1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,413 --> 00:00:12,379 RADIATION DETECTOR CLICKS AND BEEPS 4 00:00:24,137 --> 00:00:25,586 Wow. 5 00:00:29,896 --> 00:00:34,896 SIREN WAILS 6 00:00:34,931 --> 00:00:39,000 When the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor exploded in 1986, 7 00:00:39,068 --> 00:00:41,758 it changed Everything. 8 00:00:41,793 --> 00:00:43,241 I was 13 years old 9 00:00:43,275 --> 00:00:48,172 and it was just when I was starting to understand the world. 10 00:00:48,206 --> 00:00:52,862 And Chernobyl for me was such a massive 11 00:00:52,931 --> 00:00:55,241 punctuation mark. 12 00:00:55,275 --> 00:00:58,448 Now, 35 years after the disaster, 13 00:00:58,482 --> 00:01:02,310 I'm travelling to the most radioactive place on Earth. 14 00:01:03,827 --> 00:01:07,965 This is the accident and emergency department. 15 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,517 Imagine the horrors that went on in here. 16 00:01:10,551 --> 00:01:12,551 I've been granted special permission 17 00:01:12,586 --> 00:01:15,827 to explore some of Chernobyl's secrets... 18 00:01:15,862 --> 00:01:21,482 Some people believe this was a mind controller, like a brain scorcher. 19 00:01:21,517 --> 00:01:26,758 ..going inside the very control room where the fatal mistake was made... 20 00:01:26,793 --> 00:01:29,068 Goodness me. 21 00:01:29,103 --> 00:01:31,655 I mean, this is unbelievable. 22 00:01:31,689 --> 00:01:36,344 ..and seeing close-up the tomb of the doomed reactor. 23 00:01:36,379 --> 00:01:41,034 Wow. I can't quite believe I'm actually in here. 24 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,068 What has Chernobyl now become? 25 00:01:45,103 --> 00:01:47,241 Oh, look. 26 00:01:47,310 --> 00:01:48,724 So, someone's been staying in here. 27 00:01:50,103 --> 00:01:52,137 This is the Chernobyl squatter. 28 00:01:53,862 --> 00:01:57,241 And what does it mean for the generations to come? 29 00:01:57,275 --> 00:02:00,103 I see this as a very timely visit. 30 00:02:00,172 --> 00:02:03,241 Because the world is at tipping point. 31 00:02:03,275 --> 00:02:09,034 I'm hoping that by visiting this place, the people, 32 00:02:09,103 --> 00:02:13,931 maybe I'll find some hope that all is not lost. 33 00:02:36,448 --> 00:02:41,068 I'm on my way to the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident. 34 00:02:41,103 --> 00:02:45,379 So, this road doesn't lead anywhere but into the Restricted Zone now? 35 00:02:45,448 --> 00:02:49,137 We call it simply The Zone. The Zone, yes. 36 00:02:49,172 --> 00:02:51,551 Where I'm going, I have to be accompanied 37 00:02:51,586 --> 00:02:54,241 by a government sanctioned expert. 38 00:02:54,310 --> 00:02:57,724 Nikolai Fomin has in-depth knowledge of the risks. 39 00:02:57,758 --> 00:02:59,413 So this is the checkpoint? 40 00:02:59,448 --> 00:03:03,448 Still pretty highly militarised area so please prepare your documents. 41 00:03:06,448 --> 00:03:11,034 Beyond this border crossing is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 42 00:03:11,068 --> 00:03:12,793 a region so contaminated 43 00:03:12,862 --> 00:03:16,758 it was closed off from the rest of the world for over a decade. 44 00:03:16,793 --> 00:03:19,275 It feels quite strange. It's heavily militarised, 45 00:03:19,310 --> 00:03:23,379 there's load of police and it's heavily controlled 46 00:03:23,413 --> 00:03:27,206 in terms of who can go in and even who can go out. 47 00:03:31,413 --> 00:03:35,172 From now on, the law dictates that the increased radiation 48 00:03:35,206 --> 00:03:39,241 I'm about to experience must be continually monitored. 49 00:03:39,275 --> 00:03:42,275 I've got the meter for you. The dosimeter.Yeah. 50 00:03:42,310 --> 00:03:45,620 This is the device that measures your total radiation exposure, 51 00:03:45,655 --> 00:03:48,586 your dose. So this I have to wear around my neck? Yes. 52 00:03:48,655 --> 00:03:50,344 And this is the Geiger counter. Yeah. 53 00:03:50,379 --> 00:03:52,793 These units measure radiation level. 54 00:03:52,862 --> 00:03:55,724 It's never zero, right? So there is always a little bit of background 55 00:03:55,758 --> 00:03:57,310 radiation all over the world. 56 00:03:57,344 --> 00:04:02,137 So right now we are measuring 0.13 microsieverts per hour. 57 00:04:02,206 --> 00:04:07,000 If radiation levels exceed normal reading, it will go off. 58 00:04:07,034 --> 00:04:09,413 It will start flashing red, it will start beeping 59 00:04:09,448 --> 00:04:13,000 so you'll never miss that. OK, we're good to go. 60 00:04:14,586 --> 00:04:17,448 Two worlds. I'm about to step over the threshold. 61 00:04:24,896 --> 00:04:29,068 I'll be spending a week living inside the Exclusion Zone, 62 00:04:29,137 --> 00:04:33,310 which covers an area of more than 1,000 square miles - 63 00:04:33,344 --> 00:04:35,655 larger than Luxembourg. 64 00:04:40,275 --> 00:04:43,620 The Zone was established in the aftermath of the worst 65 00:04:43,655 --> 00:04:45,758 nuclear disaster in history. 66 00:04:48,034 --> 00:04:51,103 On April 26th 1986, 67 00:04:51,137 --> 00:04:54,517 Chernobyl's reactor No 4 exploded. 68 00:04:54,551 --> 00:04:59,206 The resulting fire lasted ten days, releasing 400 times as much 69 00:04:59,275 --> 00:05:03,620 radioactive material as the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 70 00:05:05,862 --> 00:05:09,310 The entire civilian population in the surrounding towns 71 00:05:09,379 --> 00:05:12,068 and villages was forcibly evacuated, 72 00:05:12,103 --> 00:05:14,689 later told never to return. 73 00:05:29,103 --> 00:05:32,103 Are these radiation signs? Yes, they are. 74 00:05:32,137 --> 00:05:34,103 Stay away from the warning signs 75 00:05:34,137 --> 00:05:37,827 and from now on don't touch anything. 76 00:05:37,862 --> 00:05:41,620 I'll be going inside the stricken power plant itself, 77 00:05:41,655 --> 00:05:45,517 but first I want to visit the ghost of Chernobyl. 78 00:05:47,379 --> 00:05:50,448 We're in the city now. Yes, we're in Pripyat. 79 00:05:50,482 --> 00:05:53,620 In front of us is main street of Pripyat. 80 00:05:53,655 --> 00:05:55,689 This is the main street? This is the main street. 81 00:05:55,724 --> 00:05:58,620 So, everything, all these trees, this has all grown 82 00:05:58,655 --> 00:06:00,724 since it was abandoned?Yeah. 83 00:06:03,931 --> 00:06:09,000 Pripyat was still being constructed when its 48,000 residents all left. 84 00:06:10,758 --> 00:06:16,551 It was designed to be the model socialist city, a Soviet Utopia. 85 00:06:20,482 --> 00:06:23,172 Never really seen anything like it. 86 00:06:23,241 --> 00:06:28,068 I've Been to war zones, I've seen places that have, you know, 87 00:06:28,103 --> 00:06:32,620 experienced great upheaval and changes but never quite like this. 88 00:06:34,137 --> 00:06:39,310 I'm imagining mums and their pushchairs and children squealing. 89 00:06:39,344 --> 00:06:42,000 You know, a bustling place. 90 00:06:43,689 --> 00:06:45,206 And now look at it. 91 00:06:55,379 --> 00:06:59,862 I was expecting to see a few derelict buildings but not this. 92 00:07:01,413 --> 00:07:03,620 This is not even a town. 93 00:07:03,689 --> 00:07:08,034 This is an entire city, with five secondary schools, 94 00:07:08,068 --> 00:07:13,103 two sports stadiums and its own Palace of Culture, 95 00:07:13,137 --> 00:07:16,586 all left to ruin and consumed by nature. 96 00:07:19,482 --> 00:07:23,000 That's incredible, I'm on a multistorey school building 97 00:07:23,034 --> 00:07:25,827 and there's trees growing through the floor. 98 00:07:31,551 --> 00:07:34,137 I do feel like I've gone back in time. 99 00:07:35,965 --> 00:07:41,827 To me, that looks like sort of dosimetry to test for radiation. 100 00:07:41,896 --> 00:07:45,689 The great irony is that everyone here was preparing for 101 00:07:45,724 --> 00:07:47,206 a nuclear catastrophe 102 00:07:47,241 --> 00:07:50,413 that came from the other side of the Atlantic that would 103 00:07:50,448 --> 00:07:54,724 come in the form of a bomb, not in the form of their own power station. 104 00:08:10,793 --> 00:08:11,931 Wow. 105 00:08:14,689 --> 00:08:18,103 Iconic, poignant. 106 00:08:18,137 --> 00:08:20,344 It's kind of everything, this. 107 00:08:20,379 --> 00:08:22,965 Cos this was the theme park that never was. 108 00:08:25,310 --> 00:08:29,793 The abandoned city of Pripyat is unlike anywhere I've ever been. 109 00:08:29,827 --> 00:08:31,896 Life changed here forever 110 00:08:31,931 --> 00:08:35,413 a day after the world's worst nuclear disaster. 111 00:08:40,413 --> 00:08:44,275 By all accounts Pripyat had been a happy, thriving city, 112 00:08:44,310 --> 00:08:48,137 full of the hopes and dreams of a young population. 113 00:08:48,172 --> 00:08:50,344 The average age was 26. 114 00:08:50,379 --> 00:08:53,689 It was built just 3km from the Chernobyl Power Plant 115 00:08:53,724 --> 00:08:55,724 for workers and their families, 116 00:08:55,758 --> 00:08:59,103 with brand-new facilities to rival the West. 117 00:08:59,137 --> 00:09:00,413 Wow. 118 00:09:03,448 --> 00:09:04,827 WHISTLE PEEPS 119 00:09:04,862 --> 00:09:06,275 CHEERING 120 00:09:16,103 --> 00:09:20,379 Back in 1986 this was state of the art in the USSR. 121 00:09:20,413 --> 00:09:25,620 This was unheard of cos Pripyat, this was a model town, a model city. 122 00:09:25,655 --> 00:09:30,275 I suppose the comparison in the United Kingdom is Milton Keynes. 123 00:09:30,310 --> 00:09:33,793 You know, this was built for purpose and the living standards here 124 00:09:33,827 --> 00:09:38,862 were far better than anywhere else in the Soviet Union. 125 00:09:38,896 --> 00:09:43,137 It makes me smile more in here than other places, 126 00:09:43,206 --> 00:09:45,275 with an air sadness as well 127 00:09:45,310 --> 00:09:50,103 cos there would have been so many happy times that people had in here. 128 00:09:58,344 --> 00:10:00,344 The Chernobyl No 4 reactor 129 00:10:00,379 --> 00:10:04,413 exploded in the early hours of April 26th, 1986. 130 00:10:04,448 --> 00:10:06,206 When Pripyat awoke, 131 00:10:06,241 --> 00:10:09,965 toxic levels of radiation were already engulfing the area. 132 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:14,344 But no warning was given. People continued their lives as normal. 133 00:10:17,448 --> 00:10:21,241 Alexander Sirota was a nine-year-old schoolboy at the time. 134 00:10:22,620 --> 00:10:27,275 So, what are your memories from the 26th of April 1986? 135 00:10:53,862 --> 00:10:55,655 So this is the school here? 136 00:10:58,896 --> 00:11:00,827 Right through here?Yes. 137 00:11:00,862 --> 00:11:04,379 This is You?Yes. This is poignant. 138 00:11:04,448 --> 00:11:05,551 Wow. 139 00:11:36,758 --> 00:11:38,793 Alexander was sent back to school, 140 00:11:38,862 --> 00:11:41,379 despite the fact that radiation levels in the city 141 00:11:41,413 --> 00:11:45,275 had reached alarming levels. Incredibly, the Soviet authorities 142 00:11:45,310 --> 00:11:49,068 waited 36 hours before starting an evacuation. 143 00:11:50,827 --> 00:11:52,586 Can I ask if you or your family 144 00:11:52,620 --> 00:11:56,206 suffered long-term health implications? 145 00:12:11,620 --> 00:12:15,862 I-I really can't even imagine what he went through. 146 00:12:15,931 --> 00:12:19,551 That 36 hour delay, so much is made about that. 147 00:12:19,586 --> 00:12:20,896 Without doubt, 148 00:12:20,965 --> 00:12:25,482 that cost people their health and probably their lives. 149 00:12:25,551 --> 00:12:29,517 The Soviet Union did not want to admit, it was embarrassing, 150 00:12:29,586 --> 00:12:32,310 it wasn't... It wasn't Soviet. 151 00:12:32,379 --> 00:12:35,931 You know, a reactor couldn't explode, there was disbelief 152 00:12:35,965 --> 00:12:42,965 but there was also denial and denial cost lives. 153 00:12:47,620 --> 00:12:51,620 By the afternoon, confusion had descended on Pripyat. 154 00:12:51,689 --> 00:12:54,206 No official information was being provided 155 00:12:54,241 --> 00:12:57,827 other than a small fire on the roof of the power plant. 156 00:12:57,862 --> 00:13:01,482 But there was one place in the city that had already been a witness 157 00:13:01,517 --> 00:13:04,172 to the terrifying events that were unfolding. 158 00:13:06,310 --> 00:13:09,172 Oh, hello, we've got company. 159 00:13:09,206 --> 00:13:13,137 In my mind this is one of the most significant buildings, really, 160 00:13:13,172 --> 00:13:18,517 in Pripyat cos this is the hospital, Hospital 126. 161 00:13:21,068 --> 00:13:25,241 Everyone who went to the plant that night to fight the little fire 162 00:13:25,310 --> 00:13:27,862 on the roof that we now know was this... 163 00:13:27,931 --> 00:13:31,034 ..this world-shattering explosion... 164 00:13:32,206 --> 00:13:34,689 ..would have been taken in this door. 165 00:13:41,241 --> 00:13:43,586 Remember to just not touch stuff, yeah. 166 00:13:48,586 --> 00:13:53,275 In the hours after the explosion, 108 firefighters and plant workers, 167 00:13:53,310 --> 00:13:55,896 suffering from acute radiation sickness, 168 00:13:55,931 --> 00:13:58,448 were taken through these corridors. 169 00:14:01,827 --> 00:14:06,413 This is the accident and emergency department. 170 00:14:06,448 --> 00:14:10,862 I'm trying to imagine the chaos and but also the unknown, really. 171 00:14:10,896 --> 00:14:13,724 No-one really knew why all these firefighters were coming 172 00:14:13,793 --> 00:14:15,827 and why they were vomiting. 173 00:14:17,482 --> 00:14:21,827 The contamination they left is still a danger today. 174 00:14:21,896 --> 00:14:26,344 That's the reason I've got a mask on right now, all those dust particles. 175 00:14:26,379 --> 00:14:29,344 Don't really want those going into my nose and mouth. 176 00:14:29,379 --> 00:14:31,862 Cos this is one of the most radioactive parts of Pripyat. 177 00:14:31,931 --> 00:14:34,793 All the first responders were heavily radioactive 178 00:14:34,827 --> 00:14:37,000 from fighting those fires. 179 00:14:42,413 --> 00:14:46,413 Anyone exposed to radiation at the power plant should have been washed 180 00:14:46,448 --> 00:14:51,034 and dressed in uncontaminated clothing before they arrived here. 181 00:14:51,068 --> 00:14:52,931 That never happen. 182 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,000 This is kind of strange. 183 00:14:56,068 --> 00:14:59,655 There are still the rags that the nurses were using on the firemen. 184 00:14:59,689 --> 00:15:03,758 If I use my dosimeter that is picking up beta... 185 00:15:03,793 --> 00:15:07,793 BEEPING AND CLICKING 186 00:15:07,827 --> 00:15:10,793 It's already gone the highest it's been. 187 00:15:10,827 --> 00:15:12,724 The reading is 60 times higher 188 00:15:12,793 --> 00:15:17,310 than the average background radiation just outside The Zone. 189 00:15:17,344 --> 00:15:19,275 I'm not going to spend very long in here. 190 00:15:19,310 --> 00:15:21,172 I'm obviously being very sensible. 191 00:15:21,206 --> 00:15:26,068 But it's the invisibility of the radiation that they would have had 192 00:15:26,103 --> 00:15:30,172 as well, they wouldn't have had a clue. They didn't have these. 193 00:15:30,206 --> 00:15:32,965 These were just firemen who had burns 194 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,275 and unknown symptoms that caused vomiting. 195 00:15:40,137 --> 00:15:43,758 28 people brought to this hospital after the explosion 196 00:15:43,793 --> 00:15:46,655 lost their lives within three months. 197 00:15:46,689 --> 00:15:49,827 It's unclear how many would later suffer ill health as a result 198 00:15:49,862 --> 00:15:52,586 of their exposure to radiation that night. 199 00:15:57,241 --> 00:16:01,206 I think of all the buildings I've been into in Pripyat, 200 00:16:01,241 --> 00:16:06,827 this is...the most chilling, most haunting. 201 00:16:06,862 --> 00:16:09,206 Imagine the horrors that went on in here, 202 00:16:09,241 --> 00:16:11,034 the number of lives that were lost 203 00:16:11,068 --> 00:16:14,000 cos this was a town of 48,000 people. 204 00:16:14,034 --> 00:16:16,275 In fact, they called it a city. 205 00:16:16,310 --> 00:16:21,931 So there would have been many, many pregnant women, lots of newborns. 206 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,931 And just 36 hours after the accident 207 00:16:25,965 --> 00:16:30,241 this, along with the whole city, was evacuated. 208 00:16:30,275 --> 00:16:32,965 A whole working hospital, gone. 209 00:16:34,034 --> 00:16:35,241 Look at it now. 210 00:16:41,793 --> 00:16:45,551 I've been told that beneath this pile of rather innocent-looking sand 211 00:16:45,586 --> 00:16:47,068 is the entrance to the basement, 212 00:16:47,137 --> 00:16:50,206 one of the most toxic parts of the whole Chernobyl. 213 00:16:50,241 --> 00:16:53,896 All of the uniforms from the first responders, the firefighters - 214 00:16:53,965 --> 00:16:57,655 so their boots, their tunics their hats - was taken down 215 00:16:57,689 --> 00:17:01,172 into the basement where it was left 216 00:17:01,206 --> 00:17:04,517 because they were so toxic, so radioactive, 217 00:17:04,551 --> 00:17:06,965 they couldn't let anyone go near it. 218 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,241 The basement was only sealed a few years ago to stop trespassers 219 00:17:11,275 --> 00:17:16,068 intent on venturing into one of Chernobyl's deadliest sites. 220 00:17:16,137 --> 00:17:18,068 Nikolai wants to show me some footage 221 00:17:18,137 --> 00:17:19,655 of what's actually down there. 222 00:17:21,241 --> 00:17:24,586 This is the basement of the hospital before it was buried. Mm-hm. 223 00:17:24,620 --> 00:17:27,896 Levels of radiation there are insanely high. 224 00:17:29,275 --> 00:17:33,448 72... 700. 720... That's off the scale now, you see. 225 00:17:33,482 --> 00:17:36,689 And that's a pair of fireman's boots. 226 00:17:36,724 --> 00:17:40,931 The main risk is not even the dose of radiation you obtained there, 227 00:17:40,965 --> 00:17:45,931 it's dust. All those tiny partials of radioactive material, 228 00:17:45,965 --> 00:17:51,103 if you ingest any of those, even the microscopic ones you cannot see, 229 00:17:51,137 --> 00:17:53,896 they are capable of killing human beings. 230 00:17:55,379 --> 00:17:58,758 Are these authorised individuals? 231 00:17:58,793 --> 00:18:01,758 No, I'm pretty sure they are trespassers. 232 00:18:01,793 --> 00:18:05,448 Cos it's strictly forbidden to go there. 233 00:18:05,482 --> 00:18:08,310 Although in recent years authorities have allowed some 234 00:18:08,344 --> 00:18:11,689 very strictly controlled tours inside the wider Zone area... 235 00:18:14,275 --> 00:18:18,000 ..illegal thrill-seekers, driven largely by social media, 236 00:18:18,034 --> 00:18:20,241 continue to be a problem here. 237 00:18:20,310 --> 00:18:23,827 I think these guys are doing it for adrenaline, attention... 238 00:18:23,862 --> 00:18:26,068 Showing off. ..social media, showing off. 239 00:18:26,103 --> 00:18:30,655 That's what drives people to take the risk and go down there. 240 00:18:33,241 --> 00:18:35,689 What about the firemen's helmets, are they down there? 241 00:18:35,724 --> 00:18:40,758 There was one helmet that somebody took from the basement 242 00:18:40,827 --> 00:18:44,241 and put on the ground floor of the hospital building in Pripyat. 243 00:18:44,275 --> 00:18:49,137 That was in front of the main entrance for years. 244 00:18:49,172 --> 00:18:51,310 Now it's gone. Somebody took it. 245 00:18:51,344 --> 00:18:55,620 So somewhere out there is a highly radioactive fireman's helmet? 246 00:18:55,655 --> 00:18:58,620 Yeah, and I hope that's within The Zone. 247 00:18:58,655 --> 00:19:01,103 I really hope they didn't take it out 248 00:19:01,172 --> 00:19:03,655 because that's the worst case scenario. 249 00:19:03,689 --> 00:19:06,241 Cos if you take something radioactive from here, 250 00:19:06,275 --> 00:19:08,172 it can cause a lot of trouble. 251 00:19:08,206 --> 00:19:11,482 Radiation has no taste, it's invisible, you can't see it, 252 00:19:11,517 --> 00:19:12,965 you can't smell it. 253 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,724 The levels of radiation in the uniforms are a sobering reminder 254 00:19:16,758 --> 00:19:20,551 of just how toxic some parts of The Zone still are. 255 00:19:20,586 --> 00:19:24,344 Scientists predict the Chernobyl reactor site will be uninhabitable 256 00:19:24,379 --> 00:19:28,000 for at least 20,000 years. 257 00:19:28,034 --> 00:19:30,413 Containing the disaster is ongoing. 258 00:19:30,448 --> 00:19:33,551 Almost 3,000 people still work at the power plant. 259 00:19:33,586 --> 00:19:35,896 No-one can stay within 10km of the site 260 00:19:35,931 --> 00:19:38,655 and for some workers this is a way of life. 261 00:19:39,793 --> 00:19:43,586 So you do this everyday, basically, when you go into the Control Zone. 262 00:19:45,241 --> 00:19:46,241 Clean. 263 00:19:47,379 --> 00:19:52,896 This just analyses what I've got on me, if I'm contaminated or not. 264 00:19:52,931 --> 00:19:56,482 That says I'm clean. It's good news. 265 00:20:00,758 --> 00:20:04,413 I'm spending my first night at one of the few lodgings in The Zone. 266 00:20:09,068 --> 00:20:10,241 Yes, of course. 267 00:20:10,310 --> 00:20:12,068 BEEPING 268 00:20:12,137 --> 00:20:13,103 OK. 269 00:20:15,655 --> 00:20:17,620 OK. Over here? 270 00:20:17,655 --> 00:20:19,827 VOICEOVER: To limit my dose of radiation, 271 00:20:19,862 --> 00:20:24,448 I'm only allowed to stay in The Zone for up to 14 days at a time. 272 00:20:29,655 --> 00:20:30,862 Wow. 273 00:20:31,206 --> 00:20:33,965 It's actually a lot more comfortable than I thought this was going to be. 274 00:20:37,931 --> 00:20:41,068 But it is very weird that I am just a few of kilometres 275 00:20:41,103 --> 00:20:46,448 from the Chernobyl that I remember melting down 276 00:20:46,482 --> 00:20:51,344 when I was a 13-year-old. And here I am, about to have my first night. 277 00:20:51,379 --> 00:20:54,724 And I've even got a memory of home. That's nice. 278 00:20:54,793 --> 00:20:59,689 I've been advised that boots should maybe be left outside 279 00:20:59,724 --> 00:21:04,965 just because they've been touching dirt and dust that might be 280 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,310 a little bit more radioactive than anything else. 281 00:21:08,344 --> 00:21:10,758 So these need to be left outside. 282 00:21:18,206 --> 00:21:22,379 The invisible threat of radiation is ever present in The Zone. 283 00:21:22,413 --> 00:21:26,689 Tomorrow, I'm going to the very heart of where it all started. 284 00:21:36,689 --> 00:21:41,310 The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a strange and unsettling place, 285 00:21:41,344 --> 00:21:45,310 filled with haunting human stories of a paradise lost. 286 00:21:48,344 --> 00:21:51,827 I want to get closer to the events that actually unfolded 287 00:21:51,896 --> 00:21:55,206 in the early hours of April 26th 1986, 288 00:21:55,241 --> 00:21:59,000 and so that can only lead me to one place. 289 00:22:00,448 --> 00:22:03,931 The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant itself. 290 00:22:06,896 --> 00:22:12,344 This, back in 1986, was ground zero. 291 00:22:12,379 --> 00:22:14,758 When the roof blew off 292 00:22:14,793 --> 00:22:19,448 that was one of the things that we were most fearful of. 293 00:22:19,517 --> 00:22:23,758 Thousands of miles away in the UK, I remember being terrified of it. 294 00:22:23,793 --> 00:22:27,275 What happens if that reached me? 295 00:22:27,344 --> 00:22:28,448 Now I'm here. 296 00:22:30,241 --> 00:22:33,758 I'm...going to go in there. 297 00:22:33,793 --> 00:22:35,413 How mad is that? 298 00:22:44,172 --> 00:22:48,000 An enormous steel arch now shields the highly radioactive remains 299 00:22:48,068 --> 00:22:51,241 of Chernobyl's doomed No 4 reactor unit. 300 00:22:51,310 --> 00:22:55,724 I've been given permission to go inside the actual control room 301 00:22:55,758 --> 00:22:57,620 where the disaster unfolded, 302 00:22:57,655 --> 00:23:01,206 which for decades has been completely off limits. 303 00:23:05,034 --> 00:23:08,896 I'm heading into the inner workings of Chernobyl. 304 00:23:08,931 --> 00:23:16,413 So, you have to make sure there is nothing that can be contaminated 305 00:23:16,482 --> 00:23:19,758 so the only thing that I'm wearing of my own is my pants. 306 00:23:21,931 --> 00:23:24,551 They may need to be changed after this. 307 00:23:26,448 --> 00:23:29,000 Are we ready?I think so. 308 00:23:35,413 --> 00:23:37,827 From now on we have to move quickly. 309 00:23:37,862 --> 00:23:39,655 The power plant is vast 310 00:23:39,689 --> 00:23:42,931 and my permitted dose of radiation strictly controlled. 311 00:23:46,068 --> 00:23:49,344 This is pretty extraordinary, this, to... 312 00:23:49,379 --> 00:23:52,275 ..be given access into the 313 00:23:52,310 --> 00:23:55,689 workings of Chernobyl. 314 00:23:55,724 --> 00:23:57,137 Pretty amazing. 315 00:24:00,103 --> 00:24:03,724 Lots of activity here, there's lots of people working here, 316 00:24:03,793 --> 00:24:06,827 obviously, ensuring that it's safe. 317 00:24:08,206 --> 00:24:09,586 Wow, it's endless. 318 00:24:12,689 --> 00:24:15,551 The 800-metre so-called golden corridor 319 00:24:15,586 --> 00:24:18,551 links what remains of Chernobyl's reactor 4 320 00:24:18,586 --> 00:24:20,379 to its three other reactors, 321 00:24:20,448 --> 00:24:23,689 which were largely undamaged in the explosion. 322 00:24:28,172 --> 00:24:31,000 So that says Control Room 1? Yes.So that's in there. 323 00:24:33,758 --> 00:24:36,793 I'll only have a very limited and restricted time 324 00:24:36,827 --> 00:24:41,103 inside the heavily contaminated shell of Control Room 4. 325 00:24:45,379 --> 00:24:47,896 So, engineer Valerii Kulishenko 326 00:24:47,931 --> 00:24:51,034 first takes me to see what it WOULD have looked like. 327 00:24:57,344 --> 00:25:01,137 Feels like going back in time now. So, this is the control room 328 00:25:01,172 --> 00:25:03,448 of reactor No 3, 329 00:25:03,482 --> 00:25:07,068 the sister reactor to the one that exploded. 330 00:25:07,137 --> 00:25:09,206 On the night of the accident, 331 00:25:09,241 --> 00:25:12,310 up the corridor in Control Room Number 4, 332 00:25:12,379 --> 00:25:15,448 engineers were carrying out complex reactor tests 333 00:25:15,482 --> 00:25:18,206 that were spiralling out of control. 334 00:25:18,241 --> 00:25:20,896 As an exact mirror to Control Room Number 4, 335 00:25:20,931 --> 00:25:24,931 this was the button that doomed Chernobyl. 336 00:25:24,965 --> 00:25:28,068 This unprecedented chain of events had begun, 337 00:25:28,103 --> 00:25:31,413 and the final decision was made to shut it down. 338 00:25:31,482 --> 00:25:32,896 The button was turned... 339 00:25:36,448 --> 00:25:39,310 ..and that was it. Disaster. 340 00:25:45,793 --> 00:25:49,103 The shutdown triggered a massive power surge. 341 00:25:49,172 --> 00:25:51,034 Oh, my goodness. 342 00:25:51,068 --> 00:25:55,206 The core overheated and, seconds later, the first explosion, 343 00:25:55,241 --> 00:25:57,482 followed soon after by a second. 344 00:25:58,655 --> 00:26:01,896 This is truly extraordinary. 345 00:26:01,931 --> 00:26:05,965 I am standing on reactor No 3. 346 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,206 So, each of these is a fuel rod. 347 00:26:09,241 --> 00:26:12,965 1,661 to be exact. 348 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,310 This is an exact mirror of reactor No 4. 349 00:26:17,379 --> 00:26:22,310 This blew right through the ceiling. Everything came off. 350 00:26:22,344 --> 00:26:26,068 This is what people thought was impossible. 351 00:26:26,103 --> 00:26:29,275 But what you must remember is we're talking 1986. 352 00:26:29,310 --> 00:26:32,862 That was when nuclear energy was in its infancy, it was transitioning 353 00:26:32,896 --> 00:26:36,206 from weapon to source of power 354 00:26:36,275 --> 00:26:39,931 and the USSR were producing these power stations 355 00:26:39,965 --> 00:26:43,000 faster than anyone else, 356 00:26:43,034 --> 00:26:45,413 but they were also cutting corners. 357 00:26:50,827 --> 00:26:54,275 These reactors weren't designed with a concrete and steel dome 358 00:26:54,344 --> 00:26:56,448 to contain the radiation. 359 00:26:56,482 --> 00:26:59,724 Two engineers were killed instantly in the explosion 360 00:26:59,793 --> 00:27:02,586 while the night shift in Control Room Number 4 361 00:27:02,620 --> 00:27:05,689 were exposed to lethal levels of radiation. 362 00:27:07,206 --> 00:27:08,965 So, there's a little hatch here. 363 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,137 It looks like I'm going to be given another dosimeter. 364 00:27:12,172 --> 00:27:14,931 Kind of shows that I'm now heading into a more vulnerable part 365 00:27:14,965 --> 00:27:19,827 of Chernobyl. There's much higher radiation where we're going now. 366 00:27:21,379 --> 00:27:24,068 I'm now heading into the heart of the Chernobyl story... 367 00:27:24,103 --> 00:27:25,517 Through here? 368 00:27:25,586 --> 00:27:28,413 ..where many of the decisions and actions that led to the disaster 369 00:27:28,448 --> 00:27:30,034 played out. 370 00:27:30,068 --> 00:27:33,827 So, this door goes into Control Room Number 4? 371 00:27:36,275 --> 00:27:40,896 I mean, this is pretty extraordinary because beyond this door 372 00:27:40,931 --> 00:27:44,103 is a control room that changed the world. 373 00:27:44,137 --> 00:27:46,793 I mean, this is unbelievable. 374 00:27:56,448 --> 00:27:57,827 Goodness me. 375 00:28:00,586 --> 00:28:02,551 I don't have long to take it in. 376 00:28:06,275 --> 00:28:08,655 Five minutes to absorb all of this. Wow. 377 00:28:13,310 --> 00:28:19,413 In terms of places of historical significance this is right up there 378 00:28:19,448 --> 00:28:23,758 because, arguably, this was the location 379 00:28:23,793 --> 00:28:26,551 of the world's greatest mistake. 380 00:28:57,379 --> 00:29:00,344 Oh, my goodness. It's a time capsule. 381 00:29:00,379 --> 00:29:04,413 Lots of things have been removed. Where are they? 382 00:29:04,448 --> 00:29:05,931 Stolen over the years. 383 00:29:07,448 --> 00:29:10,344 It's hard to even imagine the terrifying events 384 00:29:10,379 --> 00:29:12,103 that took place here. 385 00:29:12,137 --> 00:29:15,862 The panic, the fear, the horrific effects of radiation. 386 00:29:17,586 --> 00:29:20,068 The reading is pretty high in here. It's about as high 387 00:29:20,103 --> 00:29:24,965 as I've seen during my whole time around Chernobyl. 388 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:31,000 But what a profound, extraordinary, moving place. 389 00:29:31,034 --> 00:29:32,620 I mean, look at this. 390 00:29:37,241 --> 00:29:40,896 Soviet authorities blamed the disaster on an inexperienced 391 00:29:40,931 --> 00:29:43,965 night shift failing to follow safety protocols. 392 00:29:44,034 --> 00:29:47,103 But was it human error, flaws in the design 393 00:29:47,137 --> 00:29:50,448 or was the Soviet nuclear programme's technology 394 00:29:50,482 --> 00:29:51,620 just unstable? 395 00:29:52,896 --> 00:29:55,068 Time, we have to go. 396 00:29:55,103 --> 00:29:56,862 Then my time was up. 397 00:29:58,862 --> 00:30:00,965 OK, we gotta go. 398 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:06,896 I doubt I'll ever come back into here but, wow, what an experience. 399 00:30:08,172 --> 00:30:11,000 It's a reminder, I suppose, of our mortality. 400 00:30:17,068 --> 00:30:19,896 I'll be returning to the power plant later in my journey 401 00:30:19,931 --> 00:30:23,724 to see something perhaps even more extraordinary - 402 00:30:23,758 --> 00:30:28,620 the tomb of the doomed reactor, deeper inside the huge steal arch. 403 00:30:40,275 --> 00:30:43,413 There are very few people who witnessed first-hand 404 00:30:43,448 --> 00:30:46,931 the events of that night and lived to tell their story. 405 00:30:46,965 --> 00:30:49,655 I'm returning to the ghost town of Pripyat 406 00:30:49,724 --> 00:30:51,965 to meet one person that did... 407 00:30:54,689 --> 00:30:56,206 So, this is the police station? 408 00:30:58,172 --> 00:31:01,448 ..a former policeman called Alexey Moskalenko. 409 00:31:10,517 --> 00:31:13,931 Alexey was a 29-year-old officer with a young family 410 00:31:13,965 --> 00:31:15,758 when the disaster happened. 411 00:31:20,241 --> 00:31:24,413 Incredibly, he was on patrol directly outside the power station 412 00:31:24,448 --> 00:31:26,379 when reactor 4 exploded. 413 00:31:52,586 --> 00:31:57,000 Despite his injuries, long after his own family had been evacuated, 414 00:31:57,034 --> 00:32:00,413 Alexey stayed on in Pripyat to police the enormous, 415 00:32:00,448 --> 00:32:02,931 life-threatening clean-up operation. 416 00:32:04,034 --> 00:32:05,724 Where are we going now? 417 00:32:16,896 --> 00:32:19,379 So this, this is the claw? 418 00:32:19,413 --> 00:32:23,000 Apparently, this grappling claw was attached to a crane 419 00:32:23,034 --> 00:32:25,172 and used to handle large chunks 420 00:32:25,206 --> 00:32:29,517 of ultra-radioactive graphite ejected by the explosion. 421 00:32:29,586 --> 00:32:32,620 Does that not mean that this is highly radioactive? 422 00:32:42,275 --> 00:32:44,310 BEEPING AND CLICKING 423 00:32:48,379 --> 00:32:51,310 OK. I don't want you to overdo it! 424 00:32:51,344 --> 00:32:53,965 That was as high as I've seen it. 425 00:33:04,655 --> 00:33:08,517 Toxic debris was scattered all over the roof of reactor 3, 426 00:33:08,551 --> 00:33:11,793 spewing out lethal doses of radiation. 427 00:33:11,862 --> 00:33:14,827 Attempts to use robots to clear the area failed 428 00:33:14,862 --> 00:33:17,241 so another method was needed. 429 00:33:40,724 --> 00:33:43,655 The army of people drafted in for the deadly task 430 00:33:43,689 --> 00:33:46,448 became known as the liquidators. 431 00:33:46,482 --> 00:33:48,103 Every shovel they used 432 00:33:48,137 --> 00:33:51,689 and every item of makeshift protective clothing they wore 433 00:33:51,724 --> 00:33:56,758 had to be safely disposed of after each potentially fatal mission. 434 00:33:56,793 --> 00:33:59,586 Thousands of liquidators are thought to have died 435 00:33:59,620 --> 00:34:02,275 as a result of exposure to radiation. 436 00:34:05,620 --> 00:34:09,137 Do you think people sacrificed their lives because they had to 437 00:34:09,206 --> 00:34:11,827 or did they do it for their country? 438 00:34:21,862 --> 00:34:24,344 Did you... Did you sacrifice your health? 439 00:34:29,724 --> 00:34:31,724 You were given five years. 440 00:34:40,655 --> 00:34:42,482 It's just incredible, 441 00:34:42,517 --> 00:34:46,586 I mean, to meet someone who not only experienced it first-hand 442 00:34:46,620 --> 00:34:50,103 but came back, was given five years to live. 443 00:34:50,137 --> 00:34:54,448 I-I really can't even imagine what he went through. 444 00:34:56,862 --> 00:35:00,689 It was just a duty of humanity. 445 00:35:00,724 --> 00:35:04,827 So, what he did with arguably for all of us, really, 446 00:35:04,862 --> 00:35:09,206 to help contain it and that's what the liquidator's did 447 00:35:09,241 --> 00:35:14,275 and they are the unsung heroes of this whole sorry story. 448 00:35:20,517 --> 00:35:23,758 Cleared by the liquidators as best they could, 449 00:35:23,793 --> 00:35:26,241 deep in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 450 00:35:26,275 --> 00:35:30,310 it's still referred to as a toxic dead zone. 451 00:35:30,344 --> 00:35:34,000 But just how true is that? Tomorrow I'm going somewhere 452 00:35:34,034 --> 00:35:37,137 that might well turn everything on its head. 453 00:35:37,172 --> 00:35:41,000 Could people actually still be living here? 454 00:35:41,034 --> 00:35:43,551 DOG BARKS 455 00:35:54,620 --> 00:35:58,413 My Exclusion Zone lodgings are in the tiny town of Chernobyl, 456 00:35:58,448 --> 00:36:01,241 after which the power plant itself was named. 457 00:36:01,275 --> 00:36:07,103 Still inside The Zone, it was also evacuated but, being 14km away, 458 00:36:07,137 --> 00:36:10,241 didn't suffer the total abandonment seen in Pripyat. 459 00:36:12,689 --> 00:36:14,965 It has a very strange feel here. 460 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,413 It feels like we're the only people here. 461 00:36:18,689 --> 00:36:22,137 Showing me around is Kate Goncharenko, 462 00:36:22,206 --> 00:36:25,068 whose father and grandparents were forcibly relocated 463 00:36:25,103 --> 00:36:27,413 after the accident. 464 00:36:27,448 --> 00:36:30,000 This looks like it's a working building over here. 465 00:36:30,068 --> 00:36:34,103 Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is the post office, of Chernobyl town. 466 00:36:34,137 --> 00:36:37,482 And, generally, the one post office for the whole area. 467 00:36:37,517 --> 00:36:40,965 And above the window you can see the screen. 468 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,034 Usually, when we see such a screen in a post office, we expect to see 469 00:36:45,068 --> 00:36:48,137 the time there but as long as we're in the Exclusion Zone 470 00:36:48,172 --> 00:36:50,586 we see the level of radiation 471 00:36:50,620 --> 00:36:53,827 in the different parts of the Exclusion Zone. 472 00:36:53,862 --> 00:36:55,413 That's kind of mad. 473 00:36:55,448 --> 00:36:59,034 So, basically, what my little dosimeter is doing here...Yeah. 474 00:36:59,068 --> 00:37:02,620 ..that's telling me every single part and region 475 00:37:02,689 --> 00:37:07,172 of the entire Exclusion Zone. Exactly, you're getting it right. 476 00:37:09,241 --> 00:37:12,931 No-one is allowed to stay here for more than two weeks at a time, 477 00:37:12,965 --> 00:37:14,724 but there is a local shop. 478 00:37:16,137 --> 00:37:19,241 This is a proper supermarket. Hello.Hello. 479 00:37:19,275 --> 00:37:23,000 You've got everything you can need - knives, biscuits, a lot of alcohol. 480 00:37:23,034 --> 00:37:24,000 Yeah. 481 00:37:27,448 --> 00:37:30,517 Do you just come here for two weeks at a time? 482 00:37:30,551 --> 00:37:32,275 How do you feel working here? 483 00:37:36,137 --> 00:37:39,655 I think I'm going to get myself a little something sweet. 484 00:37:39,689 --> 00:37:43,448 Do you fancy anything, Kate? I guess one of this.Yeah.Yeah. 485 00:37:46,482 --> 00:37:50,413 I love that she's using an abacus. Yeah. 486 00:37:50,448 --> 00:37:52,551 Like stepping back in time. 487 00:37:52,586 --> 00:37:55,448 26.Thank you. 488 00:37:55,482 --> 00:37:58,344 Thank you so much, bye-bye. Bye-bye. 489 00:38:01,827 --> 00:38:04,586 It's against the law to live inside The Zone 490 00:38:04,655 --> 00:38:08,448 but Kate is taking me to the crumbling outskirts of Chernobyl 491 00:38:08,482 --> 00:38:12,482 to meet one woman who is defying the authorities. 492 00:38:12,517 --> 00:38:14,896 Look at all these derelict houses here. 493 00:38:16,793 --> 00:38:21,551 This is the house of Valentina, one of the re-settlers, 494 00:38:21,586 --> 00:38:26,551 the people who came back and continued living in their homes. 495 00:38:26,586 --> 00:38:27,793 Let's go. 496 00:38:29,103 --> 00:38:31,965 Oh, look she's got a cat.Yeah. 497 00:38:36,448 --> 00:38:40,034 I didn't really that there were re-settlers, as in people 498 00:38:40,068 --> 00:38:42,034 who moved back here permanently. 499 00:38:42,068 --> 00:38:45,586 Still feels like this is a dead zone. 500 00:38:45,655 --> 00:38:48,344 You know, the fact that I'm walking around with this, 501 00:38:48,379 --> 00:38:52,896 monitoring the amount of radioactivity that I'm absorbing, 502 00:38:52,931 --> 00:38:54,896 but Valentina lives here. 503 00:38:54,931 --> 00:38:57,413 It's kind of quite a lot to get your head around. 504 00:38:57,482 --> 00:38:59,103 Shall we?Yes. 505 00:39:00,310 --> 00:39:02,620 Thank you very much for letting me come into your house. 506 00:39:04,137 --> 00:39:07,517 Valentina moved back to The Zone soon after the disaster. 507 00:39:07,551 --> 00:39:10,172 Her late husband found work here as a liquidator. 508 00:39:10,241 --> 00:39:14,551 Hello, little dog. Who ate all the pies? 509 00:39:14,586 --> 00:39:16,103 Valentina, what is your dog called? 510 00:39:17,206 --> 00:39:19,413 Dana. I can't quite work it out. 511 00:39:19,482 --> 00:39:22,379 It's like a Chihuahua-Corgi cross. 512 00:39:22,413 --> 00:39:25,000 There's lots of bottles of water. Do you drink from the tap? 513 00:39:35,241 --> 00:39:39,862 Valentina does have electricity and friends bring food in from outside 514 00:39:39,896 --> 00:39:41,655 but it's a humble existence. 515 00:39:43,793 --> 00:39:46,482 So, Valentina, why did you choose 516 00:39:46,517 --> 00:39:53,241 to return to a place so close to Chernobyl Power Station? 517 00:40:01,689 --> 00:40:03,931 Does it ever feel sad here or lonely here? 518 00:40:29,448 --> 00:40:30,896 Will you ever leave here? 519 00:40:37,586 --> 00:40:41,103 Around 200 re-settlers still live in The Zone, 520 00:40:41,137 --> 00:40:44,034 one of the most toxic places on Earth. 521 00:40:44,103 --> 00:40:46,517 Already they've lived longer on average 522 00:40:46,551 --> 00:40:48,413 than those who never returned. 523 00:40:48,448 --> 00:40:51,206 She also offers us some vodka. 524 00:40:51,241 --> 00:40:55,068 When in Ukraine, I feel I must take a bit of vodka. 525 00:40:55,137 --> 00:40:57,620 These labels look a little bit scary. 526 00:40:57,655 --> 00:41:01,000 Isn't that for electricity? Electricity, yeah. 527 00:41:01,034 --> 00:41:04,379 VOICEOVER: I think Valentina is keen to show me that there can be 528 00:41:04,413 --> 00:41:06,586 a kind of normality here. 529 00:41:06,620 --> 00:41:09,827 Is this Ukrainian hospitality? Exactly. 530 00:41:11,137 --> 00:41:14,586 My goodness. That's quite a lot. Is she trying to get me drunk? 531 00:41:14,620 --> 00:41:18,413 Exactly. Thank you very much. How do we say cheers in Ukrainian? 532 00:41:18,448 --> 00:41:20,413 Budmo.Budmo. OK. 533 00:41:24,448 --> 00:41:25,448 Whoa. 534 00:41:27,724 --> 00:41:31,103 Wow. You should eat something. Oh, should I eat something as well? 535 00:41:31,137 --> 00:41:35,275 Yeah.I think I need to. That was quite strong. 536 00:41:35,310 --> 00:41:36,655 Thank you. 537 00:41:36,689 --> 00:41:39,896 Valentina has one more treat for me... 538 00:41:39,931 --> 00:41:41,862 Is this the entertainment? 539 00:41:43,275 --> 00:41:46,482 ..ably assisted by Dana. 540 00:41:46,517 --> 00:41:49,517 DANA HOWLS REPEATEDLY 541 00:42:04,517 --> 00:42:08,172 DANA HOWLS CONTINUOUSLY, BEN LAUGHS 542 00:42:08,241 --> 00:42:10,413 Valentina, that... 543 00:42:10,482 --> 00:42:13,172 That... I will never forget that. 544 00:42:13,206 --> 00:42:14,586 DANA BARKS 545 00:42:17,551 --> 00:42:21,344 Take Care. Thank you. 546 00:42:24,206 --> 00:42:26,344 That was kind of amazing. 547 00:42:26,379 --> 00:42:31,000 So much love and humour and humanity and normalness. 548 00:42:32,724 --> 00:42:37,344 And then this, which is kind of what people expect to see in Chernobyl - 549 00:42:37,413 --> 00:42:41,310 abandonment and derelict buildings. 550 00:42:41,344 --> 00:42:43,758 It's kind of a tale of two worlds, isn't it? 551 00:42:43,793 --> 00:42:46,689 And it's just completely unexpected, that. 552 00:42:46,724 --> 00:42:51,034 Because that's such a sign of kind of hope and beauty 553 00:42:51,103 --> 00:42:55,241 amidst such wretchedness. Kind of flips it all on its head. 554 00:43:02,206 --> 00:43:06,620 Self-settlers like Valentina show that life can still exist here, 555 00:43:06,655 --> 00:43:10,103 but I'm learning of a newer generation who also want to connect 556 00:43:10,137 --> 00:43:12,379 to this strange place. 557 00:43:12,448 --> 00:43:16,724 This evening I'm returning to the ghost town of Pripyat. 558 00:43:16,758 --> 00:43:20,413 No-one can enter here without a government permit. 559 00:43:20,482 --> 00:43:24,551 But not everyone heeds the rules. 560 00:43:24,586 --> 00:43:27,241 What I've slowly realised being here is that 561 00:43:27,275 --> 00:43:31,482 although it is a deserted city, stuff still happens here, 562 00:43:31,551 --> 00:43:34,275 and police patrols are one of the realities 563 00:43:34,344 --> 00:43:40,034 because a deserted city attracts people for the wrong reason. 564 00:43:40,068 --> 00:43:43,931 And I'm curious to find out what sort of people do come here and why. 565 00:43:45,448 --> 00:43:49,862 Ukrainian police carry out 24-hour surveillance of Pripyat. 566 00:43:49,896 --> 00:43:54,655 Officer Mykhailo Kuzmenko and his team are on the night shift. 567 00:43:54,689 --> 00:43:57,344 What kind of things do people get up to here? 568 00:44:21,275 --> 00:44:24,793 The illegal trespassers are known as stalkers. 569 00:44:28,103 --> 00:44:29,620 They operate in groups, 570 00:44:29,655 --> 00:44:32,310 creating makeshift living quarters inside buildings... 571 00:44:36,344 --> 00:44:38,000 ..and even sleeping there. 572 00:44:40,827 --> 00:44:45,000 Stalkers seek out the most dangerous and inaccessible places... 573 00:44:47,068 --> 00:44:48,482 ..to get their thrills. 574 00:44:52,344 --> 00:44:54,724 The dangers are clearly massive. 575 00:44:54,793 --> 00:44:56,896 RAPID BEEPING 576 00:44:58,965 --> 00:45:01,931 Tonight, Mykhailo's team believe some have been staying in 577 00:45:01,965 --> 00:45:04,275 a high-rise on the outskirts of the city. 578 00:45:04,344 --> 00:45:05,517 Going in. 579 00:45:23,827 --> 00:45:26,172 This is so strange. 580 00:45:26,206 --> 00:45:32,344 Kind of going from apartment to apartment...looking for people. 581 00:45:48,206 --> 00:45:50,448 People have been graffitiing here. 582 00:45:50,482 --> 00:45:54,413 They're pretty certain that there is someone around. 583 00:45:54,448 --> 00:45:56,724 There's fresh footprints, 584 00:45:56,758 --> 00:45:59,379 fresh signs of people being here. 585 00:46:01,448 --> 00:46:03,413 Look. 586 00:46:03,448 --> 00:46:05,620 So someone's been staying in here? 587 00:46:08,965 --> 00:46:11,034 This is the Chernobyl squatter. 588 00:46:13,241 --> 00:46:14,827 Who'd have thought? 589 00:46:14,862 --> 00:46:17,896 It's a side to Chernobyl I never even considered, 590 00:46:17,931 --> 00:46:22,482 that people would be attracted here for the thrill of staying over. 591 00:46:23,896 --> 00:46:28,896 I mean, pretty astonishing views. I'm drawn to the window. Wow. 592 00:46:31,551 --> 00:46:33,551 There's a little sledge there. 593 00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,344 Very easy to face of the facts 594 00:46:40,379 --> 00:46:44,103 that it was once a thriving block of flats. 595 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:53,379 Oh, yeah, look. 596 00:46:56,068 --> 00:46:59,931 So this is pretty strange. I can't quite make heads nor tails. 597 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,827 I don't think any books or anything were left in this building, 598 00:47:02,896 --> 00:47:06,758 everything was kind of taken, so it's almost like they've created 599 00:47:06,793 --> 00:47:10,413 this little thing. It's got the original Soviet flag, 600 00:47:10,448 --> 00:47:12,551 it's got a map of Pripyat. 601 00:47:12,586 --> 00:47:15,931 This is the social media affect. 602 00:47:15,965 --> 00:47:18,862 It's even reached Chernobyl. 603 00:47:18,896 --> 00:47:21,551 Because people want to come here, they want to make videos, 604 00:47:21,586 --> 00:47:27,586 they want to show off, they want to, erm, create dangerous stunts 605 00:47:27,620 --> 00:47:32,655 and, actually, this is sort of their playground. 606 00:47:32,689 --> 00:47:35,586 That's a post-disaster effect nowadays. 607 00:47:42,517 --> 00:47:45,758 The problem is so widespread, it's common for the police to arrest 608 00:47:45,793 --> 00:47:48,379 at least one stalker on every patrol. 609 00:47:48,413 --> 00:47:51,137 If they get caught, do they get arrested? 610 00:48:22,655 --> 00:48:25,793 Darkness has set in and it has a whole different feel now. 611 00:48:27,448 --> 00:48:30,620 It's getting late, and with no arrests tonight, 612 00:48:30,655 --> 00:48:33,586 the police head off to patrol other parts of The Zone. 613 00:48:33,620 --> 00:48:36,689 I think it's fair to say that's the strangest, 614 00:48:36,724 --> 00:48:40,724 most surreal night patrol I've ever been on. 615 00:48:40,758 --> 00:48:44,103 It's just a whole other face to Chernobyl. 616 00:48:47,241 --> 00:48:49,758 The stalkers might have eluded us tonight, 617 00:48:49,793 --> 00:48:52,482 but we have another plan to track them down. 618 00:48:56,103 --> 00:48:58,862 Nikolai, my minder, reckons that tomorrow morning 619 00:48:58,931 --> 00:49:01,758 we'll definitely snare us our stalker. 620 00:49:12,517 --> 00:49:16,344 I'm spending a week inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 621 00:49:16,379 --> 00:49:19,137 a toxic wasteland that I've discovered is now 622 00:49:19,172 --> 00:49:23,758 a major attraction for illegal sightseers and thrill-seekers. 623 00:49:23,793 --> 00:49:27,448 I want to understand why these so-called stalkers come here 624 00:49:27,517 --> 00:49:30,482 and what Chernobyl means to the generation who weren't around 625 00:49:30,551 --> 00:49:32,413 at the time of the accident. 626 00:49:36,448 --> 00:49:40,275 Nikolai has managed to track down a stalker through social media 627 00:49:40,310 --> 00:49:43,448 and he's willing to talk to me. 628 00:49:43,482 --> 00:49:47,620 He's there. Down here somewhere? Yes, on his way back from The Zone. 629 00:49:49,068 --> 00:49:51,344 Stalkers enter The Zone illegally 630 00:49:51,379 --> 00:49:54,517 so we're meeting just outside the border. 631 00:49:54,551 --> 00:49:57,689 Apparently they're on their way back from Pripyat 632 00:49:57,724 --> 00:50:00,551 so they well might have been there when I was there. 633 00:50:01,862 --> 00:50:04,137 Hey, he's over there. Hey. 634 00:50:06,172 --> 00:50:08,482 No, no, we're good.OK. 635 00:50:11,275 --> 00:50:15,000 How long were you in Pripyat for? Four days. Four days? 636 00:50:15,034 --> 00:50:18,034 And when you're in Pripyat, where where do you stay? 637 00:50:18,068 --> 00:50:23,275 In my apartment. Your...? Yes, I can show you my videos from there. 638 00:50:23,310 --> 00:50:26,172 This is my house, where we live. 639 00:50:27,448 --> 00:50:28,620 Good morning. 640 00:50:31,344 --> 00:50:34,758 How did you get in? Illegally way. 641 00:50:36,068 --> 00:50:39,931 From the perimeter fence, it's around 30km to Pripyat. 642 00:50:43,413 --> 00:50:45,620 The Zone is a vast wilderness. 643 00:50:45,655 --> 00:50:49,620 To avoid the police, stalkers must trek through toxic forests 644 00:50:49,655 --> 00:50:51,448 and cross ice-cold rivers. 645 00:50:55,413 --> 00:50:58,172 So, crossing the river in your pants, it's got to be cold. 646 00:50:58,206 --> 00:50:59,448 Argh! 647 00:50:59,482 --> 00:51:01,758 The water was this deep. 648 00:51:01,793 --> 00:51:07,413 With this backpack, I turn in my hands, and go across this river. 649 00:51:07,482 --> 00:51:09,206 You don't understand how it's cold. 650 00:51:09,275 --> 00:51:10,689 Argh! 651 00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,344 Why do you do it?For me it is just like a new adventure 652 00:51:15,379 --> 00:51:17,827 and every time it is very different. 653 00:51:17,862 --> 00:51:21,137 For example, I find police and run away. 654 00:51:21,172 --> 00:51:25,275 Second time I meet many stalkers also illegally. 655 00:51:25,310 --> 00:51:29,275 It's like adventure and shock for me. 656 00:51:29,310 --> 00:51:33,000 Reaching Pripyat is the stalker's Holy Grail... 657 00:51:35,241 --> 00:51:38,034 ..a place where they can share their extreme thrill-seeking 658 00:51:38,068 --> 00:51:39,551 on social media. 659 00:51:43,517 --> 00:51:46,724 The dangers of this illegal trespass are clear. 660 00:51:46,758 --> 00:51:49,517 That must be scary up there. Wow. Look at that. 661 00:51:52,413 --> 00:51:55,034 Do you not worry about radiation? 662 00:51:55,103 --> 00:51:57,103 I know where it's dangerous 663 00:51:57,172 --> 00:52:01,689 and it's, like four days radiation not kill you, so why not? 664 00:52:03,310 --> 00:52:04,310 See you. 665 00:52:07,344 --> 00:52:08,896 Fascinating, that. 666 00:52:08,931 --> 00:52:14,965 Here, I suppose, is in modern Ukrainian youth who's embracing 667 00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:19,034 2020, 2021, and social media 668 00:52:19,103 --> 00:52:21,931 and making videos and keeping stories alive. 669 00:52:21,965 --> 00:52:25,137 It's a form of history telling, isn't it? Really. 670 00:52:25,172 --> 00:52:28,206 It's the new world meeting the old world. 671 00:52:28,241 --> 00:52:29,758 It's kind of cool 672 00:52:29,793 --> 00:52:33,379 and weird and...unexpected. 673 00:52:40,068 --> 00:52:42,241 I'm back inside The Zone. 674 00:52:42,275 --> 00:52:44,482 Its size still astounds me. 675 00:52:44,517 --> 00:52:48,551 1,000 square miles of crumbling villages, toxic forests 676 00:52:48,586 --> 00:52:50,551 and abandoned farmland. 677 00:52:51,896 --> 00:52:55,137 But when the eyes of the world turned to Chernobyl 678 00:52:55,172 --> 00:52:59,517 they found far more here than just a ruined nuclear plant. 679 00:52:59,551 --> 00:53:03,482 In a remote part of The Zone, Nikolai has special knowledge 680 00:53:03,517 --> 00:53:07,000 of something that was once classified at the highest level. 681 00:53:10,103 --> 00:53:15,034 We are off to see something secret, remains of the Cold War. 682 00:53:15,068 --> 00:53:16,862 It's truly amazing. 683 00:53:18,137 --> 00:53:21,793 I'm going to a site that, at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, 684 00:53:21,827 --> 00:53:25,068 was marked on Soviet maps as a children's camp. 685 00:53:26,241 --> 00:53:27,206 Wow. 686 00:53:29,344 --> 00:53:31,310 It had quite a climbing frame. 687 00:53:32,689 --> 00:53:34,620 You guys don't do things by halves. 688 00:53:34,655 --> 00:53:38,068 This is an amazing feat of Soviet engineering. 689 00:53:38,103 --> 00:53:41,586 The scale of this place. I feel dwarfed by it. 690 00:53:41,620 --> 00:53:43,931 It's like a 50-storey building. 691 00:53:47,344 --> 00:53:49,068 So what exactly is this? 692 00:53:49,103 --> 00:53:53,275 During the Cold War, this was able to detect incoming missiles 693 00:53:53,310 --> 00:53:55,275 in case of a nuclear strike. 694 00:53:55,310 --> 00:53:58,931 Purpose of this was to give a seven-minute warning 695 00:53:58,965 --> 00:54:01,137 to the Soviet authorities. 696 00:54:01,172 --> 00:54:04,724 And this was a technology available only in Soviet Union. 697 00:54:04,793 --> 00:54:07,896 So Americans didn't have anything like this. 698 00:54:07,931 --> 00:54:11,103 The huge radar receiver was built around the same time 699 00:54:11,137 --> 00:54:12,551 as the power plant, 700 00:54:12,620 --> 00:54:17,172 helping to conceal from the Americans the 14,000 tonnes of steel 701 00:54:17,206 --> 00:54:20,689 that needed to be brought on site for its construction. 702 00:54:20,724 --> 00:54:25,275 It stands 150 metres high and nearly a kilometre wide. 703 00:54:25,310 --> 00:54:27,793 So how did this actually work? Radio waves? 704 00:54:27,827 --> 00:54:31,931 Yes, and the radio geeks in the '80s, with their radio scanners, 705 00:54:31,965 --> 00:54:34,413 could hear a sound of the radar station. 706 00:54:34,448 --> 00:54:36,137 MECHANICAL CLICKING 707 00:54:36,172 --> 00:54:38,620 Some people were calling it a Russian woodpecker 708 00:54:38,655 --> 00:54:40,931 because it sounded a bit like woodpecker 709 00:54:40,965 --> 00:54:43,275 and it was clearly coming from Russia, 710 00:54:43,310 --> 00:54:44,896 so that's why Russian woodpecker. 711 00:54:44,931 --> 00:54:48,586 If you were picking that up, if you were a ham radio operator 712 00:54:48,620 --> 00:54:52,620 in America, I can see how you'd start thinking, "What is this?" 713 00:54:52,655 --> 00:54:56,517 Did the Americans know about this? When did they first see it? 714 00:54:56,551 --> 00:54:58,000 After the meltdown. 715 00:54:58,068 --> 00:55:00,965 When all the spy satellites had turned their eyes here, 716 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,620 they suddenly discovered this massive frame 717 00:55:03,655 --> 00:55:05,620 in the middle of nowhere. 718 00:55:05,655 --> 00:55:07,551 That was quite a surprise. 719 00:55:07,586 --> 00:55:13,137 Because of its size and weird look there are many conspiracy theories, 720 00:55:13,206 --> 00:55:16,896 so some people believe that this was a mind controller, 721 00:55:16,931 --> 00:55:21,482 like a brain scorcher of the Soviet Union that was operating 722 00:55:21,517 --> 00:55:25,068 radio waves to control and change human behaviour. 723 00:55:25,103 --> 00:55:28,931 I'm trying to imagine the people who thought it could control your mind. 724 00:55:28,965 --> 00:55:32,758 I feel I need a vodka now. You do. Has it affected me? 725 00:55:32,793 --> 00:55:34,137 THEY LAUGH 726 00:55:34,172 --> 00:55:37,827 We're 100% sure it's not operating now 727 00:55:37,862 --> 00:55:41,965 and we can sleep tight tonight. We are not zombies yet. 728 00:55:48,793 --> 00:55:51,586 The radar network is another example of the Soviets 729 00:55:51,620 --> 00:55:53,517 looking the wrong way. 730 00:55:53,586 --> 00:55:56,758 While they scanned the horizon for the incoming threat, 731 00:55:56,827 --> 00:55:59,620 it was actually the failure of their own nuclear technology nearby 732 00:55:59,655 --> 00:56:03,000 that ultimately led to the disaster they all feared. 733 00:56:07,724 --> 00:56:10,620 Now, there's just one truly extraordinary place 734 00:56:10,655 --> 00:56:12,448 I'm yet to visit. 735 00:56:12,482 --> 00:56:17,344 Somewhere that very few will ever get the opportunity to see. 736 00:56:17,413 --> 00:56:22,034 Tomorrow I'm going directly beneath the vast Chernobyl Radiation Shield, 737 00:56:22,068 --> 00:56:24,344 getting as close as is possible 738 00:56:24,413 --> 00:56:28,000 to get to the very epicentre of the explosion. 739 00:56:41,275 --> 00:56:44,344 I'm returning to the Chernobyl Power Plant to gain access 740 00:56:44,379 --> 00:56:48,034 to something off limits to almost all outsiders. 741 00:56:48,103 --> 00:56:51,068 Deep inside the enormous steel arch, 742 00:56:51,103 --> 00:56:55,034 known as the New Safe Confinement, is the entombed remains 743 00:56:55,068 --> 00:57:00,000 of the ruined reactor itself, the very epicentre of the explosion. 744 00:57:00,034 --> 00:57:02,241 After months of discussions 745 00:57:02,275 --> 00:57:05,275 I've been granted just a few minutes inside. 746 00:57:11,206 --> 00:57:15,172 This is pretty special to be allowed to go into there. 747 00:57:15,206 --> 00:57:18,275 That's why there's lots of people keeping an eye on me, 748 00:57:18,310 --> 00:57:23,344 lots of paperwork, it's taken a long time to get these permissions. 749 00:57:24,620 --> 00:57:26,275 Directly underneath the arch, 750 00:57:26,310 --> 00:57:29,896 radiation levels are even higher than Control Room Number 4. 751 00:57:29,931 --> 00:57:32,000 It's kind of like going to war. 752 00:57:33,517 --> 00:57:37,620 I think we're about to head into the final area. 753 00:57:49,758 --> 00:57:52,137 Wow. Oh, my goodness. 754 00:57:56,655 --> 00:58:00,275 This... This is unbelievable. I mean, I can't... 755 00:58:00,344 --> 00:58:04,034 I can't quite believe I'm actually in here. 756 00:58:07,172 --> 00:58:10,965 Behind the scaffold is the crumbling concrete sarcophagus 757 00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:15,034 that was hastily erected to entomb the blown apart reactor. 758 00:58:15,103 --> 00:58:18,068 If you can hear that beeping, that was everyone's dosimeters 759 00:58:18,137 --> 00:58:21,206 from outside going off, cos it's off the scale in here. 760 00:58:21,241 --> 00:58:24,724 We're up to 85, almost 90. 761 00:58:27,551 --> 00:58:31,448 Over time and exposed to the elements, the concrete sarcophagus 762 00:58:31,482 --> 00:58:35,931 has deteriorated and is teetering on collapse. 763 00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:39,310 The entire structure will be painstakingly disassembled, 764 00:58:39,344 --> 00:58:42,620 its still hot radioactive core removed 765 00:58:42,655 --> 00:58:45,482 and placed in special storage facilities. 766 00:58:45,517 --> 00:58:49,793 So when the workers eventually start to dismantle this, 767 00:58:49,862 --> 00:58:55,068 how long can each worker spend doing their job? 768 00:59:04,931 --> 00:59:06,827 It will all be robotics?Yeah. 769 00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:11,379 Very slowly everything will be picked apart. 770 00:59:11,448 --> 00:59:15,275 This is modern day liquidators. This is history repeating itself. 771 00:59:15,310 --> 00:59:18,172 All those men that were sweeping the debris off the roof, 772 00:59:18,206 --> 00:59:19,965 it's going to happen again. 773 00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:23,965 Spearheaded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 774 00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:29,724 over 40 countries came together to fund the £1.3 billion arch. 775 00:59:29,758 --> 00:59:31,551 For at least the next century, 776 00:59:31,586 --> 00:59:35,206 this extraordinary feat of mega engineering will protect 777 00:59:35,241 --> 00:59:38,206 and enable the radioactive ruins of reactor 4 778 00:59:38,241 --> 00:59:41,310 to eventually be made safe. 779 00:59:41,379 --> 00:59:44,827 Trying to explain to you now my emotions, it's really weird, 780 00:59:44,862 --> 00:59:48,344 because I feel surprisingly emotional 781 00:59:48,413 --> 00:59:51,689 to see what is arguably 782 00:59:51,724 --> 00:59:54,448 a wretched, terrible place. 783 00:59:56,068 --> 00:59:58,241 But what I see coming in here is hope 784 00:59:58,310 --> 01:00:02,689 and that's what I love cos this is the hope of what technology can do. 785 01:00:02,724 --> 01:00:06,655 This is the hope of what people collaborating, multi nations came 786 01:00:06,724 --> 01:00:11,275 together to create this dome and protect it for another 100 years 787 01:00:11,310 --> 01:00:16,241 and isn't that incredible that over the next couple of decades, robots, 788 01:00:16,275 --> 01:00:19,620 you know, AI, artificial intelligence, that so many people 789 01:00:19,655 --> 01:00:21,724 think could ruin the world, 790 01:00:21,793 --> 01:00:25,724 could actually help save it and preserve it. 791 01:00:28,241 --> 01:00:32,965 So my emotions right now are of great pride for this country, 792 01:00:33,034 --> 01:00:35,965 for everyone who worked on it 793 01:00:36,034 --> 01:00:39,310 and showing what humanity can do. 794 01:00:41,896 --> 01:00:45,793 BEEPING 795 01:00:45,827 --> 01:00:48,034 Got about 30 seconds left in here. 796 01:00:48,103 --> 01:00:50,724 You can hear everyone's dosimeters going off. 797 01:00:51,931 --> 01:00:55,862 Whoo, gosh. Chris, we have to get out. 798 01:00:55,931 --> 01:00:58,344 Chris, we've gotta go.Yeah. 799 01:01:00,517 --> 01:01:02,068 Our time is up. 800 01:01:05,275 --> 01:01:09,379 Everything is checked for contamination but we're all clear. 801 01:01:15,724 --> 01:01:19,551 The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is still a long way from being a safe, 802 01:01:19,586 --> 01:01:24,689 habitable environment but slowly green shoots are emerging. 803 01:01:24,724 --> 01:01:27,793 The wider Zone itself has become a giant laboratory 804 01:01:27,827 --> 01:01:31,034 where scientists and conservationists can now 805 01:01:31,068 --> 01:01:34,482 safely study the effects of radiation and what happens 806 01:01:34,517 --> 01:01:37,310 to nature when humans disappear. 807 01:01:38,689 --> 01:01:41,448 What is this we're going into now? 808 01:01:49,482 --> 01:01:54,103 Biologist Marina Shkvyria has been studying wildlife in The Zone. 809 01:01:55,206 --> 01:01:59,827 So, all of this here has grown since this was all abandoned? 810 01:02:10,068 --> 01:02:12,413 What's interesting is when I look at my dosimeter, 811 01:02:12,482 --> 01:02:15,310 it's a little bit higher in here, perhaps, and I know that 812 01:02:15,344 --> 01:02:17,724 if I go down towards the moss, 813 01:02:17,758 --> 01:02:22,793 it goes up quite a lot and yet nature has flourished here. 814 01:02:54,034 --> 01:02:57,310 Marina and other scientists believe that without hunting, 815 01:02:57,344 --> 01:03:00,344 farming and the destruction of natural habitats, 816 01:03:00,379 --> 01:03:04,275 The Zone is becoming an unlikely wildlife sanctuary. 817 01:03:07,275 --> 01:03:09,517 We're tracking wolves. 818 01:03:13,724 --> 01:03:15,551 Have you found anything, Marina? 819 01:03:15,586 --> 01:03:18,551 Yeah. You can see tracks, yeah? 820 01:03:18,586 --> 01:03:21,137 This one?Oh, yes, I've got it. 821 01:03:21,172 --> 01:03:23,379 How many wolves do you think have come through here? 822 01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:36,379 There are plenty of wolf tracks but in an area the size of Luxembourg, 823 01:03:36,413 --> 01:03:39,379 seeing them was always going to be a long shot. 824 01:03:43,275 --> 01:03:46,931 Luckily, Marina and her team have caught glimpses of the wildlife 825 01:03:46,965 --> 01:03:49,586 that live in The Zone on remote cameras. 826 01:03:53,310 --> 01:03:54,689 So, this is from a drone? 827 01:03:56,689 --> 01:03:59,551 That's a beautiful shot. Wow, look at that, 828 01:03:59,586 --> 01:04:01,655 galloping off across the landscape. 829 01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:04,551 How beautiful is that? 830 01:04:06,448 --> 01:04:09,379 Marina, how did these horses get here in the first place? 831 01:04:09,413 --> 01:04:11,000 Were they introduced? 832 01:04:30,965 --> 01:04:33,758 And wolves! Look at that. Incredible. 833 01:04:36,517 --> 01:04:40,655 Just amazing to see the array of animals on those camera traps. 834 01:04:40,724 --> 01:04:43,758 Moose, deer, wolves, lynx. 835 01:04:43,793 --> 01:04:45,655 There's even bears. 836 01:04:45,689 --> 01:04:51,068 So many animals living in this extraordinary Exclusion Zone. 837 01:05:05,827 --> 01:05:09,206 The planet faces unprecedented challenges - 838 01:05:09,241 --> 01:05:12,413 many of them, like Chernobyl, of our own making. 839 01:05:14,310 --> 01:05:16,275 I came here looking for hope. 840 01:05:17,931 --> 01:05:21,103 What I've discovered here in Chernobyl is that this is 841 01:05:21,137 --> 01:05:24,689 supposed to be a radioactive wasteland for tens, 842 01:05:24,724 --> 01:05:27,551 maybe hundreds of thousands of years... 843 01:05:29,379 --> 01:05:31,379 ..and yet nature's reclaiming it. 844 01:05:37,206 --> 01:05:38,620 I mean, look at this. 845 01:05:38,655 --> 01:05:42,103 This, for me, is really exciting part of the Chernobyl story 846 01:05:42,137 --> 01:05:45,482 cos it's the accidental hope that came from it. 847 01:05:45,551 --> 01:05:49,344 Some people are calling this the European Amazon. 848 01:05:49,379 --> 01:05:53,862 This is almost the greatest, accidental rewilding project 849 01:05:53,896 --> 01:06:00,827 in the world because where there was wretchedness and disaster 850 01:06:00,862 --> 01:06:05,413 has come this extraordinary return to the wild. 851 01:06:23,586 --> 01:06:26,517 Subtitles by Red Bee Media