Heroes

In Ukrainian the inscription reads "ТИМ ХТО ВРЯТУВАВ СВіТ". In English, this translates to "Heroes Who Saved The World", referring to the brave firemen who attended the blaze at reactor number four, pretty much unaware what they were facing. Almost every one of them perished very soon afterwards. Many people were drafted in from the then Soviet Union to help extinguish the blazing reactor and work on the subsequent clean up operation. It was so dangerous that it was only possible to work for a few minutes and then be replaced. Those so called  'liquidators' who survived often suffered severe health problems but the true numbers of those who died are not known.

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Röntgen

Now is as good a time to explain how radiation is measured. There are several ways, but here it's using units of Röntgen or 'R'. This Geiger counter detects X and gamma rays. Yes, it really does make that 'clickety click' sound. This was actually quite reassuring to me as it offered an audible signal to a silent killer in our midst. The reading here is 0.007 R p/h which is about normal in this decontaminated spot. It'd register about the same if I was stood in North London, Marseille or Maguluf.

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Vladimir

However, unlike North London, Marseille or Maguluf, the pockets of radiation here are fairly unpredictable. Almost like an invisible snow, some areas received larger drifts than others. Just a few yards to my left, the counter almost doubled to 0.011 R. By the way, meet Vladimir - he's one of the guides within the secure zone. At this particular decontaminated spot, his cigaratte is probably more harmful to his health. 

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