably seven years, 35 00:27:44,710 --> 00:27:47,070 so it'll be interesting to see what's changed. 36 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:44,670 Everything. 37 00:30:00,140 --> 00:30:02,410 Valentyna has had some health problems. 38 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,780 She was at the reactor site the night of the disaster. 39 00:30:05,850 --> 00:30:09,380 That means that she got some pretty serious radiation doses. 40 00:30:09,450 --> 00:30:12,220 So she got thyroid cancer and had her thyroid removed 41 00:30:12,290 --> 00:30:13,550 two years after the accident. 42 00:30:53,790 --> 00:30:56,330 A mushroom isn't just a mushroom. 43 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,640 It's a huge, huge organism, and the layers in which 44 00:31:01,700 --> 00:31:04,910 it is absorbing nutrients are the most 45 00:31:04,970 --> 00:31:07,510 radioactive layers of the soil. 46 00:31:07,570 --> 00:31:12,110 If you're eating mushrooms, you might be absorbing radiation 47 00:31:12,180 --> 00:31:15,220 actually from a great distance. 48 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:16,820 So this may be clean. 49 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,620 This area here may be clean, but these mushrooms might be dirty. 50 00:31:19,690 --> 00:31:22,320 And the only way of knowing is taking them to a lab, 51 00:31:22,390 --> 00:31:24,660 burning them, and testing them. 52 00:31:24,730 --> 00:31:26,390 If they're eating the local food, 53 00:31:26,460 --> 00:31:29,330 they are absorbing radiation, cesium, 54 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,230 which accumulates in muscle, and strontium, 55 00:31:32,300 --> 00:31:35,400 which accumulates in bone. 56 00:31:35,470 --> 00:31:39,340 This forest, it looks like a storybook to me. 57 00:31:39,410 --> 00:31:42,210 But there's a deeper story. 58 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:09,990 Geiger counters take the measurements, 59 00:34:10,060 --> 00:34:12,660 and then every hour they update the information, 60 00:34:12,730 --> 00:34:14,730 and over here on the screen one can see that. 61 00:34:17,260 --> 00:34:20,830 The level of radiation here actually exceeds the limit. 62 00:50:18,260 --> 00:50:20,530 We are forced to eat. 63 00:50:20,590 --> 00:50:23,800 That's all the Ukrainian landladies have to feed 64 00:50:23,860 --> 00:50:29,370 their guests till they are just Only then 65 00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:31,370 they're persuaded you are happy and they 66 00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:33,510 have fulfilled their duty. 67 00:50:33,570 --> 00:50:35,480 Otherwise, they get insulted. 68 00:50:35,540 --> 00:50:36,780 Lethally insulted. 69 00:50:50,820 --> 00:50:53,490 I'm just begging you, please let me help you. 70 00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:57,030 VITA POLYAKOVA: Here we are. 71 00:51:04,070 --> 00:51:06,940 I know there are risks. 72 00:51:07,010 --> 00:51:10,940 But as for these babushkas I just can't say no. 73 00:51:11,010 --> 00:51:14,210 Just eat the minimum you can, drink the minimum you can, 74 00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:17,520 and that's it. 75 00:51:17,580 --> 00:51:20,720 When I first came and nabbed them still living here, 76 00:51:20,790 --> 00:51:24,790 I was amazed how kind they are, how strong they are. 77 00:51:24,860 --> 00:51:28,790 They are so committed to what they do to their homeland 78 00:51:28,860 --> 00:51:30,500 although it is contaminated. 79 00:53:26,050 --> 00:53:27,810 There's one lady in Zalissia? 80 00:53:31,250 --> 00:53:34,250 They really are dying off. 81 00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:37,490 Younger animals-- and we're including humans 82 00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:39,790 among animals-- are far more susceptible 83 00:53:39,860 --> 00:53:42,730 to the effects of radiation. 84 00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:44,660 The reason why they have semi-officially 85 00:53:44,730 --> 00:53:46,870 allowed the babushkas to live here 86 00:53:46,930 --> 00:53:49,600 was because they figured that old age 87 00:53:49,670 --> 00:53:53,310 will kill them before any kind of radiation does. 88 00:53:53,370 --> 00:53:54,110 Hello? 89 00:53:58,140 --> 00:54:01,150 Wild boars can pop out of anywhere. 90 00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:07,550 For the people who came back, it's 91 00:54:07,620 --> 00:54:10,490 impossible to tease out what's radiation, what's 92 00:54:10,560 --> 00:54:11,820 drinking, what's smoking. 93 00:54:11,890 --> 00:54:15,230 So far the only cancer that has been 94 00:54:15,290 --> 00:54:19,670 absolutely definitely connected to Chernobyl is thyroid cancer. 95 00:54:19,730 --> 00:54:21,900 That said, the upper estimates are 96 00:54:21,970 --> 00:54:24,870 that up to tens of thousands might have died 97 00:54:24,940 --> 00:54:28,470 of radiation induced cancers. 98 00:54:28,540 --> 00:54:31,880 All of the medical studies are flawed. 99 00:54:31,940 --> 00:54:35,680 And flawed in such a way that partisans 100 00:54:35,750 --> 00:54:38,080 on both sides of the nuclear debate 101 00:54:38,150 --> 00:54:41,490 can argue that the studies prove their point, 102 00:54:41,550 --> 00:54:44,120 and that's one of the big problems. 103 00:54:44,190 --> 00:54:45,960 You don't come here for clear answers. 104 01:01:57,490 --> 01:02:00,630 MARY MYCIO: What the zone will be in the future? 105 01:02:00,690 --> 01:02:04,330 It will be that sarcophagus, and it will be that new covering 106 01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:06,330 on the sarcophagus. 107 01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:10,240 And how they intend to make that last forever-- which 108 01:02:10,300 --> 01:02:14,770 it will have to-- is sort of one of the great mysteries 109 01:02:14,840 --> 01:02:16,440 of Chernobyl. 110 01:02:16,510 --> 01:02:20,510 It'll have the last longer than the pyramids. 111 01:02:20,580 --> 01:02:22,450 What's going to happen 5,000 years from now? 112 01:02:22,510 --> 01:02:23,980 What's going to be there? 113 01:02:24,050 --> 01:02:26,720 Something has to be there, and if nothing's there people 114 01:02:26,790 --> 01:02:32,290 will unknowingly go live there and die, not knowing why. 115 01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:36,230 Now that it seems that probably every generation 116 01:02:36,300 --> 01:02:38,860 or so there will be a catastrophic breakdown 117 01:02:38,930 --> 01:02:42,770 at a nuclear power plant, it's something that the world 118 01:02:42,830 --> 01:02:43,700 needs to think about. 119 01:02:47,170 --> 01:02:50,740 The babushkas' generation is passing. 120 01:02:50,810 --> 01:02:54,550 The population is definitely dwindling. 121 01:02:54,610 --> 01:02:58,280 You always kind of wonder about the last specimen 122 01:02:58,350 --> 01:03:03,360 of a dying species and how lonely that must be.